Senior Research Physiologist - Environmental Physiology and Data Science

Culmen International; Natick (MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Exceptional Medical/Dental/Vision

401k with 4% match

Life insurance

Disability coverage

Training and Continuing Education

Paid holidays

Job summary

Culmen International is seeking a Senior Research Physiologist - Environmental Physiology and Data Science to turn research questions into executable protocols and lead analyses of multimodal datasets for government missions.

The role blends environmental physiology, wearable sensors, metabolic testing, and statistical programming to produce reproducible insights and scientifically meaningful findings for field deployments.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology.
• Expertise in physiological responses to heat, cold, and high terrestrial altitude.
• Proficiency in R, SPSS, and/or MATLAB; ability to work with other languages.
• Experience designing or executing human-subjects field studies and collecting physiological data in environmental extremes.
• Experience with wearable sensors, large time-series datasets, data synchronization, data cleaning, and reproducible analysis.
• Experience with exercise/metabolic measurement and blood-gas analysis.

Responsibilities

• Assist principal investigators with protocol design, study methods, data-analysis plans, regulatory documentation, and responses to scientific or human-use review comments.
• Plan and support field studies in heat, cold, altitude, subterranean, and other operational environments, including site readiness, team assignments, equipment, communications, safety, and data-management procedures.
• Identify, configure, calibrate, and operate wearable physiological sensors and coordinate real-time collection and streaming of large datasets.
• Conduct or support maximal and submaximal exercise testing, metabolic measurements, resting ventilation, pulmonary-function testing, and sterile collection procedures for genomic testing.
• Operate clinical blood-gas analyzers such as NOVA Profile Plus, Radiometer, i-STAT, or comparable systems.
• Develop and maintain reproducible R, SAS, SPSS, or MATLAB programs for data curation, time alignment, cleaning, outlier assessment, analysis, and iterative dataset updates.
• Manage datasets containing millions of observations per participant while preserving raw data, device metadata, data rights, version history, and secure transfer requirements.
• Interpret results using environmental-physiology expertise and literature review, distinguish physiological signal from sensor artifact, and support development or validation of predictive models.
• Prepare written data analyses, journal-ready tables and figures, technical reports, manuscripts, posters, presentations, and briefings for scientific and operational audiences.
• Coordinate and lead multidisciplinary investigator teams during military field studies and mentor staff in approved collection and analytic procedures.

Skills

Wearable sensors

Statistical programming

Environmental physiology

Data management

Communication

Education

Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology

Tools

R

SPSS

MATLAB

Job description

About the Role

Culmen International is seeking a Senior Research Physiologist - Environmental Physiology and Data Science.

You will help Government investigators turn research questions into executable protocols and then lead the technical work needed to produce reliable findings from complex, multimodal datasets. The role requires depth in environmental physiology, wearable sensors, metabolic and exercise testing, clinical analyzers, statistical programming, and scientific communication. You must be equally comfortable preparing for field deployment, troubleshooting live data streams, writing reproducible code, and explaining whether observed responses are physiologically meaningful.

What You'll Do in Your New Role

• Assist principal investigators with protocol design, study methods, data-analysis plans, regulatory documentation, and responses to scientific or human-use review comments.
• Plan and support field studies in heat, cold, altitude, subterranean, and other operational environments, including site readiness, team assignments, equipment, communications, safety, and data-management procedures.
• Identify, configure, calibrate, and operate wearable physiological sensors and coordinate real-time collection and streaming of large datasets.
• Conduct or support maximal and submaximal exercise testing, metabolic measurements, resting ventilation, pulmonary-function testing, and sterile collection procedures for genomic testing.
• Operate clinical blood-gas analyzers such as NOVA Profile Plus, Radiometer, i-STAT, or comparable systems.
• Develop and maintain reproducible R, SAS, SPSS, or MATLAB programs for data curation, time alignment, cleaning, outlier assessment, analysis, and iterative dataset updates.
• Manage datasets containing millions of observations per participant while preserving raw data, device metadata, data rights, version history, and secure transfer requirements.
• Interpret results using environmental-physiology expertise and literature review, distinguish physiological signal from sensor artifact, and support development or validation of predictive models.
• Prepare written data analyses, journal-ready tables and figures, technical reports, manuscripts, posters, presentations, and briefings for scientific and operational audiences.
• Coordinate and lead multidisciplinary investigator teams during military field studies and mentor staff in approved collection and analytic procedures.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Environmental Physiology.
• Demonstrated expertise in physiological responses to heat, cold, and high terrestrial altitude.
• Proficiency in R, SPSS, and/or MATLAB; strong capability in at least one language and working ability to support studies using the others.
• Experience designing or executing human-subjects field studies and collecting physiological data in environmental extremes.
• Experience with wearable sensors, large time-series datasets, data synchronization, data cleaning, and reproducible analysis.
• Experience with exercise/metabolic measurement and phlebotomy or clinical laboratory procedures, including blood-gas analysis.
• Strong record of scientific writing, data interpretation, and oral presentation.
• Ability to lead teams at military installations, travel within CONUS, and support nonstandard hours dictated by field protocols.
• Ability to obtain and maintain required suitability, CAC, facility access, and Government system access.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience supporting Department of War, Army, Warfighter health, heat-acclimatization, illness-prediction, or operational human-performance research.
• Experience developing or validating predictive algorithms using real-time physiological data.
• Experience with SAS, cloud-restricted or Government data environments, genomic collection, and multi-device data pipelines.
• Peer-reviewed publication record in environmental physiology, thermoregulation, altitude, exercise physiology, or military human performance.

About the Company

Culmen International is committed to enhancing international safety and security, strengthening homeland defense, advancing humanitarian missions, and optimizing government operations. With experience in over 150 countries, Culmen supports our clients to accomplish critical missions in challenging environments.

• Exceptional Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance, premiums for employees are 100% paid by Culmen, and dependent coverage is available at a nominal rate (including same or opposite sex domestic partners)

• 401k - Vested immediately and 4% match
• Life insurance and disability paid by the company
• Supplemental Insurance Available
• Opportunities for Training and Continuing Education
• 12 Paid Holidays

To learn more about Culmen International, please visit www.culmen.com

At Culmen International, we are committed to creating and sustaining a workplace that upholds the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO). We believe in the importance of fair treatment and equal access to opportunities for all employees and applicants. Our commitment to these principles is unwavering across all our operations worldwide.