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Can anyone shed light on what MITRE Corporation is and what kind of systems they build? I could not find that information from Wikipedia or the official web pa

Can anyone shed light on what MITRE Corporation is and what kind of systems they build? I could not find that information from Wikipedia or the official web page.

zhdc1 7y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation
chaosbutters 7y ago
I can since I'm interviewing there. Below is what they sent to explain what they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQqJlxI8-9g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQqJlxI8-9g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skHl7SxbRM&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skHl7SxbRM&feature=youtu.be
tyingq 7y ago
There's a company overview PDF on this page: https://www.mitre.org/publications/all/mitre-an-overview https://www.mitre.org/publications/all/mitre-an-overview "Maintaining military strength. Transforming global aviation. Thwarting cyber criminals. Adapting to an evolving healthcare landscape. Responding to citizens’ needs... These are just a few of the critical challenges that our government tackles daily. The MITRE Corporation, a private, non-profit organization, operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) that help government agencies address many of these challenges."
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
rocqua 7y ago
I mostly know them for Cyber Security infrastructure stuff. They manage CVEs, and they work on a lot of cyber security projects for DoD. More recently they have created the MITRE ATTACK framework. This gives insight into the different tactics used by bad-guys, and techniques used to achieve them. To me tt feels like a defense contractor with a focus on getting the base layer of Cyber right.
blaser-waffle 7y ago
Government contractor, lots of work for the DOD, alphabet soup orgs, and other groups. Doesn't have to be shady stuff, per se, like sometimes the Postal Service needs to update their infrastructure, etc. But generally assumed to be government-y, so security + network + big data-ish stuff that allows them bill a lot and may or may not large scale graft from the taxpayer.
twic 7y ago
To put it another way, they're kind of the same thing as the RAND Corporation. Maybe more technical and less strategic?
- jcurbo 7y ago
  There is some overlap but RAND is simply a think tank. (I admit that’s a vast generalization, they do good work) MITRE operates FFRDCs, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, with very specific roles and limitations. They also don’t do a ton of policy analysis - they mostly do technical and architectural work, and support program offices and system developers. So your comment about strategic vs technical is mostly accurate, but it’s a little more nuanced. (I am a former MITRE employee who still thinks they do good work and fill an appropriate role) Edit: I guess RAND also operates FFRDCs too, but on policy analysis.
korvenadi 7y ago
I have met few people from Mitre last year. They are Govt Contractors working on HealthCare apps.
- vanterdon 7y ago
  They do a lot more than healthcare apps, or even healthcare. They conduct R&D on behalf of every Federal agency/branch of the military.
Junk_Collector 7y ago
They are effectively a staffing agency focused on technical positions and security clearances. They staff roles almost entirely for the government on an as needed basis when there isn't enough experienced engineers/physicists/software developers for a particular project. Consequently, the systems they build are whatever is a government priority at the time. Right now, the 3 letter agencies are spending big on "Cyber" so Mitre is building a lot of cyber related systems. https://attack.mitre.org/ https://attack.mitre.org/ is one of their interesting recent projects that is public facing. Mitre does seem to treat their own employees very well. I've had mixed results working with them, but not really any worse than any other government staffing company.
- moxious 7y ago
  This answer is not correct. MITRE is not a staffing agency, but a special purpose entity called a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). The other answer in this thread is better -- a key thing MITRE gets pushback from other entities about is whether or not it is ideally suited to fill some government need, or whether it's just an anticompetitive way of awarding a contract to one body instead of letting it out as the government would normally do. Those pressures tend to focus and specialize MITRE on issues which require objectivity and high levels of expertise in systems engineering sub-areas. They are most definitely not a staffing agency, although the government can (and sometimes does) misuse them to this effect.
  - Junk_Collector 7y ago
    No, Mitre is not an FFRDC. Mitre is the administrator of a number (about 6 or 7) of FFRDCs which are run as an identifiable separate operating unit of a parent organization pursuant section 35 of the FAR. Further more, Mitre has several positions posted right now that have nothing to do with FFRDCs and are in fact, just providing personnel for government projects. Splitting hairs on the terminology is a great game to play on the internet, but what would the average person call a company that produces no products and provides administrative, research, and engineering personnel on a basis of awarded contracts? The fact that Mitre employees seem to continually conflate their work as engineering contractors and their roles as FFDR administrators is a large part of my "mixed" experience in working with them. And frankly; by your definition Honeywell would be an FFRDC which I don't think anyone would argue.
randcraw 7y ago
I worked at Mitre for 5 years in the 1990s in their DC area campus. Some of their core business has changed since then, but not what makes them special. Mitre serves two primary roles. First, they're a technical advocate for various US military and intelligence agencies, representing their interests at conferences and in committees and helping them shape policy and practices in that advisory role. As such, Mitre is granted levels of trust and access to agency materiel that no contractor has. As such, Mitre is not supposed to take work that might compete directly with the financial interests of contractors and thus must engage only in activities that are non-competitive: advising or coordinating, rather than building systems. The second role Mitre plays is as a FFRDC (Federally Funded R&D Center), a long term R&D facility dedicated to one government agency, directly serving their interests (as Jet Propulsion Labs serves NASA). In Mitre's case, the clients are the FAA, Homeland Security and cybersecurity, or the US military's (C3I) Command Control Communications and Intelligence interests (mostly run by the army). An FFRDC maintains staff with various specialized technical subject matter skills that serve the needs and plans of the agency, who often act on behalf of the agency with the internal access and authority equal to that of a government employee. But this close relationship with the government often extends to the non-FFRDC parts of Mitre too. https://www.mitre.org/centers/we-operate-ffrdcs https://www.mitre.org/centers/we-operate-ffrdcs Advancement at Mitre is unlike the typical contractor, where you manage increasingly large parts of contracts. Mitre benefits most when you establish an ever closer relationship with the government agency and people therein. The higher the governmant authority you report to, the more valuable you become within Mitre. Publishing papers and reports to and on behalf of your agency makes you (and your team) more visible and useful to that customer, increasing the agency's desire to engage more Mitre services and rely on them for more uses. Mitre tech staff (usu software developers) often build and show lots of demos before agency managers (and generals) that prototype capabilities they want to explore and advance.
- pp19dd 7y ago
  For any interested gubmit workers, a lot of red tape has been cut here. You deal with the IRS' contracting officer directly to start, since they already went through the competitive bid process.
- 7y ago
schemathings 7y ago
I worked on a defense contract for an upgrade to a radar system for the USAF years ago, MITRE was the 'IV&V' contractor for the project. They had smart engineers, we had smart engineers. At each step along the way in the classic waterfall model they would ask (early) why the design was a certain way / (later) why the code was a certain way. Not adversarial, but making sure the customer (US Gov't, taxpayers) were getting what they paid for and not a snow job or wishful thinking.

