Group Leader, Vulnerability Science

Requisition Id 12651 

Overview:  

As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has an extraordinary 80-year history of solving the nation’s biggest problems. We have a dedicated and creative staff of over 6,000 people! Our vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) is to cultivate an environment and practices that foster diversity in ideas and in the people across the organization, as well as to ensure ORNL is recognized as a workplace of choice. These elements are critical for enabling the execution of ORNL’s broader mission to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into energy, environment, and security solutions for the nation.

The Cyber Resilience and Intelligence Division in the National Security Sciences Directorate (NSSD) at ORNL is seeking a senior scientist to serve as the Group Leader (GL) for the Vulnerability Science (VS) group. The GL will develop, manage, provide leadership for, and conduct research in NSSD’s software vulnerability research and development (R&D) portfolio. This portfolio includes a mixture of unclassified and classified programs with R&D in vulnerability research, reverse engineering, exploit mitigation techniques, and static and dynamic analyses applied to cyber-physical systems (such as critical infrastructure, IoT, mobile devices, or vehicular systems). The overall program portfolio will support DOE, DoD, Intelligence Community (IC), and homeland protection requirements.

 

The selected candidate will be responsible for the group’s applied R&D agenda, recruit and hire new staff, and guide the ongoing growth and development of research staff. As a senior staff member, the group leader will also lead efforts to respond to new funding opportunities and contribute to research projects as a principal investigator and/or individual contributor.

 

Major Duties/Responsibilities: 

• Engage with senior management to refine and implement ORNL’s vulnerability research strategy to support national security programs, projects, and tasks. Initiate, develop, mature, and lead ORNL vulnerability R&D capabilities.
• Serve as a player-coach for a group of technical and research professionals. Supervise, mentor, and advise in all matters relating to career development. Evaluate, document, and report annual staff performance.
• Stay abreast of vulnerability R&D requirements from potential sponsors.
• Generate plans, proposals, budgets, and strategy for vulnerability research programs.
• Provide scientific and technical advice for national-level vulnerability research issues and ORNL programs.
• Brief technical audiences, ORNL leadership, and sponsors on the ORNL vulnerability science portfolio and capabilities. Identify and articulate ORNL capabilities and customer requirements.

• Consistently apply appropriate ES&H standards.
• Maintain a strong commitment to the implementation and perpetuation of ORNL’s core values and ethics.

 

All team members deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. We promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by fostering a respectful workplace – in how we treat one another, work together, and measure success.

 

Basic Qualifications:

• Requires a degree in an engineering or scientific field. Any of the following education and experience combinations may be considered:
  • Ph.D. and 6 years of relevant experience
  • M.S. and 12 years of relevant experience
  • B.S. and 15 years of relevant experience
• Equivalent combinations of education and experience may be considered.
• Applied R&D expertise in computer science, data science, or applied mathematics in a national security domain.
• Experience in vulnerability research.

 

Preferred Qualifications:

• 3+ years of experience with large project/program management and/or research management.
• A demonstrated ability and willingness to acquire new knowledge and learn new skills.
• Ability to proactively work independently and as a member of a team.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, outstanding written and oral communication skills, and good organizational skills.
• Experience conducting and managing classified research and development projects and/or experience working with the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense (DoD) or US government intelligence agencies.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively interact with senior management both inside and outside the organization.
• A successful record of developing research partnerships and collaborative relationships with universiti