Investments and Business Case, Principal

MITRE is seeking an Investments and Business Case Manager within the Finance sector to develop investment theses and build repeatable, high-quality business cases for enterprise and strategic investments across MITRE. This role will help shape decisions on capability-led offerings, capital investments, real estate and other active investment opportunities, capital structure, and enterprise cash deployment. The ideal candidate combines strong corporate finance capability with curiosity about government contracting and the FFRDC model, thrives in ambiguity, builds relationships easily, and has the persistence to carry ideas from early concept through investment thesis, decision, and execution. This person should be comfortable working directly with the CFO, engaging senior leaders and the Board, and translating complex mission, operating, and financial realities into clear, decision-ready recommendations. Success of this position is defined by increased data-driven decision-making, more effective coordination, and smoother execution of decision governance and investment monitoring in a cost-conscious environment.

Roles and Responsibilities:

Strategic Investment, Capital Planning, and Business Case Development

• Lead decision-ready business cases for strategic and enterprise investments across MITRE, including capability development, service centers, AI and digital infrastructure, facilities, SCIFs, sites, and other mission-enabling capital initiatives.
• Lead and drive due diligence, market research, and financial analysis associated with key projects, programs, opportunities, or transactions.
• Build repeatable business case frameworks that reflect MITRE’s not-for-profit, cost-recovery, and FFRDC model.
• Develop investment theses grounded in mission relevance, sponsor demand, enterprise strategy, financial sustainability, operational feasibility, and institutional resilience.
• Turn ambiguous ideas into structured analyses that clarify opportunities, frame decisions, surface data gaps, and support action.
• Partner with enterprise leaders, operations, finance, and technical teams to develop credible assumptions around costs, benefits, dependencies, risks, and implementation requirements.
• Assess opportunities related to capability-led offerings, service centers, enterprise platforms, AI-enabled operating models, data and cyber capabilities, real estate, and other institutional investments that strengthen long-term self-financing capacity.
• Develop clear executive- and board-ready recommendations that synthesize strategic rationale, economics, operating implications, risk, and capital needs.

Corporate Finance, Capital Structure, and Opportunity Assessment

• Build robust financial models for strategic and enterprise initiatives, including demand scenarios, cost structure, margin and cash flow implications, capital requirements, returns, downside cases, and sensitivities.
• Analyze opportunities through both a cost-recovery and enterprise economic lens, with curiosity about value creation in a predominantly cost-plus environment and where greater P&L-like discipline can improve decisions.
• Support MITRE’s capital structure strategy by assessing liquidity needs, balance sheet resilience, investment capacity, and tradeoffs among cash, debt, real estate, and other sources of financial flexibility that is required for the investment strategy.
• Partner on enterprise cash forecasting and long-range financial planning tied to investment pacing, liquidity preservation, and multi-year strategic choices.
• Evaluate build, partner, invest, or internally develop options for strategic capabilities and infrastructure, with a clear view of execution risk, affordability, and institutional fit.
• Conduct benchmarking, market scans, peer analysis, and comparable economic assessments to inform decisions, particularly in government contracting, mission technology, and institutional capital planning.
• Improve MITRE’s capital allocation discipline by bringing greater consistency, transparency, and follow-through to how opportunities are assessed, compared, tracked, and revisited.

Cross-Cutting Responsibilities

• Create simple, compelling, data-driven materials that enable clear understanding and motivate action among executive management, including business case templates, papers, memos, presentations, dashboards, data visualizations, and e-mails.
• Prepare financial models, conduct research, and prepare briefings and recommendations related to investment opportunities, investments, process and technology transformations, and other major strategic projects.
• Ensure efforts are completed with a.) a clear understanding of end-user experience, b.)  cross-organization awareness and an understanding of interdependencies, c.) effective and clear decision governance, and d.) budgetary adherence and alignment. 
• Work with senior leaders to define and confirm initiative governance models; plan, structure, and run effective program and activity reviews.
• Work in a collaborative atmosphere with team members across multiple locations; manage relationships within and outside of Finance including with senior leaders as appropriate.
• Assist with ad hoc special assignments for the CFO and Director as needed.

Basic Qualifications:

• 10 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree; or 8 years and a Master’s degree; or a PhD with 5 years’ experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• 10+ years professional experience in a related work environment such as finance, business operations, consulting, contracts, capture strategy, business development, partnerships, corporate strategy, legislative affairs, policy, or proposal development.
• Strong business case builder with a repeatable, structured approach.
• Persistent in tracking assumptions, milestones, dependencies, and outcomes through the full decision cycle.
• Skilled at pulling useful information out of leaders, operators, and technical experts.
• Strong corporate finance judgment and comfort operating across strategy, finance, operations, and mission.
• Curious about government contracting and FFRDC economics, including cost recovery, indirect structures, and sponsor affordability.
• Strong PowerPoint and visual storytelling skills, with the ability to turn complex ideas into polished, decision-ready materials for executives and the Board.
• Executive presence and strong communication skills.
• High level of poise, tact, and diplomacy in working closely, often under time pressure, with highly sensitive information, with a diverse group of executives, customers, managers, and support personnel.
• Ability to effectively apply strong self-organization and time management skills, with considerable emphasis on self-initiation.
• This position requires a minimum of 3 days a week on-site.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or MBA

This requisition requires the candidate to have a minimum of the following clearance(s):

This requisition requires the hired candidate to have or obtain, within one year from the date of hire, the following clearance(s):

Salary compensation range and midpoint:

Work Location Type:

It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local or international law.

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