Systems R&D Engineer

Your working location will be a hybrid of on-site/work from home, on-site location is State College, PA. This role requires periodic travel to remote locations.

We are searching for a Systems Research and Development Engineer, emphasized as an Engineering Senior Land, Air, and Multi-Domain Systems (SLAM) Advisor within the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at Penn State. This position serves as a dedicated senior-level advisor to ARL on all aspects of integration with the U.S. Army (and ground elements of other services), maintaining continuous engagement with Army stakeholders and ensuring ARL’s research, capabilities, and technical expertise directly support Army operational and strategic needs across land, air, cyber, space, analytics, and multi-domain systems.

The SLAM Advisor interprets Army problem sets, identifies technology and analysis gaps, and connects them with ARL researchers to deliver timely, high-value solutions in systems engineering, modeling, analytics, and multi-domain integration. ARL is an authorized DoD Skill Bridge partner and welcomes all transitioning military members to apply.

• Serve as ARL’s primary technical and strategic interface to the U.S. Army for land, air, and multi-domain systems
• Translate Army operational and strategic requirements into actionable systems engineering, modeling, and analytics tasks
• Advise Army stakeholders on ARL capabilities in modeling, data analytics, decision support, and systems integration
• Maintain awareness of Army modernization efforts and identify opportunities for ARL technical contributions
• Collaborate with ARL leadership to develop tailored technical responses and multi-domain integration concept
• Support early shaping of projects by refining questions, aligning data sources, and determining analytic and engineering approaches
• Provide guidance to ARL teams on Army operational context, decision processes, and constraints
• Build relationships across Army analytic communities and capability development enterprise
• Assist in program development activities, including technical scoping and sponsor briefings

• Past success working with military organizations—preferably the U.S. Army, in senior roles—in technical, analytic, advisory, or systems engineering roles
• Past experience translating complex operational requirements into data-driven analytic approaches or systems engineering models
• Ability to engage senior leaders by presenting clear, actionable analysis
• Technical capabilities in systems engineering, decision analytics, forecasting, automation, or operations research
• Past success developing analytic tools, models, or workflows that improve decision timeliness and clarity
• Navigate multidisciplinary research teams in a fast-moving environment
• Conduct independent and collaborative research, development, testing, and evaluation activities to solve complex scientific and engineering challenges supporting Department of Defense sponsors and national security missions
• Investigate, evaluate, and apply established and emerging engineering principles, scientific methodologies, and advanced technologies to develop innovative technical solutions
• Plan, perform, and lead analytical studies, modeling and simulation, laboratory experimentation, field testing, and prototype demonstrations to validate engineering concepts and system performance
• Design, develop, integrate, analyze, and evaluate complex hardware, software, embedded systems, sensors, communications systems, electromechanical systems, or other mission-critical technologies within assigned technical disciplines
• Apply systems engineering principles throughout the project lifecycle, including requirements development, architecture definition,…