Director, Commerce Strategy and Engagement

Director, Commerce Strategy and Engagement

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The Department of Commerce creates conditions for economic growth and opportunity for all American communities, and helps to achieve this mission through a variety of activities, including:

• Promoting job creation
• Strengthening the economy and US international innovation and competitiveness
• Conducting research
• Facilitating trade
• Overseeing ocean and coastal navigation

As their mission partner, the MITRE’s Center for Enterprise Modernization (CEM) Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) engages with systems engineering, innovation, and research & development expertise to advance their needs, buy down risk to future technologies, identify threats, and optimize operations using an independent, unbiased national asset in the FFRDC community.

Because Commerce’s mission is vast, varied, and quickly adapting to the pace of innovation, economic change, and geopolitical risks facing the United States, MITRE is hiring a Commerce Strategy and Engagement Director to ensure that while the FFRDC has the capabilities and expertise to solve current challenges, that we are also building capabilities to buy down risk for threats on the horizon, and for capabilities to exploit opportunities that we anticipate. This includes developing a targeted strategy for each bureau and a sustainable plan that drives long-term capability for the overall Commerce portfolio and a Commerce engagement footprint tailored to those needs. The Commerce Strategy and Engagement Director is continuously looking over the horizon to understand national priorities or challenges, understand how DOC’s mission is evolving in real time, and identifies FFRDC capabilities that can be leveraged quickly to meet DOC’s mission demands and mandates. Working closely with the CEM’s Commerce Managing Director, the Commerce Strategy and Engagement Director aligns the MITRE work program, internal skillsets, and research resources to meet DOC’s emerging needs.

Roles & Responsibilities:

Job responsibilities include convening with Department of Commerce (DOC) senior executives weekly to better understand existing and emerging priorities, aligning MITRE’s Commerce team, MITRE National Security capabilities, and MITRE Lab’s capabilities to execute on the priorities. Outcomes include:

• Strategic positioning of the CEM FFRDC as DOC’s FFRDC delivery partner
• The CEM FFRDC is viewed as DOC’s most trusted advisor
• Build new capabilities to manage existing and future risks, and to seize opportunities to accelerate the mission of Commerce and its subcomponents
• Aligning internal independent research and development resources and special initiative resources to build differentiated capabilities to turn over to Commerce organization for their exploitation
• Enhanced integration of MITRE’s FFRDC portfolio and broader MITRE capabilities put to use across all DOC bureaus.

Essential Job Functions:

• Apply deep understanding of how the Department of Commerce and its twelve bureaus execute their missions, and what could be done to improve their execution; apply understanding of how DOC's related federal organizations execute their missions and the impact they will have on DOC operations. Identify opportunities for coordination.
• Develop close working relationships with sponsors and sponsor stakeholders, with the goal of becoming a trusted advisor for the sponsor organization. Through these relationships, drive the ability of the CEM FFRDC support to DOC with increasing impact.
• Lead the formulation and management of the strategy and desired mission outcomes for the Department of Commerce and corresponding MITRE Commerce division.
• Proactively collaborate with leadership from other divisions and MITRE organizations to ensure that MITRE has a coordinated set of strategies that will deliver solutions for the Department of Commerce and our nation.
• Anticipate government challenges on the horizon and identify and shape the technical direction of the work program and independent research & development initiatives to meet DOC priorities; anticipates and champions changes in technical direction in support of the portfolio strategy.

Basic Qualifications:

• Minimum of 20 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 15 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with 7 years' experience; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to our government sponsors, to include DOC.
• Deep knowledge of the Commerce mission with at least 15 years of experience working directly with Commerce on mission enablement and economic development.
• Proven track record of building new R&D-driven capabilities aligned with Commerce’s near- and long-term strategic needs, and consistent with FFRDC missions.
• Proven track record for growing an organization’s impact.
• Active Top Secret Security Clearance.
• Will require working at main campus 4 days a week.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent communication, interpersonal, presentation, and influencing skills.
• Passion, energy, and enthusiasm in learning and applying through creative problem-solving.
• Treats change as an opportunity to grow and adapts behaviors to deal effectively with change.
• Proactive self-starter who executes to commitments and is intellectually curious.
• Experience with both FFRDC teams and Federal sponsors to include Commerce.
• Demonstrable successful experience with building and marketing capabilities that solve national challenges.
• Continuous improvement mentality with the capacity to drive change.
• Deep understanding of global competition and strategies to enhance U.S. competitiveness.
• International experience working with multiple federal stakeholders and U.S. industry preferred.

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

Top Secret

Work Location Type:

Onsite

MITRE is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. MITRE recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of age; ancestry; color; family medical or genetic information; gender identity and expression; marital, military, or veteran status; national and ethnic origin; physical or mental disability; political affiliation; pregnancy; race; religion; sex; sexual orientation; and any other protected characteristics.