Adjunct - Applied Researcher, Defense-Logistics and Readiness Modeling

The Department of War spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on operating and maintaining its weapon systems across all warfare domains, and yet these weapon systems often struggle to meet their readiness targets.

The Sustainment Group in IDA's Science, Systems, and Sustainment Division (S3D) is at the forefront of providing cutting-edge analyses to address this challenge. We work with large amounts of maintenance and contract data logged by military personnel, employ statistical and machine learning techniques to estimate underlying patterns, and build data-driven models to support the Department of War optimize uptime for existing equipment in the interest of national defense.

We are seeking an adjunct research staff member to contribute to our current projects within S3D.

What does research look like in this position?

• Formulate research questions out of unstructured problems and messy data.
• Use mathematical modeling and data science methods (statistical analysis, visualization, data wrangling, machine learning, etc.) to turn data into key insights about how the government can better manage its resources.
• Explore raw data from DOW databases and contribute to our data processing pipeline, which gives us an end-to-end picture of the DOW sustainment system.
• Conduct independent research on complex topics while collaborating closely with the larger research group to develop new methods and tools.
• Present findings to mid- and senior-level Defense officials (i.e., presidential appointees, generals, admirals, etc.) through oral presentations and written reports.

What qualifications and skill-sets do you need?

• PhD in a STEM field (such as Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Statistics, Biology, Computer Science) or Operations Research, Data Science, or any other data-intensive research field with 10 + years of experience in a national security related field.
• Must have experience using computer programming for data processing and analysis with a language such as R, Python, or MATLAB.
• Must be able to clearly explain technical topics to non-technical audiences.
• Military service and experience with sustainment, logistics, and readiness is required.
• Successful completion of a background check is required.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a security clearance with IDA sponsorship
• Occasional travel is expected.

We support transparency, equity, and fairness in our compensation program and provide a reasonable estimate of the salary range based on data-driven market analysis for each position. While it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range, a reasonable estimate of the salary range for this role is $113,353 - $277,494 Individual salary within this range will be commensurate with the incumbent's experience, unique skills and qualifications, and other relevant factors.