Employment Opportunities
The National Security Institute is a fast-growing center at Virginia Tech, and currently supports over 100 faculty, staff, and graduate students. Virginia Tech, which ranked in the top 30 of Forbes' America’s Best Employers for New Grads list and the third-highest ranked educational employer on the list, is committed to developing well-rounded employees who are active members of the university community as well as the community at-large. From comprehensive insurance plans to tuition assistance, Virginia Tech offers employees a variety of benefits and perks.
We are always looking for additional talent to support our programs as faculty, researchers, program managers, and administrative professionals. Opportunities exist both at the main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, and at the Virginia Tech Research Center in Arlington, Virginia. We primarily seek US citizens and permanent residents to support our defense-funded research projects.
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Redirect ItemResearch Engineer, SDD , redirect
Motivated Research Engineer applicants are sought to begin their careers in a junior research position, supporting rapid growth in our Spectrum Dominance Division (SDD), which leads ideation and research execution for: • Secure digital communication • Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) • Digital Signal Processing • Radio Frequency Machine Learning (RFML) • Electromagnetic materials • 5G / 6G communications • Electronic Warfare / Radar • Quantum algorithm development. Duties include working as part of team-based research efforts, supporting the development of research proposals, developing skills to assist in the presentation of research results to sponsors and academic communities, support documentation for intellectual properties developed on research efforts, and supporting external engagement with customers during program execution.
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Redirect ItemTenured or Tenure-Track Open Rank Faculty, Quantum Systems , redirect
Virginia Tech invites applicants for multiple tenured or tenure-track faculty positions at any rank (assistant professor, associate professor and professor) in Quantum Systems. These positions will be anchored at the Virginia Tech National Security Institute in either Arlington or Blacksburg. The successful candidates will have expertise in technologies associated with quantum sensors and devices for future real-world solutions in application areas such as positioning, navigation and timing, magnetometry, electrometry, mass spectrometry, chemical sensing, optomechanics, and gravitometry. Responsibilities will include: establishing a vigorous and well-funded research program; continuing development of scholarly activities and professional capabilities; and active participation in institute, department, college, and university governance.
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Redirect ItemResearch Computer Engineer , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is seeking a highly qualified professional to consult and assist research faculty with complex, research computing problems. The Research Computing Engineer is responsible for supporting the planning, implementation, availability, performance, security, maintenance, and repair of high-performance research computing infrastructure. This includes high performance computing systems, enterprise storage systems, high speed interconnect technologies and networking. This position will also provide tier II and III backup administrative IT (Information Technology) support for the Institute as needed.
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Redirect ItemDirector, Mission Systems Division , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute seeks a Director for its Mission Systems Division in Blacksburg, Virginia. Responsibilities will include providing technical leadership of the division's major programs which includes serving as principal investigator, delivering work products to sponsors and contributing to scholarly publications, and managing a team of students and research faculty and staff. The director will also be responsible for supporting division-wide program development efforts through sponsor engagement, proposal authorship, and industry engagement. The director will also serve as the line manager for the team of researchers and be responsible for supporting mentorship and career development, transaction oversight, division operating budget management, and labor programming across the division.
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Redirect ItemResearch Assistant Professor, Research Associate Professor, Research Professor , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is looking for applicants for this pooled position in Blacksburg, Virginia. This position serves as a research staff member of the Hume Center, within one of its three research laboratories: Mission Systems Division, Information Systems Division, or Spectrum Dominance Division. Specific responsibilities include the following: (1) support the execution of university sponsored programs by conducting research and development; (2) author technical documents and publish peer-reviewed academic papers; (3) support the development of new funded research programs by participating on proposal teams and supporting the business development activities of VTNSI; (4) mentor students engaged in experiential learning programs; (5) advise graduate students pursuing advanced degrees; and (6) occasionally teach courses.
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Redirect ItemResearch Engineer, ISD , redirect
The Intelligent Systems Division is looking for motivated Research Engineer applicants in Arlington, Virginia. The successful candidate will be supporting research projects through the utilization of Linux, Git, algorithm design and analysis, data structures, programming languages (Python, C/C++, Java, Matlab), graphs, machine learning, networks, operating systems, databases, cryptography, access control and authentication, software testing, software or systems security, reverse engineering, malware analysis, and/or penetration testing. Additional responsibilities will include working as part of team-based research efforts, supporting the development of research proposals, and developing skills to assist in the documentation and presentation of research results to sponsors and academic communities.
