R&D Scientist/Engineer

TitleR&D Scientist/Engineer

Location: Central Virginia (Madison, VA); Washington, DC metro area (Alexandria, VA); Seattle, WA

ARiA applies broad interdisciplinary expertise in acoustics, machine learning, modeling & simulation, and signal processing toward innovative science and engineering research and development for a diverse set of government and corporate clients. Partnering with government, industry, and academia, ARiA solves critical challenges.

ARiA is a small business where you can make a big difference.

ARiA: Real Research. Real World.TM

For more information, visit www.ariacoustics.com.

ARiA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Position Description:

ARiA is looking for highly motivated self-starters and low-ego team players to join our team as Research & Development (R&D) Scientists/Engineers.

ARiA has multiple positions available for R&D Scientist/Engineers at all levels (from new Ph.D. graduates to Senior and Principal levels) with expertise in numerical modeling, signal processing, and/or machine learning to perform a variety of tasks including basic and applied research and development, working in close coordination with other ARiA scientists and engineers.

These positions are an opportunity to join a rapidly growing firm where you will engage deeply in challenging problems while developing cutting-edge technologies that address crucial needs.

Strong candidates for these roles at ARiA must value excellence and work with confidence, but without ego. Our engineers and scientists all have deep knowledge and exercise a high degree of leadership in their daily work. Members of the ARiA team have strongly-held, defensible ideas and advocate for what they believe is right, but are quick to exercise intellectual humility and acknowledge that they can often be wrong. Successful employees of ARiA are adept at working closely and collaboratively with team members and identifying and evaluating trade-offs when developing solutions.

As a R&D Scientist/Engineer you will perform a variety of tasks working in close coordination with other ARiA scientists and engineers including design, development, and testing of:

  • numerical-simulation algorithms and software implementations,
  • scientific-visualization algorithms and software implementations,
  • machine-learning algorithms and software implementations, and
  • signal-processing algorithms and software implementations

to support prototypes and products such as training tools integrated with real-time physics-based simulation and AI tools integrated with tactical systems.

Responsible for:

Formulation and prototype implementation of original concepts and algorithms in numerical modeling, sonar-signal processing, and/or machine learning/artificial intelligence (AI)

Testing and evaluation of new algorithms based on theoretical analysis and experimental evaluation

Coordination with ARiA scientists and engineers in the development of algorithms and software products

Presentation of findings and results at scientific meetings and program reviews

Serving as a technical lead on projects by setting technical direction as well as mentoring and supporting the work of more junior colleagues

Supporting the transition of research algorithms to real-time operational prototypes through coordination with software engineers inside and outside of ARiA

Preparing documentation for customers to summarize design and status of software prototypes and products

Assisting with in-field integration, testing, and support, with some local travel required

Sample tasks:

Development of numerical models of target scattering by acoustic waves to support development of new signal-processing and machine-learning algorithms

Development of classification methods and algorithms for sonar-signal processing

Development of deep reinforcement learning to optimize data augmentation for training of a deep convolutional neural network for few- and no-shot learning

Using deep learning to understand the relevant physical features in acoustic scattering data for use in a project on remediating underwater sites contaminated by unexploded ordnance

Developing an information-retrieval tool that allows natural-language query of legal documents to answer user questions about government regulations

Requirements:

Master’s degree or greater (Ph.D. is desirable) in a relevant technical field (Acoustics, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or similar) or equivalent professional experience

Appropriate experience working in the field of signal processing in radar or sonar (waveform design, detection and classification, beamforming, etc.) and/or machine learning for acoustic or image data or AI (supervised and unsupervised learning, deep learning, kernel machines, latent semantic analysis, etc.)

Facility designing and developing code in modern programming/scripting languages such as C, C++, Java, Matlab, and Python

Exceptional ability and desire to acquire new knowledge and skills to solve challenges

Ability to work independently but collaboratively

Ability to manage multiple projects in a fast-paced professional office environment

Ability to communicate technical solutions to colleagues and customers

Superior oral and written communications skills

Applicants selected for employment will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements, including U.S. citizenship, for access to sensitive information.

Desirable Skills, Qualifications, and Experience:

Knowledge of and experience with signal processing for Navy sonar systems

Experience with GPGPU programing (CUDA, TensorFlow)

Knowledge of and experience with deep learning and modern deep-learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch)

Knowledge of and experience with image processing including modern deep-learning methods

Knowledge of and experience with natural-language-processing and/or information retrieval

To apply submit resume/CV and cover letter to [email protected].