Can anyone shed light on what MITRE Corporation is and what kind of systems they build? I could not find that information from Wikipedia or the official web page.

zhdc1 7y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitre_Corporation

chaosbutters 7y ago

I can since I'm interviewing there. Below is what they sent to explain what they do. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQqJlxI8-9g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQqJlxI8-9g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skHl7SxbRM&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skHl7SxbRM&feature=youtu.be

tyingq 7y ago

There's a company overview PDF on this page: https://www.mitre.org/publications/all/mitre-an-overview https://www.mitre.org/publications/all/mitre-an-overview "Maintaining military strength. Transforming global aviation. Thwarting cyber criminals. Adapting to an evolving healthcare landscape. Responding to citizens’ needs... These are just a few of the critical challenges that our government tackles daily. The MITRE Corporation, a private, non-profit organization, operates federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) that help government agencies address many of these challenges."

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rocqua 7y ago

I mostly know them for Cyber Security infrastructure stuff. They manage CVEs, and they work on a lot of cyber security projects for DoD. More recently they have created the MITRE ATTACK framework. This gives insight into the different tactics used by bad-guys, and techniques used to achieve them. To me tt feels like a defense contractor with a focus on getting the base layer of Cyber right.

blaser-waffle 7y ago

Government contractor, lots of work for the DOD, alphabet soup orgs, and other groups. Doesn't have to be shady stuff, per se, like sometimes the Postal Service needs to update their infrastructure, etc. But generally assumed to be government-y, so security + network + big data-ish stuff that allows them bill a lot and may or may not large scale graft from the taxpayer.

twic 7y ago

To put it another way, they're kind of the same thing as the RAND Corporation. Maybe more technical and less strategic?

jcurbo 7y ago
There is some overlap but RAND is simply a think tank. (I admit that’s a vast generalization, they do good work) MITRE operates FFRDCs, as mentioned elsewhere in this thread, with very specific roles and limitations. They also don’t do a ton of policy analysis - they mostly do technical and architectural work, and support program offices and system developers. So your comment about strategic vs technical is mostly accurate, but it’s a little more nuanced. (I am a former MITRE employee who still thinks they do good work and fill an appropriate role) Edit: I guess RAND also operates FFRDCs too, but on policy analysis.

korvenadi 7y ago

I have met few people from Mitre last year. They are Govt Contractors working on HealthCare apps.

vanterdon 7y ago
They do a lot more than healthcare apps, or even healthcare. They conduct R&D on behalf of every Federal agency/branch of the military.

