Summary:

Are you passionate about research and development of intelligent virtual agents? We are seeking a senior level scientist with demonstrated expertise in practical virtual agent architectures; agent modeling and evaluation; agents in games and simulations; and real-world applications of virtual agents. In this position, you will collaborate with and lead teams of AI scientists, software engineers, and domain subject matter experts. You will advance the state of the art in social and emotional agents, multi-modal interaction, embodied cognition, social learning, and robotic social agents.

You will apply this research to immediate and real-world challenges for military, intelligence, and commercial customers such as DARPA, IARPA, AFRL, ARL, and ONR. To support future growth, you will identify and pursue new research directions and business opportunities that meet your research interests, lead projects, and establish new research areas within these fields.

Recent related Charles River Analytics news and efforts:

Advances in explainable AI under CAMEL (https://www.cra.com/company/news/dialogue-between-humans-and-machinesbr-charles-river-analytics-presents-explainable-ai)

Social-behavioral modeling to understand complex systems (https://www.cra.com/company/news/modeling-human-behaviorbr-charles-river-analytics-staff-author-chapters-%E2%80%9Csocial)

Use of agents in medical training under EFECTIVE (https://www.cra.com/company/news/new-tech-trains-next-generation-medical-skillsbr-charles-river-analytics-develops-dod%E2%80%99s)

Areas to be Explored:

• Dynamic and believable agents
• Virtual agent social cognition, learning, and adaptation
• Models of emotion, conversation, and social skills
• Applications of machine learning to improving human-agent interaction
• Languages and architectures for rapid specification and development of virtual agents
• Integration of virtual agents with games and simulations
• Drama management technologies to coordinate virtual agents in simulation and real-world environments
• Empirical evaluation of virtual agents for human-computer interaction, training, and support applications

Major Responsibilities/Activities:

• Analyze and understand customer problems and issues to convert these insights into system requirements
• Pursue novel technologies to implement solutions, including establishing new areas of research
• Present innovative technical solutions at briefings, workshops, and conferences to customers, collaborators, and the research community
• Work with experienced software engineers to develop and implement solutions
• Conduct technical discussions with customers
• Write and contribute to proposals, reports, and research papers

Minimum Requirements:

• U.S. Citizenship
• Doctorate degree in Computer Science (or a related field) with a focus on intelligent virtual agents and related sub-fields
• Strong verbal and written skills to support proposal writing, interaction with customers, and presentations at technical conferences
• Significant experience designing, developing, applying, and evaluating intelligent virtual agents

Benefits:

Charles River Analytics offers competitive compensation plus bonus and profit-sharing, with an attractive benefits package including: 100% employer-paid medical and dental insurance, as well as vision, life and disability insurance, paid maternity/paternity leave, tuition reimbursement, monthly gym allowance, free parking, generous paid time off, and a casual environment. We are also accessible by public transportation.