Sr Research Scientist

About the Opportunity

Job Summary:
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 is expected to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team and contribute to the successful execution of R&D projects.

Responsibilities include providing 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 among others. The R&D Engineer will work collaboratively with multi-disciplinary teams across the KRI consortium consisting of academic and industry partners to create solutions and prototypes for projects in application areas including autonomous systems robotics cognitive and distributed sensing and machine learning systems among others.

Successful candidates will be responsible team players and passionate about machine learning technologies as well as possess a deep understanding of machine learning technology and experience in turning machine learning technologies into practical state-of-the-art systems. A close working relationship with and support of KRI Senior R&D Engineers/Scientists for government and industry contracts will be required.

The Kostas Research Institute was founded with a focus on homeland security research and development. Today KRI strives to advance resilience in the face of 21st century risks across a wide range of technologies emphasizing a collaborative approach that leverages our R1 university intellectual capital and technologies to develop application-specific solutions to customer needs. KRI focuses on satisfying customer-driven needs by co-locating a diverse highly skilled R&D team that can address all aspects of a particular problem across the full range of technology-readiness levels. KRI headquarters located at the NU Innovation Campus in Burlington MA (ICBM) is home to one-of-a-kind research and test facilities for conducting activities related to cognitive and distributed RF signal processing and machine learning unmanned and autonomous system technologies as well as quantum materials and sensing.

This position is with KRI at Northeastern University LLC a wholly-owned subsidiary of NU. The primary office for this position is located at NUs ICBM. Through NU KRI offers an impressive benefits package including multiple retirement plan options with extremely generous matching as well as tuition waiver for classes and advanced degree programs. A full description of available benefits can be found on the NU website.

Education & Experience

Required

• Bachelors or Masters 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).

Preferred

• Advanced degree (M.S. or Ph.D.) with applied ML/AI network science optimization or data-intensive systems focus.
• Experience supporting government defense or security-related R&D programs.

Skills & Attributes

Required

• Strong proficiency in Python and modern ML/AI development workflows.
• Experience with C and/or Java for performance-critical components is a plus.
• Demonstrated experience designing implementing and testing end-to-end ML/AI software systems from data ingestion to model deployment.
• Hands-on experience with machine learning frameworks particularly 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 including:
• Relational databases (e.g. PostgreSQL / SQL)
• Graph databases (e.g. Neo4j Memgraph or equivalent)
• Familiarity with cloud computing environments (e.g. Azure AWS or GovCloud equivalents) including 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.

Desired Skills & Attributes

• Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures vector databases embedding pipelines and LLM-integrated systems.
• Strong background in network science and graph analytics including:
  • 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.

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience education and skills when extending an offer.

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.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

Expected Hiring Range:

With the pay range(s) shown above the starting salary will depend on several factors which may include your education experience location knowledge and expertise and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.