Description

Salary: $75,000-$85,000 a year

Status: Full Time

PREP Research Associate

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration's scientific research. 

Research Title: Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning Robotics Engineer / NIST GenAI Research Associate

The work will entail:

This position involves providing software and web development support for evaluation activities in the Artificial Intelligence Group (774.02) at NIST. Specifically, the work will support NIST GenAI evaluation series (https://ai-challenges.nist.gov/genai). 

The candidate will assist in developing cutting-edge human assessment infrastructure and social cognition assessments that support evaluations in various modalities (such as text, voice, image, and video). The infrastructure includes a web platform, evaluation pipeline (backend/frontend), database schema, and other related tasks. The development includes datasets using frontier AI/LLM tools, conducting experiments, performing statistical analysis, and writing technical reports. The candidate will work alongside NIST researchers to advance measurement science through cutting-edge research and evaluations in the field of Generative AI.

U.S. Citizen Preferred

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

-         Evaluating Agentic AI applications in robotics and drones within the manufacturing sector.

-         Analyzing AI‑generated content by extracting linguistic, syntactic, semantic, and structural features, and using computational methods to compare LLM judgments with human perception and behavioral responses.

-         Engineering prompt pipelines to generate controlled AI-generated content across models and other experimental conditions

-         Apply pre/post-processing techniques for adversarial attacks on signals from multiple modalities (Audio, Image, and Text)

-         Apply signal analysis methods (information theory, topological data analysis, spectral methods) on high-dimensional representation spaces

-         Upgrade, maintain, and develop NIST GenAI software and evaluation pipelines.

-         Develop baseline systems to benchmark AI models on synthetic content generation and detection.

-         Curate datasets for synthetic content detection, aligned with real-world forensic applications.

-         Managing data, such as querying and translating data formats/specifications.

Qualifications

This individual must have the following minimum knowledge, skills, and abilities:

-         Proficiency in shell scripts (Bash, etc.) and coding (e.g., Python, Java, Java Script, R, C and C++).

-         Proficiency in database management (e.g., PostgreSQL, MongoDB).

-         Background in robotics engineering or AI evaluations involving LLM as judge, study design, and data analysis

-         Real-time code development using a distributed computing environment.

-         Experience in applying machine learning and deep learning methods to audio and image processing tasks

-         Experience with Computer Vision and Array Signal Processing (adaptive and non-adaptive filtering)

-         Experience with open-source and API-based AI models in the domain of synthetic data.

-         Experience in statistical analysis methods to test and compare AI models on forensic tasks.

-         Experience with signal processing techniques like Cosine, Fourier, and Wavelet transforms for feature extraction of digital and time-series data.

-         Experience using GPU-accelerated clusters and CUDA for deploying open-source models.

-         Experience using cloud computing (such as Azure and GCP) and integrating cloud-based APIs.

-         Mastery of the principles, practices, methods in a specialty of a technical professional field (in science, AI/ML engineering, computer science, robotics engineering, information technology, or mathematics, or related field). 

Furthermore, the following knowledge skills, and abilities are preferred:

-         Previous Experience in a full-stack web developer with tools potentially including using Ruby on Rails: Rails5, Postgres, HTML/CSS, Javascript

-         Experience with jupyter notebooks, R, Shiny and interactive plots

-         Experience in Cross platform software development (Linux, Mac OS X, Windows)

-         Experience/interest in machine learning and AI test and evaluation

Application Instructions

Please upload the following with your application:

-       CV/Resume

*Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Your resume will not be considered if the following information is included on your CV/resume.

-       Self portraits

-       Phone number

-       Home address/Country

-       Citizenship status

-       Languages spoken

-       Sex/Gender

Privacy Act Statement

Authority:  15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)

Purpose:  The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the  Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.  

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate the administrative functions of the PREP Program.

Routine Uses:  NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices:  NIST-1: NIST Associates. 

Disclosure:  Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated. By applying to a CHIPS-funded PREP opportunity, you also acknowledge that participation in the project requires signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) prior to beginning any work.

Salary Range

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

Total Rewards

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program involved.

Pre-Employment Information

If you are interested in applying for employment with Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office at [email protected]. For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For more information about workplace accommodations at Johns Hopkins University for disabilities, medical conditions (including medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), accessibility, or religious reasons, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu.

Background Checks

After receiving a conditional offer, the successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check including education verification. When deciding whether a candidate's conviction history is job-disqualifying, the University considers the nature and gravity of the offense, the time that has passed since the conviction, and the nature of the job being sought.

EEO is the Law

https://www.eeoc.gov/employees-job-applicants

Vaccine Requirements

Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. This change does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof of vaccination status. We still require all faculty, staff, and students to receive the seasonal flu vaccine.

Exceptions to the seasonal flu vaccine or COVID-19 vaccine (for SOM) requirement(s) may be provided to individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs or medical conditions that preclude them from receiving the vaccine. Requests for an exception must be submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. For additional information, applicants for SOM positions should visit https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/ and all other JHU applicants should visit https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/health-safety/covid-vaccination-information/.

The following additional vaccine requirements may apply, depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring department for more information.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those candidates who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.