A search for new phenomena is performed using events with jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance, as inferred through the $M_{\mathrm {T2}}$ variable. The results are based on a sample of proton–proton collisions collected in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 $,\text {TeV}$ with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 $,\text {fb}^\text {-1}$ . No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background, and the results are interpreted as exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of predicted particles in a variety of simplified models of R-parity conserving supersymmetry. Depending on the details of the model, 95% confidence level lower limits on the gluino (light-flavor squark) masses are placed up to 2025 (1550) $,\text {GeV}$ . Mass limits as high as 1070 (1175) $,\text {GeV}$ are set on the masses of top (bottom) squarks. Information is provided to enable re-interpretation of these results, including model-independent limits on the number of non-standard model events for a set of simplified, inclusive search regions.