MITRE Principal Systems Engineer/Program Manager reviews

2.7

25% would recommend to a friend

(149 total reviews)
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Mark Peters

75% approve of CEO

9% positive business outlook

Principal Systems Engineer/Program Manager employees have rated MITRE with 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 149 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Principal Systems Engineer/Program Manager professionals have an average working experience there. MITRE is rated 26% below average by Principal Systems Engineer/Program Manager professionals compared to other employers within the Government & Public Administration industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

149 reviews
1.0
Mar 15, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Maybe 5% of staff are engaged in true FFRDC work. The work is meaningful if you are part of the 5%

Cons

Most work is staff augmentation - no deliverables, just show up for the day and do what you are told. Portfolio Directors, Portfolio Managers, and Project Leads have little ability to shape the Sponsor. Look at the many failures of the VA, and know that MITRE has run VAs Center for Veteran's Enterprise Modernization for over a decade and you'll learn all you need to know about MITRE, its ability to deliver value, and its culture.

2.0
Feb 14, 2019

Unable to Keep Promises

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The work at MITRE is generally quite meaningful. We solve hard problems that the government needs help with. It's easy to head home at the end of the day knowing you've made a real contribution. Moreover, the pay and benefits are decent.

Cons

Unfortunately, MITRE is not able to keep the promises it makes to its employees. Management will say what it takes to get you to agree to something. But those promises are hollow. If you put faith in these promises, you can end up making decisions detrimental to your career.

3.0
Feb 8, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

MITRE's mission is exceptional, and most of the people I know at MITRE really believe in it. My colleagues in my local department are smart, dedicated and imaginative. The work in my organization is varied and mostly very interesting. The opportunities for part-time and flex schedules are exceptional, and the benefits remain pretty good, including the retirement plan. Work-life balance is also solid. I've stayed at MITRE for more than 30 years for all these reasons.

Cons

I was skeptical about the value of Glassdoor until I read the recent reviews, which are spot-on as far as I'm concerned. Where to start? Many reviews here suggest that the company started going downhill when Al Grasso left and Jason Providakes took over; but the problem actually started with Al. On the one hand, he did good things to make the company more unified; on the other hand, he instituted a culture of glad-handing nonsense that has infected everything the company says to its own employees (witness the content-free responses by MITRE's Employee Experience Team on Glassdoor; believe it or not, this is how MITRE speaks internally to us, its employees, on a daily basis). The hiring disaster of a year ago was a consequence, I believe, of inexperienced portfolio managers doing a crappy job of estimating demand, and I don't know whether the company learned anything from it (certainly, they've shut up about it this year, that's for sure). The expensive moonshot and platform efforts are both bleeding money from the work that we're actually supposed to be doing; they're vanity efforts which are poorly overseen and almost certainly doomed to failure. And don't get me started about MITRE's self-congratulatory non-repair of the compensation mess. Of the 24 people listed on MITRE's executive team page, I have a reasonable familiarity with 8 of them; 5 of them I trust, one I wouldn't give you a dime for, and two of them are actively disastrous - and unfortunately, those two are effectively running the company.

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MITRE Response
7y
We agree that MITRE has an extremely talented workforce, with a shared purpose of serving the public interest, and we appreciate hearing the perspectives of all our employees—both those who are early in their careers, and those who have been at MITRE for several years. That said, we expect all employees to treat one another with personal dignity and respect, consistent with our core values, whether they are in leadership or any other role. This includes how we treat each other in person, when posting online, or in any other medium.
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