Senior Research Scientist - Network Systems

Peraton; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton Labs seeks a senior researcher to advance RF communications, signal processing, and machine learning capabilities for government and commercial customers.

You will lead design, implementation, and deployment of ML models on radar, spectrum sensing, and related domains, collaborating with multidisciplinary teams in a national-security focused environment.

Qualifications

• BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering, CS, or related field with 12+ years of experience.
• 10+ years with MS/MA; 7+ years with Ph.D.; cross-domain RF and ML record.
• US Citizenship required; DoD/IC program background preferred.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to RF/signal processing and ML research programs.
• Develop end-to-end ML pipelines and deploy models in production.
• Collaborate across RF, cybersecurity, and data analytics teams.
• Translate algorithms into practical implementations and reports.

Skills

RF communications theory

DSP filtering

Compressive sensing

ML algorithms design

ML pipelines

PyTorch/TF/Keras

Model serving

Python

C/C++

MATLAB

Git

Linux

Scripting

Education

BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or related

MS/MA with 10+ years experience

Ph.D. with 7+ years experience

US Citizenship

Tools

Python

C/C++

MATLAB

Git

Linux

Docker

ML frameworks

Job description

Peraton Overview

Peraton is a next‑generation national security company that drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted, highly differentiated solutions and technologies to protect our nation and allies. Peraton operates at the critical nexus between traditional and nontraditional threats across all domains: land, sea, space, air, and cyberspace. The company serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies and supports every branch of the U.S. armed forces. Each day, our employees do the can’t be done by solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers. Visit peraton.com to learn how we’re keeping people around the world safe and secure.

Responsibilities

Peraton Labs delivers innovative solutions and revolutionary new capabilities to solve the most difficult and complex challenges for government agencies, utilities, and commercial customers. With a distinguished heritage tracing back to Bell Labs, Bellcore, and Telcordia, our experts pave the way. Peraton Labs’ cybersecurity and network research protects mission-critical systems and national cyber infrastructure and efficiently utilizes spectrum and system resources by employing technologies in the areas of computer network defense, secure-by-design, AI/ML and deterministic and stochastic optimization.

Our projects span several areas of interest. Our core competencies include (but are not limited to):

• Networking and wireless research including 5G and non-terrestrial networks
• Cyber Security including formal methods, side channel analysis, high‑fidelity emulation of cyber physical systems (CPS)
• Resilient networking in support of cyber mission goals
• Software‑defined networking for cyber defense and deception
• Artificial intelligence (reasoning, probabilistic inference, machine learning)

Qualifications

RF Communications & Signal Processing

• Strong foundation in RF communications theory, including modulation/demodulation, propagation, link budgets, and spectrum analysis
• Hands‑on experience with digital signal processing (DSP) - filtering, FFT/spectral analysis, detection, estimation, and adaptive algorithms
• Demonstrated expertise in compressive sensing, including sparse signal recovery, L1/L2 optimization, sensing matrix design, and sub‑Nyquist sampling techniques

Machine Learning & Data Applications

• Proficiency designing and implementing ML algorithms (supervised, unsupervised, deep learning, reinforcement learning) with emphasis on signal/time‑series data
• Experience building end‑to‑end ML pipelines - data ingestion, preprocessing, feature engineering, training, validation, deployment, and monitoring
• Knowledge of ML architectures including CNNs, RNNs/LSTMs, transformers, autoencoders, and GANs, with applied experience selecting the right model for RF/signal and data analytic problems
• Strong data analytics skills: exploratory analysis, statistical modeling, visualization, and deriving actionable insight from large/complex datasets
• Hands‑on with frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow/Keras, scikit‑learn, and data tooling (NumPy, pandas, Spark)
• Experience with MLOps practices - version control, containerization (Docker), CI/CD, experiment tracking (MLflow, W&B), and model serving

Programming & Tools

• Strong programming skills in Python and C/C++; MATLAB a plus
• Version control (Git), Linux development environment, and scripting proficiency

Education & Experience & Citizenship

• BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or related discipline and a minimum of 12 years of experience; Minimum of 10 years with MS/MA; Minimum of 7 years with Ph.D.
• Demonstrated project or publication record spanning both RF/signal processing and machine learning domains
• US Citizenship

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Experience applying ML to RF problems: signal classification, spectrum sensing, RFI mitigation, cognitive radio, direction finding, or emitter identification
• Background in DoD / IC programs, EW, SIGINT, or radar systems
• Active security clearance (or ability to get one)

Soft Skills

• Clear technical communication - able to translate algorithms to implementation and results to stakeholders, and write technical papers and reports
• Self‑directed, with experience taking prototypes from concept through demonstration

Target Salary Range

$146,000 - $234,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position. Salary is determined by various factors, including but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the individual’s experience, education, knowledge, skills, and competencies, as well as geographic location and business and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

Benefits Statement

Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays. A full listing of available benefits can be viewed at https://www.careers.peraton.com/benefits.

EEO

EEO: Equal opportunity employer, including disability and protected veterans, or other characteristics protected by law.

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