Optical Research Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

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Job Description

The System Offices is one of several system members within the Texas A&M University System representing one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a network of 12 universities, a comprehensive health science center, eight state agencies, Texas A&M - Fort Worth and the Texas A&M - RELLIS Campus. The Texas A&M University System mission is to provide education, conduct research, commercialize technology, offer training, and deliver services for the people of Texas and beyond.

The System Offices, within the Texas A&M University System, provides an outstanding benefits package including, but not limited to: competitive health benefits; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; a defined benefit retirement plan to include an employer contribution through Teachers Retirement System of Texas (TRS); if applicable, a defined contribution retirement plan to include an employer contribution through an approved ORP vendor: additional voluntary tax deferred annuity (TDA) options; tuition assistance; and wellness programs to promote work/life balance.

Salary:

$4,617.67 - $7,916.67 per month commensurate with experience.

Job Description Summary:

The Research Engineer II - Visualization Analytics Engineer independently applies scientific, software engineering, and data analytics expertise to develop advanced visualization, analytics, and decision-support capabilities supporting the George H.W. Bush Combat Development Complex (BCDC). Reporting to the Networks, Analytics & Data Operations (NADO) Unit Lead, this position transforms complex research, test, and operational data into intuitive visual products that accelerate analysis and improve decision-making for researchers, test directors, and external sponsors.

The Visual Analytics Engineer collaborates with multidisciplinary teams across the BCDC, Innovation Proving Grounds (IPG), Ballistics, Aero-Optics & Materials (BAM), Texas A&M System organizations, government agencies, industry partners, and universities to design, develop, and deploy modern visualization and analytics solutions supporting experimentation, digital engineering, autonomy, AI/ML, and advanced test and evaluation.

Responsibilities:

- Design and develop interactive data visualization applications supporting research, experimentation, and operational test events.

- Transform complex engineering, scientific, sensor, and telemetry datasets into intuitive visual products for technical and executive audiences.

- Develop dashboards and analytical applications using modern visualization frameworks including Plotly Dash, Tableau, Power BI, D3.js, Grafana, or equivalent technologies.

- Design visual interfaces supporting real-time monitoring of research experiments, instrumentation systems, autonomous platforms, and range operations.

- Collaborate with research engineers to understand scientific objectives and translate analytical requirements into visualization solutions.

- Develop automated data pipelines supporting ingestion, cleaning, transformation, and visualization of structured and unstructured data.

- Support visualization of machine learning outputs including model performance, feature importance, confidence metrics, clustering, classification, and anomaly detection.

- Integrate visualization capabilities into software applications, APIs, databases, cloud platforms, and edge computing environments.

- Develop web-based tools enabling researchers to explore, filter, compare, and analyze experimental data.

- Create geospatial visualization products supporting test range operations, mobile platforms, and distributed sensing.

- Participate in verification and validation activities to ensure data integrity and visualization accuracy.

- Support post-test analysis by developing reports, interactive replay tools, and analytical products.

- Document visualization architectures, workflows, software, and technical procedures.

- Mentor student researchers, interns, and junior engineers.

- Support field testing and experimentation activities as required.

- Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related STEM discipline, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Two years of progressively responsible experience in data visualization, scientific computing, software engineering, analytics, or related research.

Registration, Certifications, and Licenses:

- Must be able to gain and maintain a DoD (Department of Defense) security clearance.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

- Experience developing software using Python.

- Experience in querying relational databases using SQL.

- Creation of technical visualizations or analytical dashboards (such as with Plotly Dash, Tableau, Power BI, D3.js, Grafana or similar tools.

- Strong Communication skills, including the ability to translate technical results from non-technical audiences.

- Ability to produce publication-quality graphics, present finding and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams.

- Ability to support field operations in varying environmental conductions.

- Willing and able to travel occasionally.

- Ability to multi-task and work cooperatively with others.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Proficiency with Git version control and REST APIs.
- Experience working in Linux and Windows development environments.
- Understanding of data engineering concepts, including data transformation pipelines, structured and semi-structured data (CSV, JSON, XML), and database design fundamentals.
- Experience with Pandas and NumPy.
- Understanding of object-oriented programming, software development lifecycle, testing and debugging, documentation, and Agile development practices.
- Knowledge of statistical analysis, machine learning fundamentals, model evaluation, data exploration, pattern recognition, and time-series analysis.
- Experience with AI/ML visualization (e.g., model performance, feature importance, clustering, anomaly detection).
- Experience with computer vision.
- Experience with geospatial information systems (GIS) and geospatial visualization.

- Experience with ROS/ROS2.
- Experience with RabbitMQ, Kafka, MQTT, DDS, or similar messaging/streaming technologies.
- Experience with digital engineering or digital twins.
- Experience with scientific visualization tools and methods.
- Experience with NVIDIA CUDA or GPU computing.
- Experience with Docker or Kubernetes containerization and orchestration.
- Experience developing web applications using JavaScript or TypeScript and applying UX/UI design principles.
- Experience with network visualization and sensor fusion.
- Experience with real-time streaming analytics and time-series databases.
- Experience visualizing telemetry from autonomous platforms and sensors.
- Experience supporting live experimental/test events or operational test and evaluation environments.
- Experience working with large-scale scientific datasets.
- Experience producing research publications, technical reports, or documentation.
- Experience integrating visualization solutions with cloud or edge analytics.
- Experience with data acquisition systems.
- Experience in defense research or test environments.
- Experience mentoring students, interns, or junior engineers.

Other Requirements:

This is a security-sensitive position and is restricted to U.S. citizens only. Only complete applications will be considered for employment at The Texas A&M System Offices. Incomplete job application data could result in your application being rejected without an option to reapply. A cover letter and resume may be required in addition to a completed employment application.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution's verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution's procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Veterans/Disability Employer.