Senior Behavioral Scientist

Leidos; United States; Remote; USD 126,000 - 228,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company seeks a Senior Research Scientist to spearhead innovative behavioral influence solutions within its Information and Data Sciences Division. The ideal candidate will lead research initiatives in AI/ML, manage project execution and oversee junior team members, contributing to groundbreaking cybersecurity and communications projects. Strong qualifications in psychological R&D, technical writing, and collaboration within a team-oriented environment are essential for this role.

Qualifications

• 10+ years' experience in designing and conducting human-focused experiments.
• 5+ years' experience in psychological R&D and statistical analysis.
• Ability to communicate technical solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead complex influence operation data and software development projects.
• Oversee junior staff and ensure the reliability of technical outcomes.
• Collaborate across the company to solve technical challenges.

Skills

Technical writing

Analytical skills

Problem-solving

Communication

Critical thinking

Education

Ph.D. in social sciences

Job description

Leidos currently has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Research Scientist to lead the development of Behavioral Influence solutions for the Information and Data Sciences Division of the Leidos Innovations Center. This position will support multiple programs and projects as well as being responsible for tasking junior staff to support work environments. Additionally, this candidate should be able to serve as a principal investigator on one or more contracts R&E projects, learning the execution of the technical work and overseeing the programmatic aspects of the project. Our projects focus on AI/ML, Resilient Systems, Quantum communications, and Cybersecurity solutions.

Primary Responsibilities

• Formulate, suggest, and manage complex influence operation data and software driven development projects using modern software architectures.
• Work with software engineers and data scientists to develop and utilize data pipelines to develop algorithms and/or ML models applicable to the stated influence operations domains
• Provide oversight of junior staff developmental efforts, including informing system designs and advanced processing and algorithmic approaches to ensure applicability and generalizability, reviewing technical outcomes to ensure reliability and robustness for operational use-cases.
• Produce and communicate reports that summarize technical results to a non-technical audience
• Stay up to date with current state-of-the-art developments for candidate’s domain of specialization and emerging developments in adjacent areas and strategizing about employment of new approaches to current / future R&D projects.
• Work collaboratively across the company, to gather and utilize novel approaches to solve technical challenges.
• Design solutions for competitively sourced proposals in information operations and cyber-social dynamics domains.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. in the social sciences with 10+ years of direct experience developing designing, prototyping, testing, and shaping human-focused experiments and operations.
• 5+ years experience in psychological R&D and statistical analysis.
• Practical experience in influence operations and managing research solutions in the areas of interest
• Can act as SME for program engagements or proposal support
• Strong technical writing and communication skills
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills and ability to work independently on complex tasks and lead technical efforts.
• Ability to effectively communicate technical solutions to coworkers, teammates, and customers.
• Must U.S Citizen and be able to obtain a TS/SCI clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the cyber domain
• Ability to relay technical insights to non-technical audiences, both in verbal and written formats
• Desire to work in a collaborative team environment utilizing agile methodologies
• Demonstrable history of working on Government R&D projects that requires flexible/adaptive and rapid response to government requests
• Experience with DoD and IC agencies including DARPA/IARPA
• Basic knowledge and experience with AI/ML and data science
• Have familiarity with analysis of time-series data
• IRB experience
• Active TS/SCI Clearance

Original Posting: June 27, 2025

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range: Pay Range $126,100.00 - $227,950.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.