Acoustic DSP Engineer – Cleared R&D Role | Columbia, MD Lab

Location: Columbia, MD (100% onsite) | Clearance: Secret (or higher) required. | U.S. Citizenship

Help Us Hear What the Ocean’s Been Hiding

As the Associate to the Director of R&D, you'll help lead technical initiatives across sensing, modeling, and prototyping while staying deeply engaged in the work itself. You’ll also contribute to shaping proposal content, translating complex technical ideas into compelling narratives that help sponsors understand the innovation and invest in what comes next.

Job Summary

We’re hiring a DSP scientist with deep sonar and acoustic systems experience to help invent, test, and refine the next generation of underwater sensing platforms.

If you’ve modeled marine mammal vocalizations, prototyped real-time torpedo detection systems, or dreamed up new ways to extract signal from chaos, this is your role.

You’ll work in a purpose-built R&D lab. No cubicles. No stale tech. No bureaucratic drag. Just thoughtful, mission-driven researchers tackling the kind of acoustic and sensory challenges that still keep adversaries (and whales) one step ahead of detection.

What You’ll Do

• Design and implement algorithms for acoustic detection, classification, localization, and tracking
• Apply biologically inspired auditory models to complex classification problems (e.g., marine mammal recognition, torpedo detection)
• Build and prototype wide-area underwater sensing systems using novel sensors and real-time DSP pipelines
• Use machine learning where it makes sense. Focus areas include classification, pattern recognition, or environmental noise modeling
• Simulate, model, and test acoustic sensor performance under real-world physics constraints
• Lead technical work across the full R&D lifecycle: design, prototype, field-test, iterate
• Write proposals and shape research direction with autonomy and scientific rigor
• Collaborate closely with domain experts in underwater physics, sensor hardware, and defense mission systems

What You Bring

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Physics, Applied Math, or a related field
• 8+ years of experience in signal processing, acoustic modeling, or sonar systems
• Fluency in Python and/or MATLAB for algorithm design and data analysis
• Ability to work independently on technical challenges and collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams
• Active Secret clearance or higher
• U.S. Citizenship
• Clear, persuasive communication skills. That PhD prep wasn’t just for your dissertation defense. It trained you to explain complex ideas with clarity and conviction. Whether you’re shaping a proposal, writing up research insights, or representing the team to sponsors, you can articulate why the work matters and why it’s worth investing in.

Bonus Points For

• Experience with C++, Linux environments, or embedded sensor systems
• Background in proposal development or IRAD strategy
• Real-world validation of models using live sensors or underwater testing
• Cross-domain interest in biologically inspired algorithms, neuroacoustics, or exo-sensory systems

Why This Role, and Why Now?

This is one of those rare R&D opportunities that checks all the right boxes.

• You’ll find real funding. Real impact. Zero fluff.
• Expect trusted, long-term work supporting Navy missions and next-gen sensing capabilities.
• The culture is built for scientists who like solving hard problems with smart people. Then seeing those solutions actually used.
• No corporate bloat. You’ll think, build, test, and likely see your fully mapped-out ideas deployed.

You’ll also have the chance to shape R&D initiatives, including internal IRAD efforts that evolve into funded Navy programs. If you’ve ever wanted more say in what gets built and how, it’s here.

We’ve had folks here from APL, NUWC, DARPA programs, and high-level research labs. People who left layers of red tape behind because they missed building things that mattered.

Important Details

• This is a fully onsite, lab-based role in Columbia, MD
• No remote or hybrid options due to lab access, hardware systems, and classified data
• U.S. Citizenship and active Secret clearance (or higher) required

Sound Like You?

Send us a note or apply directly. Better yet, if you know someone brilliant, cleared, and maybe even a little burned out by big primes, send them this link. You’ll be doing both of us a favor.

We’re NerdUp

For 25 years, we’ve built a community of smart, mission-driven scientists and engineers working on what matters. If this role isn’t for you, but you want to stay in the loop on future work like this, sign up for [The Nerd Word]. It’s our occasional dispatch for people who still care about science, signal, and systems that work.