Scientist - Physiological Sensing

Charles River Analytics creates solutions and technology to tackle the world’s most challenging problems. Our team of technological entrepreneurs works together to push at the forefront of enhanced AI, robotics, smart sensing, and human-centered computing. The resulting research and development help to continuously advance government programs and discover new possibilities in the commercial marketplace. We are a 100% employee-owned company, encouraging participation, innovation, and responsibility from our entire staff. At Charles River, we take great pride in our success in attracting and retaining the most talented and creative problem-solvers in our field. 

Are you interested in tackling challenging, real-world problems using the latest techniques in human state assessment and machine learning? Are you considering the next step in your career? Charles River Analytics is looking for bright, enthusiastic minds to join our next generation of talented individuals developing human state assessment solutions for our customers.

We are looking for a PhD-level Scientist to address challenging problems in domains related to human state assessment, performance optimization, physiological event detection, health and wellness, and medical diagnostics. Projects will range across multimodal physiological and neurophysiological sensor processing, human brain imaging, standoff health assessment, and integrating standard cognitive behavioral therapy approaches for drug dependence and mental health issues into virtual reality.

As a Scientist at Charles River, you will support evaluation of research ideas (both empirical and qualitative) and document your results in a form suitable for peer-reviewed publication. You will need to be able to quickly read and understand scientific papers in new domains, and apply previous research to create new designs, while remaining abreast of current design trends, scientific advances, and software development practices. This position is one that is best suited to an independent thinker with an entrepreneurial drive, as there will be significant opportunity to define your own areas of specialization through generation of novel proposals to develop awesome technical solutions as you grow into your role.

How you’ll help us grow:

• Work on various medical-focused projects, such as embedding cognitive behavioral therapy treatment approaches into virtual reality
• Develop feature extraction methodologies and implement them in code for real time data ingestion, processing, analysis (e.g., EEG, EKG, fNIRS)
• Pursue novel applications of technologies to address challenging real-world problems, including establishing new areas of research
• Contribute to proposals, reports and papers, and present work at briefings and conferences when appropriate
• Assist with management of programs including working with other scientists and engineers to set deadlines and keep projects on tight schedules
• Work with software engineers in developing technology solutions
• Interact with customers, users, and domain experts to analyze and understand challenges

What you’ll need:

• Experience in psychiatry, drug dependence, and/or mental health research or clinical practice.
• Experience solving challenging problems in domains related to human state assessment, performance optimization, physiological event detection, health and wellness, and/or medical diagnostics.
• PhD in Neuroscience/Computational Neuroscience/Cognitive Science/Psychology, Human Factors Engineering, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field
• Experience working for or collaborating with a DoD entity such as DARPA, AFRL, NRO, ARL or similar
• Demonstrated ability to lead innovative, self-directed research, manage relationships with customers and users, and identify and pursue emerging opportunities
• Ability to apply scientific theories to user needs and work well with a software engineering team to define the direction of technical solutions
• Experience developing applications or embedded systems that require input from hardware sensors
• Proficiency in Python
• Proficiency in at least one of the following data science software tools: pandas, tensorflow, scikit-learn, luigi, nipype, mne, statsmodels, pymc3
• Strong statistics background and familiarity with common data manipulation and statistics packages (e.g., statsmodel, lme4, glmnet, numpy, scipy, matplotlib, pandas)
• Familiarity with machine learning techniques and software (e.g., scikit learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras)
• Exposure to data science best practices including reproducibility tools (git, conda environments, docker, virtual machines), dashboard visualization (Tableau, R Shiny, D3), analysis narrative tools (jupyter, R Notebook), and graphing tools
• Ability to identify and articulate creative and technically-sound solutions to challenging scientific and operational human-machine system problems
• Proven ability to generate proposals, publications, or similar written materials
• Strong verbal and written skills to support proposal writing, interaction with customers, and presentations at technical conferences
• Ability to work onsite 3x per week (60% onsite / 40% remote) in Cambridge, MA
• U.S. Citizenship

Not required but we’d love to see:

• 3 or more years of relevant experience (e.g., industry, postdoctoral fellowship)
• A record of publications in any of the above fields
• Proficiency in one of the following software languages: C/C++, R, Matlab
• Experience with machine learning, specifically in time series domains
• Teaching experience in a related field (e.g., statistics, research methods)
• Human subjects research program design, implementation, and completion
• Experience directly interacting with customers and/or users, including knowledge elicitation experience

Candidates should have a demonstrated capability to work both independently and effectively within a team environment and will be expected to interact with and present to clients. Writing and design samples may be requested. The selected candidate may need to obtain a government security clearance, therefore U.S. citizenship is required.

Why Charles River?

Charles River Analytics is a 100% employee-owned company that thrives on collaboration and values each employee-owner. We offer competitive compensation plus bonuses, profit-sharing, and an attractive benefits package. Our benefits include 100% employer-paid medical and dental insurance as well as vision, life, and disability insurance; paid maternity/paternity leave; tuition reimbursement; monthly gym allowance; free parking; generous paid time off; and a casual environment. We are also accessible by public transportation. We offer a hybrid schedule (60% onsite / 40% remote) with flexibility. At Charles River, we truly value work-life balance.