Sr Research Scientist

About the Opportunity

The Kostas Research Institute (KRI) at Northeastern University (NU) – a rapidly growing institute that conducts cutting‑edge applied R&D – is seeking a highly motivated, experienced and enthusiastic Research & Development (R&D) Engineer with expertise in ML&AI. The R&D Engineer will work as part of a multidisciplinary team and contribute to successful execution of R&D projects that span autonomy, sensing, communication, decision support, robotics, cognitive and distributed sensing, and machine learning systems.

• Provide technical contributions as a software engineer for a wide range of projects involving machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), including autonomy, sensing and communication, and decision support systems.
• Collaborate with multi‑disciplinary teams across the KRI consortium, consisting of academic and industry partners, to create solutions and prototypes for projects in application areas such as autonomous systems, robotics, cognitive and distributed sensing, and machine learning systems.
• Work closely with KRI Senior R&D Engineers/Scientists on government and industry contracts.
• Turn machine learning technologies into practical, state‑of‑the‑art systems and prototypes.

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or a closely related field.

• 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering with a strong focus on machine learning and AI systems development (research, applied R&D, or production environments).
• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) with applied ML/AI, network science, optimization, or data‑intensive systems focus is preferred.
• Experience supporting government, defense, or security‑related R&D programs.

• Strong proficiency in Python and modern ML/AI development workflows.
• Experience with C++ and/or Java for performance‑critical components.
• Designing, implementing, and testing end‑to‑end ML/AI software systems from data ingestion to model deployment.
• Hands‑on experience with PyTorch, including model training, fine‑tuning, evaluation, and experimentation.
• Experience working in high‑performance computing (HPC), distributed compute, or accelerated environments (GPUs, multi‑node systems).
• Solid background in database systems – relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL / SQL), graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Memgraph).
• Familiarity with cloud computing environments (e.g., Azure, AWS, Gov Cloud equivalents) and containerized or scalable ML workflows.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals: version control, modular design, testing, documentation, and reproducibility.
• Proven ability to rapidly prototype novel solutions and transition them toward robust, deployable systems.
• Self‑motivated team member capable of contributing to technical planning, architecture decisions, and problem decomposition.
• U.S. Citizenship with the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.

• Experience with Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, vector databases, embedding pipelines, and LLM‑integrated systems.
• Strong background in network science and graph analytics – Graph modeling and analysis using tools such as NetworkX;
  Graph‑based ML or graph neural networks (GNNs) is a plus.
• Deep understanding of PostgreSQL/PostGIS, geospatial analytics, and large‑scale spatiotemporal datasets.
• Experience designing and integrating decision‑support or analytical pipelines that combine ML, graph analytics, and domain data.
• Exposure to UI or frontend development for technical applications, dashboards, or analyst‑facing tools – experience with Svelte, React, or similar modern frameworks is a plus.
• Familiarity with ML model operationalization (MLOps), experiment tracking, and reproducible research pipelines.
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams across research, engineering, and operational stakeholders.

Research

Includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement, and commuting & transportation benefits.

Grade/

Pay Type:

113S – Expected Hiring Range: $ - $. The starting salary will depend on education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills.

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.