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Position Summary:
The Center of Public Policy, Partnerships, and Outreach (C3PO) at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute ( VTTI ) seeks qualified ambitious senior engineers with aptitude for solving complex problems through application of advanced research and development techniques.
The candidate should be an experienced engineer capable of working independently and with multidisciplinary teams to improve transportation safety through cutting-edge research. As a Senior Research Associate, this opening is pursuing applicants that demonstrate experience in transportation research or related field as well as project leadership and management skills.
Research projects ranging from policy aspects of advanced transportation technologies, safety standards, automated driving systems, traveler and driver behavior study, transportation systems and operations, to transportation safety modeling. Independent proposal writing, project managing, data processing and analyzing are required for this position. The research often participates on test-track experiments using a single vehicle to large-scale naturalistic driving studies that involve collecting data from hundreds of vehicles on public roadways. Research projects often use VTTI's internally-developed data acquisition system ( DAS ). The DAS enables unobtrusive measurement of driver behavior, vehicle operation, and the environment. The collected data are analyzed to address specific research questions that typically focus on existing transportation problems (e.g. crash causation) and/or the performance/development of advanced vehicle systems (e.g. crash warning and autonomous vehicle technologies). Questionnaire, focus group, and survey data collection methods may also be used in these experiments.
The successful applicant will perform work involving conventional engineering practices but may include a variety of complex features such as working with fluctuating requirements, cycles of field and/or office work, and complex data manipulation and analyses methods. Employee will contribute to research conceptualization, proposal development, research execution, resource acquisition, logistics, and documentation.
Employee will apply advanced data acquisition tools and techniques to obtain robust research data to address critical transportation knowledge gaps. These data will be used by the engineer to perform data analysis and develop documentation based on direction provided by the Principal Investigator. The Sr. Research Associate will be expected to serve as a Principal Investigator on projects when deemed appropriate. Experience with vehicle systems, signal processing, and data analysis tools is preferred. The applicant must be interested in improving transportation safety and be willing to work on multiple projects in a fast paced research environment.
Duties and responsibilities:
-Oversee the daily operations of a project including schedule and budget maintenance
-Pursue and obtain funded work through existing and new project sponsors
-Lead project teams and ensuring the relevant goals are achieved
-Serve as a Principal Investigator for projects when appropriate (responsible for results)
-Write proposals and technical report
-Interface with engineers, designers, and testing lab personnel to process data from vehicle sensors
-Interface directly with sponsors to understand requirements and deliver technical presentations
-Act as a mentor for junior engineers and supervise students through provision of knowledge transfer and serving as committee members
-Travel to research sites (requirement fluctuates but will generally be -Independent research and compose literature reviews
-Compose, review, and critique reports and research plans
-Manipulate and analyze data (e.g., statistical analysis for large-scale transportation data from naturalistic studies)
-Interpret results and develop robust conclusions
-Present research findings
Directions given and received:
Receive instructions on project objectives, feedback on proposed research plans, and project logistics from principal investigators and project managers. Will supervise or coordinate the work of fellow engineers, graduate research assistants, technicians, and others who assist in specific assignments.

Required Qualifications:
-PhD in Engineering. A Masters' degree in Engineering field(s) may be considered in lieu of PhD with significant level of training and experience.
-Minimum of a Masters' degree in Engineering or lesser degree with vast experience
-Experience in transportation or related field is desired
-Qualified to lead project teams and oversee project schedule, budgets, and deliverables
-Strong writing, communication, and organizational skills
-Thorough understanding of experimental design and methods
-Solid understanding of engineering principles needed to analyze, verify, and interpret work.
-Background in data processing and analysis
-Proficiency with data collection and working knowledge of analysis software packages (e.g., SAS , R)
-Programming experience (e.g., Matlab) is desired
-The willingness to work in a fast-paced flexible research environment
-Possess a valid U.S. driver's license

Preferred Qualifications:



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