Based on the foundation of the Ted and Karyn Hume Center for National Security and Technology, Virginia Tech launched the Virginia Tech National Security Institute in September 2021. With a presence in Blacksburg and the Washington, D.C., metro area, the institute aspires to be the nation's preeminent academic organization at the nexus of interdisciplinary research, technology, policy, and talent development, the national security institute will advance national security in pursuit of a secure America.

Within the Institute, multiple motivated applicants are sought to join as Research Faculty to support rapid growth in our Spectrum Dominance Division (SDD). The winning candidates can expect highly competitive salary and benefits in a university setting. This pooled position is focused on individuals with expertise in any of three key technology areas to support a growing portfolio of programs:

(1) Digital communications, signal processing, software-defined radio, and machine learning techniques applied to temporal data, such as RF I/Q streams, audio, or video.
(2) Quantum information science and engineering, with emphasis on quantum algorithm development using current and/or near-term quantum computers
(3) Computational electromagnetics, with emphasis on electromagnetic materials, interactions between EM behaviors/propagation, and manufacturing / testing of EM materials

Successful applicants will have experience in research and systems such as:

(1) Digital signal processing and software defined radio technologies, with emphasis on military applications, satellite communications, and/or cellular communications. Experience with algorithm design, embedded DSP development, multithreaded programming, GPU development, SDR hardware platforms, FPGA development, and/or Linux-based designed tools is desired. Representative experience includes using MATLAB, GNU Radio, HDL Coder, REDHAWK, XMIDAS, VHDL/Verilog, C++, and/or Python for RF spectrum access applications.

(2) Foundation in quantum mechanics, with additional emphases on applied mathematics, software development, low-level computer science/computer engineering, and/or operations research.

(3) The design, use, and testing of electromagnetic materials; development and use of composite or polymer structures; modeling and live testing of reflection and scattering phenomena; design of experiments for compact near-field propagation analyses; and/or design and use of meta-materials.

Candidates are anticipated to align with only one of the dominant research portfolios, yet flexibility in tasking and projects permits growth across different technology areas. For all technical specialties, specific responsibilities include the following:
(1) support the execution of university sponsored programs by conducting research and development;
(2) author technical documents and publish peer-reviewed academic papers;
(3) support the development of new funded research programs by participating in proposal teams and supporting the business development activities of the Hume Center; and
(4) provide mentorship to students and junior researchers working on programs.

In addition those appointed to the rank of Senior Research Associate will have the responsibility for leading program development efforts.

Those appointed to the rank of Research Scientist or Senior Research Scientist have additional responsibility to serve in a supervisory capacity for students and junior researchers and serve as principal investigator on research efforts.