Reinforcement Learning Researcher

Reinforcement Learning Researcher

STR’s Analytics Division is seeking a reinforcement learning researcher to join our team of scientists and engineers, who develop and apply cutting edge reinforcement learning approaches for many problems, including swarm/drone deployment, fighter-jet dogfighting and tactical wargaming. Our projects integrate algorithmic research and software engineering to address challenging national security problems. We actively collaborate with research engineers across STR, as well as with academic researchers and industry partners to develop practical and powerful solutions to applying autonomy in the real world.

Our ideal candidate possesses knowledge of the state-of-the-art in reinforcement learning (RL), understands how to implement RL algorithms in software, and is only satisfied when their innovations become a reality by integrating them into real autonomous systems. Because we have a highly-collaborative, multi-disciplinary team, our perfect candidate also has a strong desire to learn about new, interesting problem domains to identify where RL would have the greatest impact. We prioritize collaboration and team culture in addition to being results-oriented, and therefore we always seek researchers and scientists with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

The Role:

• Apply and improve cutting-edge academic research in RL to defense-domain problems (wargames, flight, naval) to train autonomous agents that surpass the performance of existing algorithms
• Build large-scale, real-world autonomous systems by collaborating with STR’s world-class team of engineers and researchers in the machine learning community, our academic partners and our customers
• Analyze data and agent behavior by both replaying simulated scenarios as well as examining real-world data to identify performance improvement strategies
• Interact with national security customers and users to determine and assess unmet needs and evolving requirements
• Transition algorithms to prototype and/or real-time systems demonstrations
• Position may involve travel to customer meetings and/or data collections and experiments

Who You Are:

• BS, MS or PhD degree in Computer Science.
• Academic and/or industry experience training agents to optimize criterion in simulated environments
• Experience with scientific software development and algorithm implementation
• Proficient in Python, Docker, PyTorch, TensorFlow
• Motivated collaborator with internal and external teams

Some Other Relevant Skills You May Have:

• Published work in academic conferences
• Experience with cloud computing (AWS, GCloud, Azure)
• Experience with RLlib, Unity
• Familiar with Agile Development Workflow

STR is a rapidly growing technology company with locations north of Boston, MA, Arlington, VA and near Dayton, OH. We specialize in advanced research and development for defense, intelligence, and national security, trying to understand how to protect our society: from stopping malicious botnet attacks, to understanding cyber vulnerabilities, providing next generation sensors, radar, sonar, communications, and electronic warfare to developing artificial intelligence algorithms and analytics to make sense of the complexity that is exploding around us. Visit us at www.str.us for more info.

STR is committed to creating a collaborative learning environment that supports deep technical understanding and recognizes the contributions and achievements of all team members. Our work is challenging, but you go home at night knowing that you pushed the forefront of technology and made the world a little safer. We recognize that the world is changing, that it is becoming more connected than ever before, making things change faster than before, and reshaping society in the process. We all want to understand this changing world and leave it better for our work.

STR is an equal opportunity employer. We are fully dedicated to hiring the most qualified candidate regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation and pregnancy), marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

If you need a reasonable accommodation for any portion of the employment process, email us at appassist@str.us and provide your contact info.

Pursuant to applicable federal law and regulations, positions at STR require employees to obtain national security clearances and satisfy the requirements for compliance with export control and other applicable laws.