I

Institute for Defense Analyses Tech Stack

Federally funded research centers for defense and national security analysis

Defense and Space Manufacturing Alexandria, Virginia 1,001–5,000 employees Founded 1956 Nonprofit

IDA operates three FFRDCs (Federally Funded Research and Development Centers) advising U.S. government sponsors on defense, space, and national security strategy. The tech stack—heavy on high-performance computing (Lustre, Slurm, MPI, CUDA, InfiniBand) paired with simulation tools (AFSIM, STORM) and ML workflows—reflects their core mission: running large-scale mission simulations and operational modeling. Current hiring is research-heavy (21 roles) with accelerating velocity, and pain points around HPC performance, data architecture, and DOD compliance suggest IDA is scaling internal analytics infrastructure to handle classified workloads at greater volume.

Tech Stack 34 technologies

Core StackLinux Python Cisco C++ VMware UNIX Windows Perl HTML Lustre Slurm MPI CUDA InfiniBand R SQL Deltek Costpoint Microsoft Office Excel Concur Costpoint Red Hat Enterprise Linux NetApp Red Hat Identity Management LDAP Red Hat Satellite Git OneStream Word SIEM+3 more

What Institute for Defense Analyses Is Building

◆Challenges

Reducing costs
Adequate testing of military space systems
Improving data architecture for internal operations
Assessing federal agency computing architectures
High availability
Security compliance
Software hardware upgrades integration
Maintaining hpc performance and availability
Ensuring compliance with dod requirements
Maximizing hpc utilization

▲Active Projects

Mission-level studies using afsim or storm
System trade-off studies
Operational risk assessments
Campaign- and mission-level simulations
Scalable analytic workflows for simulation outputs
Operational plan development
Training machine learning models to predict career events
Predictive modeling for dow and dhs sponsors
New research and administrative systems
Security compliance

Hiring Activity

Accelerating55 roles · 30 in 30d

Department

Research

21

Security

14

Engineering

9

Ops

6

Finance

3

Data

1

Seniority

Mid

22

Senior

15

Junior

8

Lead

5

Staff

2

Director

1

Manager

1

Notable leadership hires: Director

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About Institute for Defense Analyses

IDA is a nonprofit research organization chartered in 1956 to provide objective technical and policy analysis to U.S. government defense and national security agencies. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, IDA employs 1,001–5,000 staff across three FFRDCs: the Systems and Analyses Center, the Science and Technology Policy Institute, and the Center for Communications and Computing. The organization conducts mission-level simulations, system trade-off studies, and operational risk assessments for sponsors in the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and other federal agencies. Work spans campaign modeling, predictive analytics for career and operational outcomes, and technical evaluation of military and space systems. IDA maintains strict conflict-of-interest protocols and operates in a classified environment with access to sensitive government and corporate proprietary information.

HeadquartersAlexandria, Virginia

Company Size1,001–5,000 employees

Founded1956

Hiring MarketsUnited States

Frequently Asked Questions

What tech stack does IDA use?

IDA's core stack includes HPC tools (Lustre, Slurm, MPI, CUDA, InfiniBand), simulation software (AFSIM, STORM), and scripting languages (Python, Perl, C++, R). Infrastructure is primarily Linux/Red Hat with Windows endpoints, VMware virtualization, NetApp storage, and Cisco networking.

What is IDA working on?

Current projects include mission-level simulations (AFSIM/STORM), system trade-off studies, operational risk assessments, campaign modeling, ML training for career-event prediction, and DOD/DHS-sponsored predictive modeling. Internal focus includes data architecture improvements and security compliance.