Research Associate - Natural Language Processing (AI)

Overview

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is a Federally-Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) supporting the Department of War (DoW), the U.S. Intelligence Community, and other federal agencies. IDA's mission is to provide objective analyses of national security issues and related national challenges, particularly those requiring extraordinary scientific and technical expertise. IDA takes great pride in the high caliber and timeliness of its analyses, which are produced in an inclusive atmosphere that encourages collaboration, independent thinking, and objective results.

IDA seeks to hire a natural language processing (NLP) research engineer to develop and apply novel research methods that operationalize text mining and AI to accelerate expert analysis on national security challenges. In this role, you will explore and operationalize analytic computational methods that answer multilingual research questions. You will create cutting-edge technical solutions that accelerate expert analysis on sensitive national security questions for U.S. government sponsors.

This position, which is at the Research Associate level, is part of IDA's Global Dynamics and Intelligence Division (GDI). IDA is located in Alexandria, VA, just outside Washington, D.C.

Responsibilities

The candidate will directly contribute to IDA research efforts as part of diverse and interdisciplinary research teams, working closely with qualitative researchers and analysts. They will support various analyses within GDI and will also work with analysts from other divisions at IDA.

• Work as a member of research teams, contributing technical and analytical expertise to collaborative exploration of complex problems
• Design, prototype, and sustain multilingual NLP systems combining modern transformer-based approaches (LLMs, BERT, embeddings) and classical NLP methods to investigate research questions
• Use bibliometric analysis methodologies to map research landscapes and identify citation patterns
• Develop and sustain SQL-based data pipelines, embedding generation workflows, and translation tools that enable experimental querying and discovery across datasets
• Administer and deploy prototype and production systems on Linux across classified environments including cloud and air-gapped settings
• Create presentation layers for network analysis and NLP results
• Build and maintain internal web interfaces for visualization and user interaction
• Engage with sponsors to understand requirements, explore feasibility of technical approaches, and deliver research that addresses their evolving needs
• Communicate methods, preliminary findings, and technical insights clearly through written reports, briefings, and discussions with colleagues, sponsors, and stakeholders
  

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Data Science, or related field.
• Experience in NLP and software development, including professional work, military technical roles, or open-source work.
• Candidates must have U.S. citizenship
• Strong experience with natural language processing, including:
  • Modern transformer-based models (BERT, sentence embeddings)
  • Classical NLP techniques (dimensionality reduction, TF-IDF, NMF, etc.)
  • Embedding generation and semantic similarity methods
• Proficiency in Python for data analysis and backend development
• Strong SQL skills for data storage, retrieval, and analysis
• Experience deploying and operating systems in Linux
• Experience building web-based user interfaces
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of project teams.
  

Preferred:

• Active Top Secret clearance with current or recent SCI
  • The ability to maintain necessary security clearances is required.
• Chinese Language Proficiency

About IDA

The Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) is a private, nonprofit corporation headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC. IDA's mission is to answer the most challenging U.S. security and science policy questions with objective analysis leveraging extraordinary scientific, technical, and analytic expertise.

IDA supports an inclusive work environment. Working here requires energy, commitment, flexibility, and teamwork. Whether you're a graduate student ready to start your career, a professional looking for your next challenge, or a member of the military transitioning to the private sector, IDA offers exciting opportunities to learn and grow while contributing to U.S. national security.

Sponsors rely on IDA for dispassionate, fact-based, and rigorous high-quality research and advice that emphasize objectivity and the public interest. IDA's status as an FFRDC facilitates strong partnerships with our U.S. Government sponsors and provides IDA trusted access to classified government information and sensitive corporate proprietary information.

Why work at IDA?

IDA, as a non-profit, is uniquely positioned to answer the most challenging U.S. security and science questions with objective and rigorous analysis leveraging extraordinary scientific, technical, and analytic expertise. This position is located in Alexandria, VA, just outside Washington, D.C.

IDA offers the following benefits and resources to their employees:

• Comprehensive benefits including diverse health insurance options, generous 10% contribution to retirement, maternity/paternity leave, 20 days paid time off, and relocation reimbursement.

• Mission-oriented work at a non-profit that supports and protects our warfighters

• Eligibility for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSFL) due to IDA's non-profit status.

• Professional development including tuition reimbursement, internal and external trainings, and funding for researcher-pitched projects and publications.

• A strong employee and corporate work-life balance, including options for flex time.

• A brand-new facility located in Alexandria's high-tech corridor in Potomac Yard; and close proximity to local dining and shopping.

• Easy access to Potomac Yard Metro stop and Potomac Yard DASH bus stop. Employer contributes $315/month (IRS max) to commuter benefits.

Compensation

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 $68,681 - $194,054. Individual salary within this range will be commensurate with the incumbent's experience, unique skills and qualifications, and other relevant factors.