Average defense contractor, non-objective analysis often biased to benefit customer's desired position, poor management
Pros
Great history of public service, free parking, decent medical benefits, key element to success is generating many billable customer hours, keeping the customer happy, and being politically astute. Great job for those just starting out of college to gain experience at modest income or for those slowing down at retirement age who still need some income, some positions have flex-time hours for workers.
Cons
Inability to do independent unbiased research here due to heavy pressure from management to align research findings with customer preferred outcomes (sells itself as a non-profit independent objective think tank working in the public interest, but falls far short from what it once was and truly functions like a heavily customer biased defense contractor). Engineering pedigree of engineers and scientists is average for defense firms in my experience - not the brightest nor most innovative minds work here, although there are some brilliant pockets here and there. You'll find more innovative and smarter engineers at Microsoft, Google, Cisco, or similar firms. Flat hierarchy with engineers often in management positions who lack leadership skills, structure is that of many departments that generally do not interact except for project work -- enabling the department heads to bully and isolate department members within their departments. Management is responsible for distributing work (task codes) to employees but often falls short and forces employees to "drum up" work tasking themselves, even during paid time off (vacation time, which the company will disavow but in reality this happens every time there is a shortage of tasking -- ie you need 40 hours of tasking per week, which is stressful when not available). Technical meetings and other exchanges involve subtle and direct bullying by the "graybeards" to silence alternative viewpoints (close-minded and politically on the right, bullying occurs frequently). HR has high quality and low quality professionals but ultimately they all fall in line with management even when they experience unethical behaviors by other HR on how employee cases are handled. Cafeteria food is low quality. Minor bonuses ("spot" awards on the order of $100 or so).