Job Requirements
University of Maryland, MD
Clearance Unspecified Polygraph not specified
Mid Level Career (5+ yrs experience)
$170,000 - $210,000
Job Description
Cognitive Science and Human Factors Researcher
Division: IHMS
Budgeted Salary Range
$170K – $210K
New Position or Existing Position:
Organizational Summary Statement /Purpose of Position:
This role is essential to support ARLIS’ expanding research portfolio in intelligent human-machine systems, cognitive autonomy, and decision support technologies targeted at national security applications. This position enables ARLIS to deliver on existing federally funded program objectives that require deep expertise in human systems integration, computational modeling of cognition and behavior, and experimental research bridging AI with human performance.
The role will enable ARLIS to sustain high-impact research output, fulfill contractual obligations for current projects, and maintain competitiveness for future multi-year awards with agencies such as DoW, DHA, and AFRL. The ability to recruit at either the Assistant or Associate Research Scientist level provides flexibility in matching candidate expertise with mission priorities while ensuring scholarly productivity and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Without this hire, critical gaps would emerge in project deliverables, team bandwidth, and technical leadership capacity necessary to drive forward innovations in human-machine teaming and human performance augmentation research.
Key Responsibilities:
Support deliverable development
Support qualitative interviews data collection and analytic methods
Develop workflows based on cognitive task analyses results
Support the software development team’s user experience tasking.
Support human data collection leveraging his capabilities in human subjects research, and neurophysiological measurements and signal processing, leveraging statistics and programming language skills.
Support business development efforts related to Human Performance & Readiness Augmentation Mission Area, especially scoping funding sources through sponsor engagements and funding source evaluations, developing ideas with IHMS teammates, and drafting/socializing white papers with sponsors.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
1. 40%:
Technical Leadership & Execution (40%) directly supports the institution's human performance and readiness augmentation (HPRA) mission area manager in the technical development and execution of research projects. Leverages subject matter expertise, team leadership, technical thought leadership, and programmatic capabilities to ensure success of Department of War (DoW)-sponsored HPRA focused research projects.
• Conduct independent and collaborative research in areas such as human-machine interaction, behavioral testing, computational human modeling, workflow analysis, cognitive task analysis, and multi-modal cognitive experimentation.
• Design and lead complex research studies, including experimental protocols, data acquisition, statistical analysis, and interpretation.
• Design and lead human subjects research experiments including neurophysiological and biometric signals collection, decoding, analysis and modeling.
• Develop research products such as publications, technical reports, and high-quality deliverables for sponsors.
• Support proposal development to expand ARLIS’ applied research portfolio in human performance and readiness.
• Design and execute cognitive task analyses with operational populations to inform software design
2. 20%:
Research & Innovation (20%) aligns with institutional needs to identify critical application areas for ARLIS core competencies within the Defense Intelligence Security Enterprise as well as the larger Department of War and Intelligence Community.
• Drive applied research initiatives by identifying promising modeling techniques, formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, and validating results.
• Push technical boundaries in signal processing ML, applied NLP, and multimodal approaches where appropriate.
• Maintain awareness of emerging techniques in ML/AI and assess their relevance to ongoing and future projects.
• Prepare the groundwork to serve as Principal Investigator on future efforts — including proposal shaping, project scoping, and technical planning.
• Mentor junior researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate research assistants.
3. 20% :
Project Leadership & PI Preparation (20%) aligns with institutional investment in workforce development and technical culture. Mentoring junior researchers builds bench strength, while contributions to internal tooling and best practices improve velocity across the broader organization.
• Serve as the technical lead for assigned projects, guiding the team’s priorities, pacing, and technical decision-making.
• Translate high-level project goals into actionable research tasks and deliverables.
• Coordinate with mission leadership to ensure alignment on scope, milestones, and resource needs.
• Contribute to project documentation, progress reports, deliverables, and retrospective analyses.
4. 15% :
Client Interaction & Business Development (15%) aligns with institutional priorities for project and sponsorship capture to meet break-even revenue expectations and establish continuity of our core competencies.
• Support Business Development activities by preparing and delivering backgrounders, demos, and technical briefings to potential clients.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders and clients.
• Help develop proposal material, including technical volumes, work plans, and capability descriptions.
• Participate in sponsor and stakeholder engagements to gather requirements, understand pain points, and translate them into actionable technical opportunities.
5. 5%
Collaboration & Cross-Functional Work (5%) aligns with institutional needs to coordinate across core-competencies/directorates as well as functional units for process improvement and to expedite conversion of contract revenue into value for sponsors.
• Work closely with ARLIS mission managers, teammates, and interdisciplinary researchers to align technical outcomes with sponsor needs.
• Contribute to a collaborative, transparent, and learning-oriented team culture.
•
Minimum Qualifications
• Masters or PhD in human factors psychology, experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, or related discipline with foundational knowledge of behavioral science research methods.
• 5+ years of work experience
• Experience leading DoW/DoD applied research projects as Principal Investigator, Technical lead, Program Manager, or similar function.