Junk_Collector 7y ago

They are effectively a staffing agency focused on technical positions and security clearances. They staff roles almost entirely for the government on an as needed basis when there isn't enough experienced engineers/physicists/software developers for a particular project. Consequently, the systems they build are whatever is a government priority at the time. Right now, the 3 letter agencies are spending big on "Cyber" so Mitre is building a lot of cyber related systems. https://attack.mitre.org/ https://attack.mitre.org/ is one of their interesting recent projects that is public facing. Mitre does seem to treat their own employees very well. I've had mixed results working with them, but not really any worse than any other government staffing company.

moxious 7y ago
This answer is not correct. MITRE is not a staffing agency, but a special purpose entity called a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC). The other answer in this thread is better -- a key thing MITRE gets pushback from other entities about is whether or not it is ideally suited to fill some government need, or whether it's just an anticompetitive way of awarding a contract to one body instead of letting it out as the government would normally do. Those pressures tend to focus and specialize MITRE on issues which require objectivity and high levels of expertise in systems engineering sub-areas. They are most definitely not a staffing agency, although the government can (and sometimes does) misuse them to this effect.
- Junk_Collector 7y ago
  No, Mitre is not an FFRDC. Mitre is the administrator of a number (about 6 or 7) of FFRDCs which are run as an identifiable separate operating unit of a parent organization pursuant section 35 of the FAR. Further more, Mitre has several positions posted right now that have nothing to do with FFRDCs and are in fact, just providing personnel for government projects. Splitting hairs on the terminology is a great game to play on the internet, but what would the average person call a company that produces no products and provides administrative, research, and engineering personnel on a basis of awarded contracts? The fact that Mitre employees seem to continually conflate their work as engineering contractors and their roles as FFDR administrators is a large part of my "mixed" experience in working with them. And frankly; by your definition Honeywell would be an FFRDC which I don't think anyone would argue.

randcraw 7y ago

I worked at Mitre for 5 years in the 1990s in their DC area campus. Some of their core business has changed since then, but not what makes them special. Mitre serves two primary roles. First, they're a technical advocate for various US military and intelligence agencies, representing their interests at conferences and in committees and helping them shape policy and practices in that advisory role. As such, Mitre is granted levels of trust and access to agency materiel that no contractor has. As such, Mitre is not supposed to take work that might compete directly with the financial interests of contractors and thus must engage only in activities that are non-competitive: advising or coordinating, rather than building systems. The second role Mitre plays is as a FFRDC (Federally Funded R&D Center), a long term R&D facility dedicated to one government agency, directly serving their interests (as Jet Propulsion Labs serves NASA). In Mitre's case, the clients are the FAA, Homeland Security and cybersecurity, or the US military's (C3I) Command Control Communications and Intelligence interests (mostly run by the army). An FFRDC maintains staff with various specialized technical subject matter skills that serve the needs and plans of the agency, who often act on behalf of the agency with the internal access and authority equal to that of a government employee. But this close relationship with the government often extends to the non-FFRDC parts of Mitre too. https://www.mitre.org/centers/we-operate-ffrdcs https://www.mitre.org/centers/we-operate-ffrdcs Advancement at Mitre is unlike the typical contractor, where you manage increasingly large parts of contracts. Mitre benefits most when you establish an ever closer relationship with the government agency and people therein. The higher the governmant authority you report to, the more valuable you become within Mitre. Publishing papers and reports to and on behalf of your agency makes you (and your team) more visible and useful to that customer, increasing the agency's desire to engage more Mitre services and rely on them for more uses. Mitre tech staff (usu software developers) often build and show lots of demos before agency managers (and generals) that prototype capabilities they want to explore and advance.

pp19dd 7y ago
For any interested gubmit workers, a lot of red tape has been cut here. You deal with the IRS' contracting officer directly to start, since they already went through the competitive bid process.
7y ago

schemathings 7y ago

I worked on a defense contract for an upgrade to a radar system for the USAF years ago, MITRE was the 'IV&V' contractor for the project. They had smart engineers, we had smart engineers. At each step along the way in the classic waterfall model they would ask (early) why the design was a certain way / (later) why the code was a certain way. Not adversarial, but making sure the customer (US Gov't, taxpayers) were getting what they paid for and not a snow job or wishful thinking.