Research Scientist: Sensemaking & Autonomous Control

Date Posted:

2025-12-09

Country:

United States of America

Location:

MA105: BBN Headquarters 10 Moulton Street , Cambridge, MA, 02138 USA

Position Role Type:

Hybrid

U.S. Citizen, U.S. Person, or Immigration Status Requirements:

The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government issued security clearance is required.​ U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance

Security Clearance:

DoD Clearance: TS/SCI

RTX Corporation is an Aerospace and Defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers worldwide. It comprises three industry-leading businesses – Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. Its 185,000 employees enable the company to operate at the edge of known science as they imagine and deliver solutions that push the boundaries in quantum physics, electric propulsion, directed energy, hypersonics, avionics and cybersecurity. The company, formed in 2020 through the combination of Raytheon Company and the United Technologies Corporation aerospace businesses, is headquartered in Arlington, VA.   

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The following position is to join our BBN team:

Our Sensemaking and Autonomous Control (SMAC) group is seeking experienced professionals for exciting technology development positions in its Cambridge MA or Rosslyn VA office. The successful candidate will be self-motivated with an ability to work independently, solve solving complex technical challenges as a member of a multi-disciplinary team, and support business growth opportunities.

If you enjoy working in a culture that emphasizes innovation, teamwork, and technical excellence in a collegial work environment that values creativity and initiative, we'd like to hear from you.

Unlike other small business defense research companies, BBN is uniquely positioned to collaborate and transition technology within greater RTX. When our goals are aligned, we support greater RTX in the actualization of our key insights into next generation products.

The following position is to join our BBN SMAC team:

What You Will Do:

In support of chiefly DoD and Intelligence Community missions, BBN’s Sensemaking and Autonomous Control (SMAC) group specializes in the development and deployment of cutting-edge, trustworthy, third-wave Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions to enable the advanced machine reasoning needed for autonomous and trusted systems of tomorrow.

The SMAC group works challenging, often resource constrained (e.g. edge computing), inference and optimization problems collaboratively with sensor, hardware, and platform providers to coordinate and/or synergize assets.  The group blends classical optimization, probabilistic, model-based estimation and control, computer vision, and physics-based approaches with AI architectures for supervised learning and deep reinforcement learning to provide performant, robust, and trustworthy solutions.    

You will support SMAC in developing novel analytics and algorithms to address complex, open-ended, DoD and intelligence problems requiring unprecedented speed, performance, and trustworthiness. You will work with globally recognized R&D leaders in their field to develop the technologies of tomorrow for our defense and intelligence communities. You will be work side by side with leading scientists, engineers, and program managers of all levels to enable tactical and strategic decision-making using Python, Java, C, and/or C++. You will work with senior and junior technical staff to grow our business with both current and new customers.

Qualifications You Must Have:

• MS with 3+ years of relevant experience, or BS with 5+ years of relevant experience in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Physics or related field
• Extensive experience in data analytics and algorithms from classical and AI-based domains to support sensemaking, optimization, and autonomous control.Proficiency prototyping and testing data analytics and algorithms written in Python, Java, C, C++, or similar.
• Extensive experience in Model Based Estimation and Control, including computer vision, for autonomous systems, sensors, and edge compute
• Experience using modern AI applications, such as PyTorch or Tensorflow.
• Experience with image and/or signal processing
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work in a team environment with scientists and engineers at multiple seniority levels to derive and explain solutions to complex problems
• Ability and willingness to earn a DoD or IC Top Secret security clearance, which generally requires a US citizenship

Qualifications We Prefer:

• Experience executing novel AI research to solve challenges related to physical sensing/control/autonomy in sparse data environments as evident by publication record, past performance, or equivalent
• Experience using modern AI compute workflows such as High-Performance Computing (HPC) or CUDA enabled Graphical Processing Units (GPUs)
• Experience working with edge/embedded compute hardware like Nvidia Jetson, FPGA Xilinx, and/or general embedded controller design
• Experience working in applied research and rapid prototype programs, especially with DoD/IC customers
• Interest in learning customer challenges across multiple problem spaces as well as how to engage with customers, write proposals, and generate new business
• Ph.D. in AI, Operations Research, Computer Engineering or similar

What We Offer

Whether you’re just starting out on your career journey or are an experienced professional, we offer a robust total rewards package with compensation; healthcare, wellness, retirement, and work/life benefits; career development and recognition programs. Some of the benefits we offer include parental (including paternal) leave, flexible work schedules, achievement awards, educational assistance and child/adult backup care.

• Relocation Assistance available
• This position is Onsite at our Cambridge, MA office

To help you achieve your goals, BBN will provide:

• A strong leadership team well-versed in government R&D.
• A collaborative and collegial environment to push state-of-the-art research.
• A technically competent pool of research scientists who are willing to mentor, listen, and help you refine your research vision and goals.
• Business development, programmatic, contracting, finance, and HR support.
• Access, through RTX, to opportunities that help transition your research and ultimately see it fielded.

As part of our commitment to maintaining a secure hiring process, candidates may be asked to attend select steps of the interview process in-person at one of our office locations, regardless of whether the role is designated as on-site, hybrid or remote.

The salary range for this role is 90,000 USD - 182,000 USD. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. RTX considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate’s work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.

Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits, including but not limited to, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, flexible work schedules, employee assistance program, Employee Scholar Program, parental leave, paid time off, and holidays. Specific benefits are dependent upon the specific business unit as well as whether or not the position is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement.

Hired applicants may be eligible for annual short-term and/or long-term incentive compensation programs depending on the level of the position and whether or not it is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and are dependent upon a variety of factors including, but not limited to, individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company’s performance.

This role is a U.S.-based role. If the successful candidate resides in a U.S. territory, the appropriate pay structure and benefits will apply.

RTX anticipates the application window closing approximately 40 days from the date the notice was posted. However, factors such as candidate flow and business necessity may require RTX to shorten or extend the application window.

RTX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any other applicable state or federal protected class. RTX provides affirmative action in employment for qualified Individuals with a Disability and Protected Veterans in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act.

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