# Lead Research Engineer I - Mission Autonomy & Global Effects

> Scientific Systems Company, Inc. · Burlington, United States (Hybrid) · Full-time · Posted 2026-05-12

**Salary:** USD 150,000–196,000

**Workplace:** hybrid

**Department:** Autonomy Technologies

## Description

The Lead Research Engineer is a key technical contributor and small engineering team lead on multiple programs aligned with division and/or group objectives. Mission autonomy is the ability for autonomous agents or teams to conduct strategic decision-making and coordinated actions toward longer-term operational objectives through persistent world modeling, predictive simulation, and adaptive planning under uncertainty and adversarial conditions.

**Essential Functions**

-   Lead a team to develop innovative solutions to address technical challenges derived from customer requirements.

-   Serve as a subject matter expert in emerging mission autonomy technologies.

-   Support or lead marketing and proposal efforts in mission autonomy.

-   Support or lead managing and tasking team to achieve program milestones.  

-   Take primary responsibility for prime and customer-facing interactions. 

-   Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in mission autonomy and other areas relevant to Scientific Systems. 

-   Collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to advance R&D roadmaps.

-   The role does require the ability to sit or stand at a desk and work on a computer for prolonged periods of time. 

-   This role may require occasional travel when necessary.

-   May require the ability to push/pull/lift up to 15 pounds.  

-   Must be able to obtain and maintain a US DOD Security Clearance.

## Requirements

**Basic Qualifications**

-   Bachelor of Science degree in Math, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Physical Science, Operations Research, Data Science, or equivalent experience and 7+ years of progressive autonomy technologies experience including team leadership in a related industry, a Master degree and 5+ years of related engineering experience, or a Ph.D. degree and 2+ years working  in a related engineering role.

-   Experience working in a team leadership role in a related industry.

-   Proven track record of leading proposals and winning contracts.

-   Proven track record of leading programs in the principal investigator role or similar experience.

-   Experience in building and integrating software for edge platforms.

-   Experience with C/C++, Python, and/or project-specific required languages. (e.g. Java, Rust, etc.) 

-   Experience assisting with non-technical programmatic priorities as needed, including staff planning, budget estimation and tracking, and customer-facing interactions. 

-   Background in robotics technologies related to motion planning, behavior modeling, or decision-making and their accompanying algorithms.

-   Experience with simulation tools and environments (e.g., AFSIM, NGTS) for validation, verification, and training.

**Preferred Qualifications**

-   M.S. or Ph.D. degrees 

-   Familiar with AI/ML standard libraries and tools.

-   Experience working in Linux-based development environments. 

-   Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. 
-   Experience working on both classical autonomy and machine learning and the combination of the two, blending rule-based systems with learning-based methods such as reinforcement learning and generative methods to achieve resilient, adaptive behavior.
-   Experience developing software modules that combine planning, decision-making, and behavior execution in dynamic, adversarial environments.

-   Experience implementing and testing behavior architectures such as multi-agent collaboration, target engagement, payload management, reconnaissance, and engagement in adversarial scenarios.
-   Ability to analyze mission logs to diagnose failures and optimize models for iterative development.

-   Excellent oral and written communication skills including technical writing skills. 

-   Ability to identify and creatively solve complex problems

## Benefits

-   Salary: $150,000 - $196,000 (Depends on Experience)
-   Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)
-   Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)
-   Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)
-   Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)
-   Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)
-   Short Term & Long Term Disability
-   Training & Development
-   Hybrid Work Schedule
-   Free Food & Snacks
-   Wellness Resources
-   Summer 9/80 work schedule

## Apply

[Apply at Scientific Systems Company, Inc.](https://apply.workable.com/ssci/j/10854F56A7/apply)

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