Postdoctoral Fellow — AI for Autonomous Vehicle Evaluation

The Chronicle Of Higher Education, Inc.; Gaithersburg (MD); On-site; USD 77,000 - 94,000; Full time

Job summary

Johns Hopkins University is seeking a PREP Research Associate to support independent evaluation of AI decision-making in automated vehicles through the NIST PREP collaboration.

The role focuses on simulation engineering (CARLA-based testing, OpenSCENARIO, multi-agent behaviors) and software integration (toolkit, Evaluation Gateway API, data logging schemas, Docker deployment, and reporting templates).

Qualifications

• MS required (PhD preferred) in Computer Science, Robotics, AI/Machine Learning, or related engineering fields.
• Strong programming experience in Python and C++.
• Experience with autonomous vehicle simulation environments (CARLA, SUMO, or similar) and scenario description languages (OpenSCENARIO).
• Experience building software toolkits, APIs, and standardized interfaces; familiarity with containerized deployment (Docker).
• Knowledge of autonomous vehicle systems architecture and behavioral planning concepts.
• Experience with ROS 2 on Linux systems.
• Experience with version control software and workflow (Git/GitHub/GitLab).
• Familiarity with data modeling, schema design, and validation methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Simulation Engineering: manage CARLA simulation infrastructure and scenario execution pipeline.
• Configure multi-agent traffic behavior for large-scale evaluation runs.
• Integrate hardware-in-the-loop testing and optimize performance.
• Support integration of open-source autonomous driving stacks (e.g., Autoware).
• Software Integration: develop the open-source evaluation toolkit and design the Evaluation Gateway API.
• Implement standardized behavioral data logging schema for interoperable evaluation.
• Build containerized deployment pipeline (Docker) and cryptographic hashing schema for black-box exposure.
• Produce automated reporting templates and technical documentation.

Skills

Python

C++

CARLA

OpenSCENARIO

ROS 2

Docker

Git

APIs

Open-source tooling

Education

MS preferred (PhD ok) in CS/Robotics/AI

Tools

OpenSCENARIO

CARLA

Docker

Job description

Johns Hopkins University is seeking a PREP Research Associate to support independent evaluation of AI decision-making in automated vehicles through the NIST PREP collaboration.

The role focuses on simulation engineering (CARLA-based testing, OpenSCENARIO, multi-agent behaviors) and software integration (toolkit, Evaluation Gateway API, data logging schemas, Docker deployment, and reporting templates).