Treated Well While it Lasted - Principal Scientist MITRE Employee Review

3.0
Jan 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

*supportive department heads, supportive peer staff among senior, mid, and junior level staff *valued and funded research and higher education (doctorates) within reason *highly collaborative environment, prior to the multiple RIFs in 2025 *were considered valuable experts in specific federal fields before the multiple RIFs in 2025. *treated RIFd employees incredibly well financially as part of the RIF, and even provided a transition coaching company for RIFd employees. *traditionally has been very lenient with allowing personal time or deference to time off (by allowing what the company refers to as Z-time) to accommodate personal needs. *promoted career advancement and learning, and provided many self-paced and MITRE-funded educational opportunities *allowed for somewhat easy department-to-department and center-to-center career transitions if you wanted to expand or explore other industries or opportunities outside your typical space *from my personal experience, had an exceptional retirement saving package (which differs from the waning benefit package over time) *As of 2025, the current CEO was handed an exceptionally difficult task to navigate government funding shifts due to new administration priorities; to my view, he handled it very well and with empathy. He contrasted very positively and starkly with the prior CEO who seemed to financially mismanage the company.

Cons

*In 2025, RIFd a significant portion of their senior staff (in multiple waves), particularly in healthcare. The RIF appeared to target mid- to late-career employees, eliminating most of the institutional knowledge that MITRE has been known for historically. *Director level management structure has historically / typically poorly performed. Department heads and senior staff carry much of the management burden and institutional knowledge among the staff, which has now most recently been RIFd. Emphasis has been placed on hiring early career individuals to replace RIFd employees, which shifts the dynamic. *Restructured their management structure after the RIF and eliminated much of the institutional knowledge, particularly within the healthcare space. *Executive VPs (not necessarily referring to the Center-level VPs) seem to demand loyalty and have shown very little empathy toward the employees their decisions affect. I have worked in multiple MITRE Centers, including labs, and the priorities seem to be poorly focused and funding decisions seems to be baffling. The exorbitant fees imposed on MITRE contracts are reflective of this. *In prior years, the value of MITRE's involvement was the long-range institutional knowledge and delivery of tangible prototyping and research. MITRE contribution has since been reduced to writing executive-level papers (what real benefit does that provide, and will that warrant a premium fee?) rather than tangible research or prototypes by funding research labs. Much of the overhead research funding promoted by the executive VPs of the company are for pet projects of the executive VPs rather than focusing on the expressed needs of the government sponsors - this is particularly true within the labs.

Explore other reviews about MITRE

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good work life balance, not too competitive

Cons

Slightly lower comp compared to other for profit companies in the area

3.0
Jan 23, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great diversity, quality of life and staff. Been with MITRE over 20 years.

Cons

Too many VP,s that are not held accountable. Company recently RIF'd 24 staff from FAA FFRDC, due to dropping gov't funding...yet company has significant number of VPs all sucking off of overhead. No attempt to manage money within the "leadership" ranks. Last year company went through a major business transformation...that failed...yet, VPs held staff accountable for reporting on a subpar system that lasted over 12 months. Could not even get business data to report to gov't for over 2 months, yet, person who was in charge of the business transformation is still at MITRE. If this happened to any other MITRE employee, they would've been gone. Oddly enough the person in charge of the business transformation is the CEOs brother. Amazing how that happens. He'll probably get a bonus because of his substandard performance. MITRE recently invested in opening up an office in Australia. All on company overhead. significant large numbers of VPs travelling out to "visit"...yet company has the audacity to reduce benefits as part of cost cutting measures. Company has now taken on a "for profit" mentality. It's all about delivery... so VPS and GMs can spend, spend, spend. Board of Directors should take a good look at what is happening and make some swift changes from the CEO on down. BOD should also implement an independent IG like entity to investigate what is seeming like waste, fraud and abuse by CEO, GMs and VPs. Time for the Fat Cats to get purged!!!

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