Geospatial AI Research Scientist

Arena Technical Resources, LLC (ATR); Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 130,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Arena Technical Resources, LLC (ATR) seeks a Geospatial AI Research Scientist in Bethesda, MD to advance AI-driven geospatial capabilities for national security applications. The role involves supporting government program managers across the lifecycle, coordinating across government, academia, and industry, and delivering technical assessments and briefings.

The candidate should have extensive AI/ML experience, data architecture expertise, and a strong background in R&D for GEOINT production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields.
• 8+ years of work experience including AI/ML, data architectures, and GEOINT production.
• Experience with R&D of spatiotemporal data and ML algorithms.
• Systems engineering and integration in data-intensive environments.
• Experience creating program plans, WBS, and milestone schedules.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate across government, academic, and industry teams.
• Review technical deliverables, milestones, and evaluation results.
• Track risks, dependencies, and integration issues across performers.
• Prepare reports, technical summaries, and briefings for senior leadership.
• Serve as liaison between performers, T&E contributors, government and transition partners.
• Provide support for systems integration, data analytics, and architecture design.
• Stay current on advances in technologies relevant to the program managers.

Skills

AI/ML knowledge

NLP

Data architecture

GEOINT production

Systems engineering

Program management

Technical reporting

Education

Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, CS

Electrical/Computer/Systems engineering degree

Master's degree in related field

PhD in related field

Tools

PowerPoint

Modeling & simulation

GEOINT tools

Job description

Job Title: Geospatial AI Research Scientist

Job Location: Bethesda, MD

Compensation: $130,000 - $200,000

Eligibility/Clearance: Candidate must possess an active TS/SCI with a CI
Polygraph clearance

Job Description:

We are seeking a Scientific, Engineering, and Technical Assistance
(SETA) Support Specialist to join our team in support of a government
research organization dedicated to investing in high-risk, high-payoff
research programs to tackle some of the most difficult challenges of
national security.

The successful candidate will support the government program managers in
the execution of the lifecycle of various research programs to include
development of source selection materials, execution assistance,
closeout, and transition. The SETA should be competent in Research and
Development (R&D) programmatic reviews and procedures. The candidate
will also be responsible for ensuring that project management best
practices are followed by the individual programs to include performers,
independent verification and validation (IV&V) entities, and within the
government research organization itself.

The research programs you would support focus on developing advanced
Geospatial AI for Intelligence capabilities and methods.

The successful candidate will have subject matter expertise in AI/ML for
computer vision, NLP, predictive analytics, LLMs and understanding of
data architecture and pipelines for large-scale analytics/GEOINT
production.

• Support the program managers in coordination, monitoring, communication, and integration of all technical aspects of the Program lifecycle that includes:
• Coordinate across government, academic, and industry research teams.
• Review and assess technical deliverables, milestones, and evaluation results.
• Track risks, dependencies, and integration issues across performers.
• Prepare reports, technical summaries, and briefings for senior leadership.
• Serve as a liaison between performers, Test & Evaluation contributors, government and transition partners;
• Provide support for program related requirements for systems integration, design, development, modeling and simulation, data analytics and architecture design;
• Stay current on advances in technologies relevant to the research programs and perform technical studies as requested on topics of interest to the program managers.
• Provide technical support and expertise on new concepts relevant to the program managers.
• Support the evaluation of Seedling concepts

Skills/Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software).
• EIGHT (8) or more years of work experience including, but not be limited to
• Knowledge of AI/ML (computer vision, NLP, predictive analytics, LLMs).
• Understanding of data architectures and pipelines for large-scale analytics/GEOINT production.
• Familiarity with AI governance, data quality, and mission assurance in operational settings
• Experience with R&D of spatiotemporal data, architectures, modeling and/or machine learning algorithms
• Systems engineering and integration experience in complex, data‑intensive environments.
• Experience creating program plans, work breakdown structures, and milestone schedules

Desired:

• Master’s degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software) with SIX (6) or more years of work experience
• PhD in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software) with FOUR (4) or more years of work experience
• Experience in the Intelligence Community (IC), including requirements, CONOPS, and transition
• Experience managing a multi-disciplinary R&D or T&E team
• Experience as a Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager
• Ability to proactively manage multiple, concurrent tasks
• Excellent writing and editing skills, including the ability to develop succinct, comprehensive, and understandable documents using complex data from multiple sources
• Excellent slide development and PowerPoint skills, with the ability to visually communicate complex ideas at a high level for technically savvy but non-expert audiences
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills; detail oriented

Education:

Bachelors Degree in Computer Science or a related field

ATR is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) who will provide equal employment opportunity to employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, color, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, veteran status, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, family structure, genetic information, or mental or physical disability