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Redirect ItemResearch Data Analyst , redirect
Motivated Research Data Analyst applicants are sought by the VTNSI’s Intelligent Systems Division in Arlington, Virginia. Responsibilities will include supporting research projects through the utilization of Linux, Git, algorithm design and analysis, data structures, programming languages (Python, C/C++, Java, Matlab), graphs, machine learning, networks, operating systems, databases, cryptography, access control and authentication, software testing, software or systems security, reverse engineering, malware analysis, and/or penetration testing. The successful applicant will also work as part of team-based research efforts, support the development of research proposals, and develop skills to assist in the documentation and presentation of research results to sponsors and academic communities.
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Redirect ItemProject Manager , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is seeking a Project Manager to join the Program Management Team at either the Blacksburg, VA campus or the Arlington, VA offices. The successful candidate will have responsibility for the day to day programmatic administrative, budgetary, compliance and contractual aspects of sponsored research programs in support of principal investigators who are responsible for both the development and execution of research programs. Additional responsibilities include overseeing singular or multiple projects from simple to intermediate complexity with multiple year engagements.
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Redirect ItemResearch Faculty Open Rank, SDD , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is seeking multiple motivated applicants to join as Research Faculty to support our Spectrum Dominance Division (SDD). The winning candidates can expect highly competitive salary and benefits in a university setting. This pooled position is focused on individuals with expertise in any of three key technology areas to support a growing portfolio of programs: (1) Digital communications, signal processing, software-defined radio, and machine learning techniques applied to temporal data, such as RF I/Q streams, audio, or video (2) Quantum information science and engineering, with emphasis on quantum algorithm development using current and/or near-term quantum computers (3) Computational electromagnetics, with emphasis on electromagnetic materials, interactions between EM behaviors/propagation, and manufacturing / testing of EM materials.
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Redirect ItemIT Systems Administrator , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute (VTNSI) seeks a highly skilled IT professional to join our team as an IT Systems Administrator to support multiple research testbeds and infrastructures. This position will be responsible for administering user access, applying security best practices, and supporting the development of new IT resources. The successful candidate will be responsible for deploying and maintaining physical and virtual servers, administering Linux and Microsoft Windows systems, and installing and maintaining an environment software stack, used to support AI/ML, cybersecurity, information domain, and other interdisciplinary research across multiple testbed instances.
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Redirect ItemSoftware Engineer, Spectrum Dominance , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute’s (VTNSI) Spectrum Dominance Division (SDD) is looking for entry-level/junior-level software engineers to join our team at the forefront of research and development in wireless spectrum solutions. We are looking for applicants with expertise in software development and an interest in working on team-based development projects. An interest in development towards radio frequency applications is required while prior knowledge in the area is not. This position will work in support of the division's research efforts. The career path for this position could lead into a research oriented or technical oriented position and still support the research function. General activities of this position will consist of: (1) Software development tasks across 2-3 programs primarily in the area of wireless spectrum communications (2) Learn about the underlying technical concepts of assigned programs (through both independent learning as well as through program mentors) (3) Participation in weekly program meetings and periodic sponsor meetings (requiring oral and/or written updates) (4) Thorough test, evaluation, and documentation of developed software (5) Opportunities (As desired) to participate in research paper writing and business development proposal writing.
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Redirect ItemSoftware Engineer, Intelligent Systems , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute’s (VTNSI) Intelligent Systems Division (ISD) is seeking applicants with expertise in software development and an interest in working on team-based development projects. An interest in the development of AI-based systems is required while prior knowledge in the area is not. This position will work in support of the division's research efforts. The career path for this position could lead into a research oriented or technical oriented position and still support the research function. General activities of this position will consist of (1) Software development tasks across 2-3 programs primarily in the area of artificial intelligence (2) Learn about the underlying technical concepts of assigned programs (through both independent learning as well as through program mentors) (3) Participation in weekly program meetings and periodic sponsor meetings (requiring oral and/or written updates) (4)Thorough test, evaluation, and documentation of developed software (5) Opportunities (As desired) to participate in research paper writing and business development proposal writing.