Research Assistant III

R-00183067

Description

Leidos Health & Services sector is a Research Assistant III to support clinical and experimental intramural human use research at the Naval Medical Research Unit Dayton, OH. Research focus includes projects that investigate human performance under a number of stressors that are common in aerospace environments. These stressors may include hypoxia, breathing resistance, motion sickness, spatial disorientation, thermal stress, and others. This research supports the performance, resilience, and wellness of service members to optimizing warfighter performance in the most trying environments. The successful candidate will support multidisciplinary-multi-university programs for cognitive performance research, understand the application of human research to address operation needs of the joint fleet, while supporting research in areas that are practicable and pertinent to the United States Navy.

Primary Responsibilities

• Conduct research, serving as research assistant III, study team lead, collecting data and acting on behalf of a PI if needed, by following research protocols.
  
• Make independent decisions on subject, research assistant, and intern safety.
  
• Determine if/when it is appropriate to begin data collection, daily.
  
• Determine who can participate in studies based on subject criteria.
  
• Use professional judgement to determine when to start or stop a study at any time. 
  
• May perform all recruiting for studies. 
  
• Manage day-to-day government research lab operations, applied operational based tasks for warfighter performance and research applications for perceptual modeling and simulation.  
  
• Support the research process across the project's lifecycle, including but not limited to reviewing literature, performing pilot testing, preparing research protocols, developing experimental procedures, screening, and scheduling of study participants, conducting research t hrough surveys, interviews, observations, and other data collection methods. 
  
• Coordinate the implementation of sponsored and PI initiated research studies, including regulatory requirements, maintenance of files/study records and all activities associated with internal and external audits in coordination with the PI
  
• Coordinate scheduling and screening of research subjects and data collection. This includes participant recruitment and direct interaction with participants, scheduling and screening study participants, data collection, management, and analysis.
  
• Prepare paperwork for the PI required for human subjects and/or animal use research approval and ensure compliance with rules and regulations, including human subjects and/or animal use research approval.
  
• Make recommendations to the PI for study proposal design, modify and plan research experiments, procedures, tests, or survey instruments; recommend research design and develop a study budget.
  
• Perform as team lead, design study tasks, and independently modify these tasks based on designing and testing of the tasks and instrumentation.
  
• Make recommendations regarding what does or does not work for these task designs in relation to the overall study design.
  
• Prepare presentations, posters and sections of material for written published articles as well as proposal authorship. This includes development of presentations and publications including literature searches and preparing bibliographies and preparing sections for presentations and written published articles.
  
• Write abstracts and present research findings.
  
• Take part in the write up of research articles.
  
• May provide technical direction to other Research Assistants on the team according to study.
  
• May assist and educate other research assistant personnel in the understanding and performance of their duties.
  
• Prepare and analyze qualitative and quantitative data, such as univariate and multivariate analyses of variance, regression analysis, and descriptive summaries statistical analyses.
  
• Design and develop data management procedures and processes; manage data in spreadsheets, including verification of data entry.
  
• Analyze data independently and make judgments on whether to keep data points or throw them out (i.e. outliers, erroneous data due to equipment malfunction, etc.) Based on data analysis results, make recommendations to P.I. on whether or not data should be used or not used and suggest different statistical analyses, interpret data findings, etc.
  
• Develop standard operating procedures for laboratory instrumentation and equipment.
  
• Clean and maintain instrumentation, equipment, and laboratories.
  
• Monitor supply inventory and replenish stocks through established Command supply procedures.
  
• Maintain laboratory instrumentation, equipment, and spaces.
  

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors degree with 4+ years of relevant experience or Masters degree with 2+ years of relevant experience. Degrees in Psychology, Experimental Psychology, Neuroscience, Physiology/Neurophysiology, or Neuropsychology. May consider other STEM degrees which provide a good foundation for research, such as Human Factors, Biology, Psychology, Physiology, or Mathematics.
  
• Post-graduate life scientist research assistant/research project manager
  
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
  
• Ability to collaborate with internal and external stakeholders in various scientific environments (hands-on, laboratory, and computer-based).
  
• Ability to obtain Secret Clearance
  
• US Citizen
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a military or medical research environment is highly desired
  
• Experience with human subject research
  
• Familiarity with brain function, research psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and cognitive behavior
  
• Familiarity with fNIRS, EEG
  
• MATLAB, Psych Toolbox, Swift, and/or Python
  
• Institutional Review Board/Human Research Participant Protection
  
• Human subject data collection
  
• Information assurance, HIPAA, Privacy Act
  
• Human Performance laboratory or similar experience
  
• Clinical research or patient health care
  
• Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI Program Training)
  

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.
Original Posting: May 12, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range: Pay Range $69,550.00 - $125,725.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com .

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits .

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos’ name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system – never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com .

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission .

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.