Systems R&D Engineer

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POSITION SPECIFICS ​

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 SkillBridge partner and welcomes all transitioning military members to apply.

You Will:

• •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

Required Skills / Experience Areas Include:

• •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, design trade studies, integration, verification, validation, risk management, and configuration management

• •Support research conducted within Unclassified, Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), and Classified environments while safeguarding sensitive technical information and government-furnished data
• •Mentor and provide technical leadership to junior engineers, engineering technologists, engineering support personnel, interns, and students
• •Active security clearance, at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level

Preferred Skills / Experience Areas Include:

• •Army educational or modernization institutions
• •Technical depth with modern analytic stacks such as Python, R, SQL, Power BI, and modeling workflows
• •Past success delivering data-literacy or executive-level technical education programs

• •Participate in technology transition activities, including system integration, operational demonstrations, customer evaluations, manufacturing support, and field implementation
• •Identify technical risks and develop mitigation strategies to improve program execution, system performance, reliability, maintainability, and mission effectiveness
• •Initiate and contribute to business development activities through technical concept development, customer engagement, proposal preparation, Independent Research and Development (IRAD) initiatives, and strategic technology planning
• •Present technical information and research results to sponsors, program managers, technical review boards, and other internal and external stakeholders
• •Manage technical tasks and engineering projects of varying size and complexity, including responsibility for technical performance, schedules, budgets, deliverables, and risk management
• •Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of engineers, scientists, software developers, technicians, and external research partners to accomplish program objectives
• •Ensure engineering activities comply with applicable sponsor requirements, engineering standards, quality requirements, cybersecurity policies, export control regulations, information assurance requirements, and laboratory security procedures
• •Develop experimental plans, test procedures, data collection methodologies, and performance metrics; analyze results to identify technical issues, validate assumptions, and recommend design improvements
• •Support development of advanced prototypes and transition technologies from research concepts into operational capabilities for government sponsors
• •Prepare technical reports, engineering analyses, research publications, white papers, proposals, briefings, and sponsor deliverables documenting research methods, technical findings, and program status

MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS

Bachelor's Degree - Engineering or Science
19+ years of relevant experience
Required Certifications:
None

ARL’s purpose is to research and develop innovative solutions to challenging scientific, engineering, and technology problems in support of the Navy, the Intel Community (IC), and other federal government customers.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on ARL, visit our website at www.arl.psu.edu .

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.

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