Supply Chain and Economics Research Professional

Job Title

The Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence & Security (ARLIS) at the University of Maryland, College Park, is seeking qualified candidates with expertise in supply chain and economics and their implications for national and economic security.

Ideal candidates will demonstrate the ability to conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of people, policy, and technology, applying systems thinking to evaluate complex national security problems through supply chain resilience, industrial base, and economic lenses. Candidates should be comfortable working in collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams and communicating complex analytic findings through technical deliverables and briefings for government stakeholders.

Successful candidates will contribute to a portfolio of government-sponsored projects addressing emerging challenges in areas such as supply chain risk and resilience, industrial base and production capacity, technology and manufacturing ecosystems, economic security, and policy and governance shaping markets and adoption. Work may include research development, rapid analytic sprints, stakeholder engagement, and the production of actionable insights that inform decision-making across technology strategy, acquisition, contingency planning, and operational risk management.

Positions may include a focus on applied research, systems-level analysis, policy-relevant assessment, and/or field-informed studies of how organizations and institutions respond to supply chain and economic constraints. Final appointment title and responsibilities will be based on qualifications and matched to programmatic needs.

Roles and Responsibilities will vary by project and candidate expertise and may include:

• Conducting interdisciplinary research on supply chain and economic security challenges at the intersection of people, policy, and technology, with an emphasis on national security relevance
• Applying systems thinking approaches to frame and evaluate national security problems, including mapping interdependencies across suppliers, production stages, logistics, markets, and institutions
• Assessing supply chain vulnerabilities and resilience, including chokepoints, single points of failure, concentration risk, substitution constraints, lead times, and surge capacity
• Analyzing industrial base and production ecosystems, including R&D-to-production pathways, scaling dynamics, and the role of standards, regulation, and incentives in shaping outcomes
• Evaluating economic drivers and constraints affecting supply chain behavior (e.g., pricing, market structure, investment incentives, tradeoffs between efficiency and resilience) and their implications for policy and strategy
• Contributing to research proposals and technical work plans, including scoping research questions, defining methods, and supporting sponsor engagement as needed
• Collaborating with interdisciplinary teams including engineers, data scientists, domain experts, behavioral and social scientists, and policy analysts to integrate methods and findings
• Preparing technical deliverables and briefings for government stakeholders, translating complex analyses into clear, decision-relevant products (e.g., reports, slide briefings, memos, and research summaries)

Must be able to obtain a U.S. security clearance, preference will be given to TS/SCI eligible candidates upon verification. If selected, you must meet the requirements for access to classified information and will be subject to a government security clearance investigation that includes criminal and credit history checks, as well as verification of U.S. citizenship, birth, education, employment, and military history.

Final offer is contingent upon the candidate's ability to successfully obtain the necessary interim Secret security clearance, as determined by ARLIS, prior to commencing employment.

Qualifications:

ARLIS is hiring at all levels in two complementary tracks: Research Specialist and Research Engineer.

Research Specialist Qualifications:

• Entry Level: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field such as industrial engineering, economics, operations research or operations management, science and technology policy, international affairs, supply chain, management science, or related discipline, plus relevant experience.
• Mid-Level: Master's degree in a relevant field such as industrial engineering, economics, operations research or operations management, science and technology policy, international affairs, supply chain, management science, or related discipline, plus relevant experience and 3+ years of experience in a technical role or project management position for defense or intelligence R&D programs with experience in technology assessment, systems design, system analysis, executing on multiple technical programs with scheduled deliverables, and communicating and interfacing with government customers; or Bachelor's Degree and 5+ years of relevant experience in a role of equivalent responsibility
• Senior-Level: Master's degree in a relevant field such as industrial engineering, economics, operations research or operations management, science and technology policy, international affairs, supply chain, management science, or related discipline, plus relevant experience and 7+ years of experience in a technical role or project management position for defense or intelligence R&D programs with experience in technology assessment, systems design, system analysis, executing on multiple technical programs with scheduled deliverables, and communicating and interfacing with government customers; or Bachelor's Degree and 10+ years of relevant experience in a role of equivalent responsibility

Research Engineer Qualifications:

• Assistant Research Engineer: PhD plus 5 years of research experience in a relevant field such as industrial engineering, economics, operations research or operations management, science and technology policy, international affairs, supply chain, management science, or related discipline; including success leading research projects and a record of engineering achievement and show promise of continued productivity
• Associate Research Engineer: PhD plus 5 years of PhD-level research experience, including success capturing and leading large projects and a record of significant engineering achievement and show promise of continued productivity
• Full Research Engineer: Ph.D. with at least 10 years of PhD-level research experience, including success capturing and leading large projects and a record of significant engineering achievement and show promise of continued productivity

Physical Demands: Sedentary work performed in a normal office environment; exerts up to 10 pounds of force occasionally and/or negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Ability to attend meetings both on and off campus. Spending long hours in front of a computer screen.

Preferences:

• Active TS/SCI

Licenses/ Certifications: N/A