• Ability to plan, prioritize, and manage one’s own work independently while contributing to/leading projects in a team context.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Eligible or active TS/SCI
Preferred Qualifications
• Active or recently active DoD Top Secret (TS) Clearance
• Experience collecting physiological data from human subjects
• Survey methodology experience
Physical Demands
• Ability to work at least 3 days on-site in College Park, MD
Division: IHMS
Budgeted Salary Range
$170K – $210K
New Position or Existing Position:
Organizational Summary Statement /Purpose of Position:
This role is essential to support ARLIS’ expanding research portfolio in intelligent human-machine systems, cognitive autonomy, and decision support technologies targeted at national security applications. This position enables ARLIS to deliver on existing federally funded program objectives that require deep expertise in human systems integration, computational modeling of cognition and behavior, and experimental research bridging AI with human performance.
The role will enable ARLIS to sustain high-impact research output, fulfill contractual obligations for current projects, and maintain competitiveness for future multi-year awards with agencies such as DoW, DHA, and AFRL. The ability to recruit at either the Assistant or Associate Research Scientist level provides flexibility in matching candidate expertise with mission priorities while ensuring scholarly productivity and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Without this hire, critical gaps would emerge in project deliverables, team bandwidth, and technical leadership capacity necessary to drive forward innovations in human-machine teaming and human performance augmentation research.
Key Responsibilities:
Support deliverable development
Support qualitative interviews data collection and analytic methods
Develop workflows based on cognitive task analyses results
Support the software development team’s user experience tasking.
Support human data collection leveraging his capabilities in human subjects research, and neurophysiological measurements and signal processing, leveraging statistics and programming language skills.
Support business development efforts related to Human Performance & Readiness Augmentation Mission Area, especially scoping funding sources through sponsor engagements and funding source evaluations, developing ideas with IHMS teammates, and drafting/socializing white papers with sponsors.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
1. 40%:
Technical Leadership & Execution (40%) directly supports the institution's human performance and readiness augmentation (HPRA) mission area manager in the technical development and execution of research projects. Leverages subject matter expertise, team leadership, technical thought leadership, and programmatic capabilities to ensure success of Department of War (DoW)-sponsored HPRA focused research projects.
• Conduct independent and collaborative research in areas such as human-machine interaction, behavioral testing, computational human modeling, workflow analysis, cognitive task analysis, and multi-modal cognitive experimentation.
• Design and lead complex research studies, including experimental protocols, data acquisition, statistical analysis, and interpretation.
• Design and lead human subjects research experiments including neurophysiological and biometric signals collection, decoding, analysis and modeling.
• Develop research products such as publications, technical reports, and high-quality deliverables for sponsors.
• Support proposal development to expand ARLIS’ applied research portfolio in human performance and readiness.
• Design and execute cognitive task analyses with operational populations to inform software design
2. 20%:
Research & Innovation (20%) aligns with institutional needs to identify critical application areas for ARLIS core competencies within the Defense Intelligence Security Enterprise as well as the larger Department of War and Intelligence Community.
• Drive applied research initiatives by identifying promising modeling techniques, formulating hypotheses, designing experiments, and validating results.
• Push technical boundaries in signal processing ML, applied NLP, and multimodal approaches where appropriate.
• Maintain awareness of emerging techniques in ML/AI and assess their relevance to ongoing and future projects.
• Prepare the groundwork to serve as Principal Investigator on future efforts — including proposal shaping, project scoping, and technical planning.
• Mentor junior researchers, post-doctoral fellows, and graduate research assistants.
3. 20% :
Project Leadership & PI Preparation (20%) aligns with institutional investment in workforce development and technical culture. Mentoring junior researchers builds bench strength, while contributions to internal tooling and best practices improve velocity across the broader organization.
• Serve as the technical lead for assigned projects, guiding the team’s priorities, pacing, and technical decision-making.
• Translate high-level project goals into actionable research tasks and deliverables.
• Coordinate with mission leadership to ensure alignment on scope, milestones, and resource needs.
• Contribute to project documentation, progress reports, deliverables, and retrospective analyses.
4. 15% :
Client Interaction & Business Development (15%) aligns with institutional priorities for project and sponsorship capture to meet break-even revenue expectations and establish continuity of our core competencies.
• Support Business Development activities by preparing and delivering backgrounders, demos, and technical briefings to potential clients.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders and clients.
• Help develop proposal material, including technical volumes, work plans, and capability descriptions.
• Participate in sponsor and stakeholder engagements to gather requirements, understand pain points, and translate them into actionable technical opportunities.
5. 5%
Collaboration & Cross-Functional Work (5%) aligns with institutional needs to coordinate across core-competencies/directorates as well as functional units for process improvement and to expedite conversion of contract revenue into value for sponsors.
• Work closely with ARLIS mission managers, teammates, and interdisciplinary researchers to align technical outcomes with sponsor needs.
• Contribute to a collaborative, transparent, and learning-oriented team culture.
•
Minimum Qualifications
• Masters or PhD in human factors psychology, experimental psychology, cognitive neuroscience, or related discipline with foundational knowledge of behavioral science research methods.
• 5+ years of work experience
• Experience leading DoW/DoD applied research projects as Principal Investigator, Technical lead, Program Manager, or similar function.
• Ability to plan, prioritize, and manage one’s own work independently while contributing to/leading projects in a team context.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Eligible or active TS/SCI
Preferred Qualifications
• Active or recently active DoD Top Secret (TS) Clearance
• Experience collecting physiological data from human subjects
• Survey methodology experience
Physical Demands
• Ability to work at least 3 days on-site in College Park, MD
group id: 91122244