Adjunct Research Analyst - Cost Analyst

Overview

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is a Federally-Funded Research and Development Center supporting the Department of War (DOW) and other federal agencies. IDA’s mission is to provide objective analyses of national security issues and related national challenges, particularly those requiring extraordinary scientific and technical expertise. IDA takes great pride in the high caliber and timeliness of its analyses, which are produced in an atmosphere that encourages collaboration, independent thinking, and objective results.

An opportunity now exists in the Cost Analysis and Research Division (CARD) for an Adjunct Research Staff Member – Cost Analyst. CARD produces independent cost estimates, affordability assessments, and schedule-risk analyses that inform resource allocation and acquisition decisions across the DOW and other federal agencies. The division’s portfolio spans Major Defense Acquisition Programs and other government programs across the air, space, land, maritime, command and control, communications and intelligence (C3I), nuclear enterprise, software and information technology, health care, and sustainment domains, as well as cross‑cutting policy and resourcing questions.

This is a broadly scoped part‑time role. The analyst is not assigned to a single platform or portfolio; in a given year an analyst may support several unrelated programs, and the ability to learn a new system and its cost drivers quickly matters more than prior familiarity with any one of them.

Work at IDA is conducted in a team environment and often involves a multi‑disciplinary approach. Researchers work closely with and are in frequent contact with government sponsors. Consequently, strong communication and interpersonal skills will be greatly valued.

• Develops cost estimates and cost element structures for defense programs, working in close coordination with technical project leaders
• Collects, normalizes, and validates cost, schedule, technical, and programmatic data from government and contractor sources
• Builds, documents, and maintains cost models using parametric, analogy, extrapolation‑from‑actuals, and engineering build‑up methods as warranted
• Conducts cost‑risk, uncertainty, and sensitivity analyses, and examines affordability under alternative assumptions and funding profiles
• Assesses the reasonableness of government and contractor cost estimates, including underlying assumptions, methodologies, and data sources
• Applies the same analytic toolkit across a varied portfolio of programs, adapting methods to the maturity, data availability, and technical character of each
• Documents methods, data lineage, and results so that estimates are transparent, reproducible, and defensible to reviewers and sponsors
• Drafts sections of briefings and reports documenting conclusions, findings, and recommendations; presents results to project leaders and, with support, to task sponsors
• Contributes to improvements in the division’s analytical methods, models, data collections, and tooling
• Supports multiple concurrent tasks and meets sponsor deadlines
• Mentors and trains junior cost analysts

Ph.D. in Operations Research, Economics, Statistics, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Materials Science, Finance, or a related quantitative field; OR a Master’s degree in one of those fields with 10+ years of relevant experience.

• Demonstrated record of conducting or leading cost estimates, resource allocation studies, or comparable quantitative analyses for major government acquisition programs or complex systems
• Depth in more than one estimating method, including demonstrated fluency with parametric cost estimation, and the…