Senior Data Scientist

About the Team

STR’s Analytics division researches and develops advanced analytics and machine learning-based solutions to solve challenging problems related to national security. Our team consists of passionate and motivated engineers with advanced degrees in engineering, computer science, mathematics, and data science, who are seeking opportunities to use their deep technical knowledge and creativity to tackle some of the hardest problems that our customers face. Our projects span multiple different data modalities and incorporate advanced algorithms, deep learning, and statistical techniques to uncover patterns in social media, structured and unstructured text, time series, geospatial, and imagery data, and must operate under challenging constraints not typically found in the commercial world. The tools and technologies we develop have real world impact and US Government analysts use them to extract and enrich intelligence information around the globe.

The Role

As a Data Scientist, you will analyze a diverse collection of interesting and challenging datasets to develop, implement, and evaluate statistical machine learning algorithms to discover interesting trends and form valuable intelligence insights. You will apply state of the art and novel statistical modeling and machine learning techniques to a variety of problems including classification, anomaly detection, forecasting, and much more—all to help address national security and safety needs. You will work closely with other researchers to develop cutting edge systems and work collaboratively with our software engineers to design and deploy models into production. You will interact with customers to understand requirements and apply iterative feedback to development to respond to their most critical problems.

This position is based in Arlington, Virginia; applicants should expect to primarily work onsite.

What you will do:

• Analyze and characterize large structured and unstructured datasets spanning several data modalities including geospatial, time series, text, graph, and imagery data
• Design and apply state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to automate and improve existing manual analyst processes
• Collaborate with diverse teams to develop and deploy cutting-edge capabilities into production systems
• Interact with customers to understand requirements and national security needs to iteratively respond to their most critical problems in real-time.

Who you are:

• Experienced researcher and team member who is excited to work with mission partners to leverage cutting-edge data science and machine learning research for immediate impact
• Strong understanding of probability theory and statistical methods, and experience applying them to data science problems
• Expertise in supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques including geospatial analytics, changepoint detection, clustering, graph analytics, and Bayesian programming
• Proficient in one or more high-level programming language such as Python, Java, or C/C++
• Excellent communicator and briefer, who is comfortable communicating with both technical and non-technical audiences
• M.S. or PhD in a scientific field such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, and 2+ years of relevant experience after Bachelor’s degree (work or post-graduate)
• Capable of obtaining and maintaining a security clearance.

Even better:

• Experience leading and directing research initiatives from inception to functional prototypes and ultimately to production capabilities
• Familiarity with software development best practices, including version control (Git) and Agile workflow methodologies
• Experience working with large datasets (> 100 GB) and familiarity with big data infrastructure and frameworks such as AWS, Hadoop, Spark, Dask, or MapReduce
• M.S. or PhD in a scientific field and 5+ years of relevant experience after Bachelor’s degree (work or post-graduate)
• Active security clearance.

While this position is ideally suited for a senior data scientist or machine learning researcher, individuals with fewer years of experience are also encouraged to apply to work with our team leaders and have meaningful impact on our nation’s safety and security.

STR is a growing technology company with locations near Boston, MA, Arlington, VA, near Dayton, OH, Palm Bay, FL, and Carlsbad, CA. 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.

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 not just any company. Our people, culture, and attitude along with their unique set of skills, experiences, and perspectives put us on a trajectory to change the world. We can't do it alone, though - we need fellow trailblazers. If you are one, join our team and help to keep our society safe! Visit us at www.str.us for more info.

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.