Open-Source Data Specialist 2 (Contingent)

The Analytical Solutions Division (ASD) of Applied Research Associates (ARA), Inc., has an exciting contingent opportunity for an Open-Source Data Specialist 2 in Huntsville, AL. Open-Source Data Specialist 2 will conduct data-driven strategies to shape the future of our business facing products across measurement and optimization. By applying your data science and analytical skills, you will help identify and solve the customer’s biggest challenges. You'll find and work with available web, social media, open source, and publicly available content. This content includes Commercially Available Information (CAI), Publicly Available Information (PAI), Commercial Telemetry Data (CTD) and Advertising Technology (AdTech).  Open-Source Data Specialist 2 will analyze and process large collection-related datasets according to organizational priorities. You’ll work closely with DoD and warfighters to understand their questions and requirements, and then dig into the publicly available data-rich environment to find the pieces of their information puzzle. The successful candidate will be intimately familiar with the ubiquitous technical surveillance (UTS) environment as well as how to explore, defend against and exploit it. You’ll explore new data sources, create effective queries, and combine information from diverse sources to support the mission. You’ll need the ability to think quickly, adapt to various environments, work, and communicate effectively with various teams, management, external/internal customers.

 Open-Source Data Specialist 2 Must Haves:

• U.S. Citizen
• Must be able to obtain a DoD Secret Clearance
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Management Information Systems, Computer Engineering or related technical field and 5 years relevant work experience. Degree waived with 10 years’ experience in Data Science, Data Mining, Penetration Testing, Computer Network Defense (CND), Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) or equivalent
• 3 years’ working experience in Data Science, Data Mining, Penetration Testing, Ubiquitous Technical Surveillance (UTS), Computer Network Defense (CND), Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) or equivalent
• Experience with intelligence analysis, including developing collection plans and risk assessments
• 2 years of experience creating software for retrieving, parsing, processing, structured and unstructured data
• Direct experience with data modeling, ETL/ELT development principles, Airflow Development, cloud development, and data warehousing concepts
• Knowledge of internet-based research, including Boolean logic, search engines, and database resources 
• Knowledge of internet sources, including social media, social networking tools, data exploitation, and commercial- and industry-based databases
• Industry experience with data science, analytics, machine learning, algorithm analysis, and data clustering
• Ability to program in Python, SQL, R, or Scala
• Ability to brief senior leaders with technical aptitude
• Ability to provide rapid intelligence responses
• Ability to write technical products
• Experience with Cloud-based data analysis tools including Hadoop and Mahout, Acumulo, Hive, Impala, Pig, and similar
• Experience with visual analytic tools like Microsoft Pivot, Maltego, Palantir, or Visual Analytics Experience with open source textual processing such as Lucene, Sphinx, Nutch or Solr.
• Experience with entity extraction and conceptual search technologies such as LSI, LDA, etc
• Experience with software development, either an open-source enterprise software development stack (Java/Linux/Ruby/Python) or a Windows development stack (.NET, C#, C ).
• Experience with data transport and transformation APIs and technologies such as JSON, XML, XSLT, JDBC, SOAP and REST.
• Strong knowledge and experience with data querying and aggregation (SQL and NoSQL), scripting languages (e.g. Python), and/or statistical/mathematical software (e.g. R)
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy
• Ability to lift up to 30lbs pounds

 Wish List/Preferred:

• Active/Current Secret or Top-Secret Clearance
• Master’s degree (in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or related field) or technical equivalent
• 5 years’ experience in Data Science, Data Mining, Penetration Testing, Computer Network Defense (CND), Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) or equivalent
• 5 experience with secure data mining, threat detection, incident response, and implementing or developing mitigating controls in a large environments

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Management Information Systems, Computer Engineering or related technical field and 5 years relevant work experience.  Degree waived with 10 years’ experience in Data Science, Data Mining, Penetration Testing, Computer Network Defense (CND), Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) or equivalent

ARA Company & Division Information

Applied Research Associates, Inc. is an employee-owned international research and engineering company recognized for providing technically superior solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences. The company, founded in Albuquerque, NM, in 1979, currently employs over 2015 professionals. ARA offices throughout the United States and Canada provide a broad range of technical expertise in defense technologies, civil technologies, computer software and simulation, systems analysis, environmental technologies, and testing and measurement. The corporation also provides sophisticated technical products for environmental site characterization, pavement analysis, and robotics.

At ARA, employees are our greatest assets. The corporation realizes that employee ownership spawns’ greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and customer satisfaction levels. ARA gives its employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take more active roles as owners. The culture is challenging; innovation and experimentation are the norm. Employees are eligible for contributions which not only add to the company’s success, but also their own through the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The motto, “Engineering and Science for Fun and Profit” sums up the ARA experience. For additional information and an opportunity to join this unique workplace, please visit our website at www.ara.com.

Please apply at www.careers.ara.com for the Open-Source Data Specialist 2 position.