Principal Research Scientist

As a result of program growth, the Electronic Warfare Division is looking for a Principal Research Scientist to support remote sensing programs in Beavercreek, OH. As a Principal Research Scientist you will apply your skills to a wide variety of problems and datasets, primarily focused on remote sensing (SAR/RF, acoustic, EO/ IR, and LIDAR) applications.

You will work with a multi-disciplined design team (Electrical Engineers, Physicists, Computer Scientists, etc.) to design, develop, simulate, and integrate components into sensor systems and data fusion solutions based on given project requirements. Current projects include, but are not limited to, detection, tracking, data fusion, and classification. This is an exciting opportunity to use your experience to help the Combat Identification (CID) team perform advanced research and development for target recognition solutions using principally synthetic data AI/ML training techniques for multiple sensor modalities. We are looking for a qualified candidate to bring technical excellence, leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity to our programs. You will lead technical project areas and have the opportunity to pursue growth in new technology areas or with new customers.

This position requires about three quarters of the job duties to be performed onsite due to the sensitive nature of this work and the desire for in-person collaboration. However, we offer flexible in-office hours and the ability to perform some job duties remotely.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership for tasks and multiple technical area programs.

• Work with teams to research, design, and develop sensor exploitation systems including signal processing, automatic target recognition (ATR), and target signature modeling.

• Develop ATR algorithms using Python, MATLAB, C++, and other languages for real world applications. Leverage state-of-the-art AI/ML tools and methods to improve performance of ATR systems.

• Rapidly and iteratively implement new algorithms to address new challenges.

• Collaborate with our customers to address challenging mission requirements by researching and developing new capabilities as well as making improvements to existing systems. 

• Develop performance models and algorithms for new and/or existing target recognition solutions.

• Perform high-level software development functions using Python, PyTorch, C++, MATLAB, Java or similar languages including design, development, troubleshooting, and debugging software programs.

• Collaborate with other experts within the program and in the user community to design, develop, and debug existing software, and to design and develop enhancements that incorporate new capabilities into various components of the existing systems.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree with 12-15 years of prior relevant experience or Masters with 10-13 years of prior relevant experience. May possess a Doctorate in technical domain.

• Ability to effectively communicate technical solutions to coworkers, teammates, and customers.

• Familiarity with common machine and deep learning packages such as Scikit-Learn, PyTorch, etc.

• Experience developing computer vision applications

• Strong programming ability in Python and/or C/C++ for Linux and windows environments 

• Significant experience with Python and MATLAB  

• Familiarity with Linux and Windows operating systems

• Strong background in machine learning, artificial intelligence, or data science

• Experience presenting technical/scientific literature and presentations to customer stakeholders, conferences and/or community workgroup meetings.

• Experience contributing to business development activities including proposal writing and capture management support.

• Possess an active SECRET clearance or higher, with an ability to obtain a TS/SCI clearance

• US citizenship required

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Automatic Target Recognition algorithm development

• Experience working with monostatic or bi-static Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and/or Synthetic Aperture Lidar (SAL) data and sensor systems

• Experience with multi-sensor data fusion 

• Background with multi-static radar research and development

• Familiarity with GitLab and/or Jira - issue tracking and agile project management, or similar tools

• Experience using AFSIM and successful completion of AFSIM training 

• Experience performing model verification and validation

• Previous experience developing sensor exploitation algorithms such as Combat Identification (CID), tracking, detection, fusion, or pattern of life algorithms and/or models

• Strong understanding of statistics 

NKE

ElectronicWarfare

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:

January 29, 2026

Pay Range:

Pay Range $131,300.00 - $237,350.00

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.