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 ItemResearch Faculty Open Rank SDD , redirect
This pooled position may be based in Blacksburg or Arlington, Virginia and is part of the Hume Center’s Spectrum Dominance Division (SDD). The 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 Responsibilities include: (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 in proposal teams and supporting the business development activities of the Hume Center; and (4) provide mentorship to students and junior researchers working on programs.
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Redirect ItemFiscal Technician , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is seeking applicants for a Fiscal Technician. The successful candidate will be responsible for purchasing, payroll, fund reconciliation, assisting with budget allocations and forecasting and monitoring of Center-related finance and operational activities. Day-to-day activities include monthly fund reconciling, preparing and executing travel and expense reimbursement requests, executing purchases by entering and receiving in Hokiemart, monitoring and updating faculty and student labor distributions among research projects, executing human resources transactions such as student assistantship contracts and Banner entry, wage payroll setup and timesheet entry, updating and maintaining program information in VTNSI databases and providing overall fiscal support to the leadership team. Assist in coordinated efforts for facilities resilience and operation. Receive packages and distribute mail to appropriate individuals.
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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 ItemDivision Operations Coordinator, MSD , redirect
The Mission Systems Division is seeking a Divisions Operations Coordinator in Blacksburg, Virginia. Responsibilities will include supporting division leadership, faculty, and program managers in the execution of sponsored research programs and division strategic initiatives. The Division Operations Coordinator will also support strategic planning, growth initiatives, day-to-day operations, and provide administrative support to their assigned research division. The Division Operations Coordinator serves as the lead for managing, coordinating, and implementing division wide initiatives related to strategy, marketing, coverage of faculty on sponsored programs, hiring, student engagement, and overall division operations.
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Redirect ItemIT Support Technician , redirect
The Virginia Tech National Security Institute is seeking applicants for an IT Support Technician in Blacksburg, Virginia to provide operations support to the quickly growing Institute. The successful candidate will be a detail oriented individual, have strong problem-solving skills, and be able to execute a diverse set of tasks with limited direction. Additionally, this person will have strong interpersonal skills to communicate with other personnel in the Institute.
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Redirect ItemResearch Asst Professor, Research Assoc Professor or Research Professor in Cyber , redirect
This is a research faculty position that may be based in Blacksburg or Arlington, Virginia and is part of NSI’s Intelligent Systems Division (ISD). ISD brings together researchers from computer science, statistics, machine learning, systems engineering and other fields to develop interdisciplinary solutions to cutting-edge technological challenges. Successful candidates for this position will have relevant experience in one or more of the following areas: cybersecurity; cyber operations; hardware/software reverse engineering; provably secure computing; and/or security for embedded/industrial/control systems and networks are sought. Successful applicants will have a mixture of theoretical foundations in areas such as the theory of computing, formal methods, or cryptography; paired with hands-on experience working with real-world security issues. Specific responsibilities include the following: (1) Support research conducted in ISD in projects focused on cybersecurity, cyber operations, and the intersection of those two areas with other ISD research interests - including but not limited to data science, machine learning, and systems engineering (2) Author technical documents and publish peer-reviewed academic papers (3) Support the development of new funded research programs by participating in proposal teams and supporting the business development activities of VT NSI (4) Mentor students engaged in experiential learning programs (5) Advices graduates students pursuing advanced degrees (6) Occasionally teach courses
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Redirect Item(Senior) Research Associate , redirect
This is a research and development position based in Blacksburg, Virginia and is part of the VTNSI’s Mission Systems Division (MSD). Appointments available at either the Research Associate or Senior Research Associate levels. Successful candidates for this position will have relevant experience in one or more of the following areas: RF systems and payloads, avionics, small satellites, hypersonics, autonomy, multiagent systems, machine learning/AI, multi-physics modeling and simulation, model-based systems engineering, and/or cyber physical security. Specific responsibilities include: (1) support research conducted in MSD through platform, payload, and algorithm development, prototype or production solutions, and the development of new modeling and simulation tools; (2) establish and support development of laboratory and field environments for test and evaluation of research products; (3) contribute to technical documents/presentations, proposals, and peer-reviewed academic papers; (4) provide mentorship to students working on programs.