Research Scientist

Overview

The Research Consultant is a high-level position responsible for independently leading the design, development, testing and scientific publishing of a cutting‑edge robotic inventory system. Primarily, the incumbent will be responsible for leading
1) development of complex computer programs with expert‑level Python programming, integrate sensors, robots and GPS‑based navigation for automatically counting trees, measuring tree structures, and identifying tree locations;
2) planning and executing laboratory, virtual environment, and field experiments to validate and improve system accuracy, and writing test reports; and
3) evaluation of experimental successes and failures, troubleshooting, and making appropriate course corrections to achieve project success within the project timeline. The incumbent will serve as the primary author on multiple scientific manuscripts. The Research Consultant is responsible for the success of this project.

Office space is available in Knoxville, TN and Wooster, OH.

• UT market range: MR 13
• Anticipated hiring range:
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)./
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To express interest, please submit an application with the noted attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before July 16, 2026 or until a suitable candidate is found.

• Resume
• Cover Letter

• Design, develop, test, and scientifically publish a cutting‑edge robotic inventory system.
• Develop complex computer programs with expert‑level Python programming, integrate sensors, robots, and GPS‑based navigation for automatically counting trees, measuring tree structures, and identifying tree locations.
• Plan and execute laboratory, virtual environment, and field experiments to validate and improve system accuracy, and write test reports.
• Evaluate experimental successes and failures, troubleshoot, and make appropriate course corrections to achieve project success within the project timeline.
• Serve as the primary author on multiple scientific manuscripts.
• Provide complete design and development of software including databases and computer programming to geo‑map and compile tree inventory data.
• Independently develop a model for tree growth for multiple tree species and anticipate dates by which crops reach their target size.
• Autonomously develop cloud‑based storage solutions that interface with industry‑accessible inventory, workflow, and financial software.
• Provide project leadership for planning, organizing, and conducting novel experiments, including decision‑making responsibility for scheduling, resource allocation, and workflow to conduct experiments on time, efficiently and effectively.
• Directly responsible for designing protocols and utilizing and/or developing novel methods to create advanced protocols, i.e., interoperate with other Python packages from the ROS 2 ecosystem, with the goal of developing increasing the efficiency of future experiments in virtual environments.
• Review and independently interpret results from ongoing experiments, and make adjustments to improve experimental test subjects, test conditions, payload, programming and experimental methods of future experiments.
• Decide the test materials for inclusion in new experiments in the field and in virtual environments.
• Provide technical expertise and direction for experiments including determining experimental design, developing coding solutions, methods and timing for collecting data, methods to statistically analyze, summarize and present data, and criteria with which to measure the success of experiments to other researchers on the research team.
• Mentor and develop young scientists (post‑docs, graduate and undergraduate students) in the program.
• Serve as lead author of research reports, present research to academic peers and industry audiences.
• Provide leadership and guidance to junior research team members on scientific writing.
• Serve as lead author of white papers, present results to government agencies and national stakeholder boards.
• Serve as lead author on scientific manuscripts from their independent research and contribute as coauthor to other manuscripts from the broader research project, as appropriate.