Principal Network Systems Researcher

STR · Arlington, VA · Other

Posted 2026-10-02

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About the Team:

STR’s Intelligence 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 data analysis, deep learning, and statistical techniques across networking, communications, social media, text, time series, geospatial, and imagery data. We 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 Principal Network Systems Researcher, you will utilize State of the Art (SOTA) deep learning methods, networking expertise, and systems engineering skills to work with disparate and unlabeled data sources and advanced real-time data communications and networking solutions. You will collaborate with a diverse team of people that includes software engineers, algorithm developers and academics. Your work will leverage cutting-edge learning techniques and demonstrably improve networked systems for real-life scenarios. We expect the tools and techniques you develop and deliver to meet high standards of quality, maintainability, and reuse, so sound software engineering principles and software testing methodologies is important.

What you will do:

Work closely with and lead dedicated research and engineering teams to develop innovative solutions to complex networking problems

Understand customer intent and efficiently decompose tasks for team execution

Developing and delivery of novel software and hardware systems that span research, development, and deployable production systems

Collaborate with a diverse team that includes academics and industry partners

Collaborate with technologists and business leaders within the organization for business development and capture

Who you are:

Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance, for which U.S citizenship is needed by the U.S government

BS, MS, of PhD in Machine Learning or Computer Science or related Engineering discipline

12+ years experience with a BS, 10+ years experience with an MS, or 5+ years experience with a PhD

Experienced in using SOTA machine learning to solve real world problems across both resource-constrained edge and resource-rich network core environments

Experienced with networking/communications theory per the OSI stack model

Working knowledge of unsupervised and semi-supervised learning techniques

Working knowledge of software design patterns and industry best practices, including version control (Git) and collaboration tools (JIRA, Confluence, or related)

Even Better:

Active security clearance

Experience writing software using a large multi-party code base

Experience with developing software using LLM-enabled coding tools (e.g. Cursor, Codex)

Experience with high-level software architecture design

Experience developing software at the PHY, MAC, Network, or Application protocol layers

Experience with 5G system development, testing, and evaluation

Experience with protocol analysis

Experience with and a history of success in business development with DoW / IC customers

Pay Information

Full-Time Salary Range: $230,000 - $280,000

The salary range listed is based on external market data. Offers are based on factors, such as but not limited to, the candidate’s experience, education, training, key skills/critical skills, security clearances, and prevailing market and business conditions.

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