Current Opportunities

Work at NIST! Join us and be part of a team providing research or support toward efforts that stimulate innovation, foster industrial competitiveness, and improve quality of life. Search openings at USAjobs or NIST current job openings. 

Learn more about the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Communication Technology Laboratory, and the Smart Connected Systems Division (SCSD) at its Gaithersburg MD campus.  

• For a quick overview of "What is NIST?" and what it is like to work here, see NIST Careers and/or explore the NIST social media portal.
• To explore life at NIST for students and visiting researchers, see NIST Guest Researchers Association.

Contact: scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov) to learn more, or discuss applying for any of the opportunities listed below. 

Types of Positions / Opportunities:

• Full-Time Staff Positions - Open to U.S. citizens. Specific current vacancies will be posted on the USAJobs site (search in location 20899).  We are always interested in being contacted by outstanding candidates with interests or experience in the topic areas described below.  See general information (pay, benefits, work-life programs, etc.) on Careers at NIST.
  • SCS is always looking for highly motivated candidates who can contribute to NIST’s research and development projects that design, model, analyze, prototype, test, measure, and standardize cutting-edge technologies for advanced networking and distributed information systems. New employees will contribute to NIST research through design and analysis, development of software, design, and execution of modeling and measurement experiments, data analysis and visualization, publishing of research results, and participation in consensus standards development processes.  If interested contact scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov) to start the conversation about your career at NIST.
• Faculty Appointments - NIST employs faculty staff from academia.  Individuals hired are given a one-year, excepted service appointment which can be renewed.  Employment may last through the summer only or throughout the year.  Typical working arrangements are full-time for sabbaticals and summers, or part-time through the academic year.  Potential applicants should contact scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov) with their detailed resume/curriculum vitae and a brief statement of interest in one or more of the topics below.

• NRC Postdoctoral Research Associateships - Open to U.S. citizens (non-citizen postdocs, see Foreign Guest Research below). Candidates and their research proposals are evaluated in a competitive process managed by the National Research Council (NRC) Associateship Programs. Application deadlines are typically February 1 and August 1. These two-year postdoctoral appointments commence within one year of selection.  Areas of interest include but are not limited to the topics described below.
  • For more general information, see NIST NRC Postdoctoral Research Associateship Program
  • Applicants are sought for multiple postdoctoral research positions.
  • Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to discuss potential proposals (contact scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov)) before submission.

• The Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, and faculty.  The program is intended to assure the continued growth and progress of a highly-skilled science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workforce in the United States. Read more here
• The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) is designed to inspire undergraduate students to pursue careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) through a unique research experience that supports the NIST mission. Read more here. 
• NIST Graduate Student Measurement Science and Engineering (GMSE) Fellowship Program provides doctoral-level graduate students with opportunities and financial assistance to obtain laboratory experience within the NIST laboratories in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines related to NIST measurement science and engineering research. Read more here. 
• The Summer High School Intern Program (SHIP) is a NIST-wide summer intern program for students who will have finished their junior or senior year of high school by the start of the program and are interested in scientific research only. Read more here. 
  • Note: CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) students, NIST internships count toward your required Federal service.
    • Please contact scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov) to start the conversation about your internship at NIST (and allow us to be on the lookout for your application).

• Domestic/ Foreign Guest Research Positions - Several guest researcher appointments ranging from 1 to 5 years with, with stipends from $3,600 to $4,500 per month (for those without support from their home organization) are available.  Topic areas and desirable skills/interests are described below. Applicants are currently sought for new guest researcher positions with appointments to begin in the January - June time frame.  Minimum appointment is 1 year, maximum appointment is 5 years.  Potential applicants should contact scsd-opportunity [at] nist.gov (scsd-opportunity[at]nist[dot]gov) with their detailed resume / curriculum vitae and a brief statement of your interests in one or more of the topics below.

• Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grants - The list of specific SBIR topics and call for proposals typically goes out early in the calendar year with short (~2 month) submission deadline.    See the NIST SBIR site for application details. For more examples see the list of SBIR Past Awards.

Topic Areas / Expertise of Interest:

• Measurement Science of Complex Networks Project - Seeks researchers/students with interests in: research and development of techniques to measure, predict and control macroscopic/emergent behavior in complex information systems, modeling and analysis techniques to characterize Internet-scale networks and distributed systems,  use of genetic algorithms to search for rare events, and runtime techniques to predict phase transitions in system behavior. Specific desirable experience: simulation modeling with SLX, statistical experiment design and data analysis techniques for large-scale systems, network measurement, and monitoring technologies. 
• Internet of Things – Seeking research/students with interests in: test and measurement techniques for prediction, validation, and understanding of the properties of IoTs, and the application of emerging internet technologies (e.g., software-defined networking, cloud architectures, network virtualization).  Specific desirable experience: simulation/emulation of IoTs, IoTs testbed development, IoTs wireless, and wired network technologies, and IoTs application domains including smart buildings, intelligent transportation, and critical infrastructure protection.
• Next Generation Internet Architectures - Seeks researchers/students with interests in next-generation network architectures, including fundamentally new approaches to content delivery, service architectures, management and control,  security and privacy, disruption tolerant networking, and handling of mobility. Particular interest in measurement and modeling techniques that enable quantitative comparisons between significant NGIA proposals emerging from the academic research community. Specific desirable experience: simulation/emulation modeling of Information Centric Networking architectures, CCNx, and other prototype ICN systems. 
• Industrial Artificial Intelligence Management and Metrology - Seeks researchers/students with interests in algorithm development and evaluation procedures for Industrial Artificial Intelligence tools and human-in-the-loop decision support systems for product design, sensing and control, and life-cycle engineering of industrial systems. Specific desirable experience: developing applied artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms, data processing and signal analysis, monitoring for anomaly detection and fault diagnosis/prognosis, and modeling/simulation and optimization/control related to industrial and manufacturing systems.

• Digital Thread - Seeking highly motivated researchers with interest in creating tools, methods, theories, or standards for problems and issues related to knowledge management, semantic representation, and information exchange to support manufacturing enterprises. Seeking specific experience with standards, technologies, and methods to address challenges in the integration, interoperability, and security of information between production and product lifecycle systems including the use of data and mathematical methods for monitoring, traceability, security, decision making, or control of production activities and processes. Industrial experience in engineering design, manufacturing planning and executing, or quality management, is highly valued. Roles include the development of new methods, protocols, and software tools for monitoring manufacturing activities, mapping disparate lifecycle model definitions, exploring system trade spaces, developing methods and tools for building trust in product data for the model-based manufacturing enterprise.

• Systems Analysis Integration: Seeking researchers with experience in information modeling for cyber-physical system specifications, engineering analysis, or integration of these.  Work will involve developing or extending standard system information models and building or specifying automated translation of these, based on study of engineering analysis tools and comparison to standard system information languages. Skills are required in logical formalism, automated translation, or standardization processes, as well as communication of research progress and results inside and outside NIST in written, graphic, and verbal forms.