Principal Manufacturing & Autonomy Research Scientist

Description

Are you a motivated Principal Resilient Systems Scientist with a technical vision and hands-on knowledge of mission-focused systems? The Leidos Innovations Center’s newly established Information and Data Science Division is seeking a Senior Resilient Systems Scientist to help lead strategic solution developments and projects. This role will drive capture of strategic customer-funded software R&D. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in developing technology-based approaches that yield novel, innovative capabilities while advancing the state of the art. We are looking for a proven researcher who can develop and lead a groundbreaking research portfolio using both internal and customer funding. 

*The ideal candidate will be able to work out of our office(s) in either San Diego, CA or Arlington, VA*

Primary Responsibilities 

• Develop innovative solutions to challenging problems of interest to the Defense Applied Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).  

• Engaging R&D customers and transition partners to understand technical gaps and needs for resilient systems solutions in mission critical systems. 
• Lead and execute research in areas of naval surface platforms, autonomy, and resilient systems.
• Develop and deliver software products.

• Leading teams of researchers and engineers in the development, adaptation, and extension of innovative approaches to resilient systems solutions across a range of technical areas and application domains to advance the state of the art while addressing long-term problems of importance to national security such as embedded systems. 

• Develop novel approaches for the generation of assurance evidence for critical software, at scale 

• Collaborate in cross-discipline teams to deliver innovations that provide measurable resilient mission impact. 

• To ensure technical relevancy, they will track software technology trends in the customer community and broader R&D communities as well as identify future software R&D funding opportunities. 

Basic Qualifications 

• Proven track record in proposing, winning, and executing work with customers such as DARPA, IARPA or similar agencies within the last 5 years.
• Proven track record in developing and delivering software products.
• Experience with surface platforms, autonomous concepts, and naval applications.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related field and 15+ years prior relevant experience, M.S degree with 10+ years of prior relevant experience, or Ph.D. with 8+ years of experience (Ph.D. preferred) 

• Industrial and/or academic experience advancing the state of the art in FPGA development, embedded systems, formal verification, developing technologies such as program analysis, constraint-solving, symbolic execution, or theorem proving 
• Experience with autonomous systems
• Experience with naval systems and specifically surface vessels

• Proven track record in proposing, winning, and executing Contract R&D 

• At least 4 years of experience with programming languages such as Java, Scala, C/C++, Ruby, Rust, or Python 

• Experience with test and evaluation, software analysis and software specification  

• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with experience engaging with senior leadership and technical teams as well as ability to present complex software solutions in a clear, understandable manner 
• Ability and willingness to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance. U.S.Citizenship is required.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, Mathematics, or related degree 

• FPGA development and testing, embedded systems design and innovation, applying formal methods, using technologies such as theorem provers for first-order logic and higher-order logic, proof assistants, solvers, or other automated reasoning tools  

• Experience conducting applied research areas of CPS such as autonomous vehicles, smart sensors, or Internet of Things, fusing data collected from cyber and physical systems to develop novel approaches to address emerging technical challenges in domains relevant to U.S. national security 

• Experience in semantic analysis of software 

• Strong and proven customer relationship skills including the ability to discover the true technical challenges and requirements associated with opportunities, recommending alternative technical approaches, and shaping future opportunities 

• Experience applying and leading the application of formal methods in fundamental research contexts, to problems in complex domains, under conditions of uncertainty, and dynamic and evolving technical challenges 

• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment 

• Excellent written and oral skills in communicating technical information with an ability to present complex technical information clearly and coherently 

• Proven experience forming strong teams composed of members from academia and industry for competitive research and development opportunities 

• Experience developing software for critical applications that require software certification 
• Active DoD Secret clearance.
• Ability and willingness to work a hybrid schedule onsite in either San Diego California or Arlington Virginia.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.