Postdoctoral Research Associate

Job Title

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Agency

Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi

Department

College of Engineering-Computing Sciences

Proposed Minimum Salary

Commensurate

Job Location

Corpus Christi, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

TAMU-CC is a dynamic university designated as both a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority-Serving Institution (MSI) with approximately 11,000 students from 47 states and 54 foreign nations. We employ over 1,400 full-time and 2,000 part-time Islanders (including students/GAs). The University attracts highly talented faculty and staff and offers an array of undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral programs.  As a member of the Texas A&M University System, TAMU-CC benefits from a range of resources, increased visibility and influence, and opportunities to collaborate in mutually beneficial ways with peers across member institutions and associated agencies.

TAMU-CC’s beautiful campus is located on a 240-acre island on Corpus Christi Bay and was ranked #1 College by the Sea by Best College Reviews. Our natural setting is enhanced by its modern, attractive, and state-of-the-art classroom buildings and support facilities.

Learn more information here!

PURPOSE

The Collective Intelligence in Motion (CIM) Lab at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher to advance secure, low-latency communications and AI-driven control for autonomous vehicle systems with an emphasis on 5G/6G Open RAN (near-RT RIC, xApps/rApps) and vehicular edge computing. The postdoc will design and evaluate networking architectures and protocols, develop machine-learning methods for decision-making, and validate results on lab testbeds. Collaborating with experts in cybersecurity and computer science, the researcher will publish high-quality work and deliver software artifacts that strengthen the security, robustness, and performance of connected autonomous systems.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Research & Publications: 35%

• Conduct original research in NextG (5G/6G) with emphasis on O-RAN (near-RT RIC, xApps/rApps), network security, and spectrum management.

• Design and evaluate AI/ML methods (DL/RL/LLMs/FL) for network automation and decision-making in autonomous/vehicular systems.

• Lead high-quality publications and create reproducible artifacts (code, datasets, experiment scripts).

Systems, Security & Testbeds: 35%

• Build and operate prototypes on lab testbeds (e.g., O-RAN SC/srsRAN/OAI/ns-3), integrating SMO/RIC pipelines and UAV/vehicular edge components.

• Implement rigorous experiments, data pipelines, and performance evaluations; harden systems with best security practices (PKI/TLS, RBAC, secure CI/CD).

• Release open-source software packages and documentation; maintain benchmarks and continuous integration for reproducibility.

Collaboration, Proposals & Mentoring: 30%

• Contribute to proposals and collaborate across academia/industry partners to secure funding and deliver joint milestones.

• Mentor graduate and undergraduate researchers (project planning, experiments, writing) and foster a collaborative, high-performance lab environment.

• Support knowledge transfer: internal tech talks, guest lectures/modules tied to lab testbeds, and external demos with stakeholders.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Doctoral degree in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a closely related field.

• Foundation in network security for 5G/6G and O-RAN, including TLS 1.2/1.3 with mTLS, PKI/X.509 and certificate lifecycle, IPsec/MACsec, RBAC/ABAC, and secure key/secrets management.

• Familiarity with O-RAN architecture and interfaces (A1, E2, O1/O2, Open Fronthaul) and their security implications in SMO/near-RT RIC deployments.

• Experience