Research Specialist I

Job Title

Research Specialist I

Agency

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Department

Signs & Markings

Proposed Minimum Salary

Commensurate

Job Location

Bryan, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

COVID-19 information: TTI monitors and updates our recruiting, hiring and onboarding processes to align with local, state and federally mandated health guidelines to keep employees, prospective employees, and visitors as safe as possible. To ensure a safe and healthful work environment for all, each department has established both remote and in-person procedures for conducting these processes, which include sanitizing common spaces, a mask policy, and maintaining safe physical distancing to the extent possible. Departments will communicate these procedures at each step of the recruiting process.

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The salary range for position is $40,712K - $75,608K. Final salary will be determined based on the applicant's qualifications and experience.

Job Summary:

The general purpose of this position is to support research in the area of traffic operations and roadway safety, not limited to but with an emphasis on the visibility, durability, and performance of traffic control devices (signs, pavement markings, and their interaction with the drivers and the vehicles). A primary responsibility will be the design, fabrication, operation, and maintenance of instrumentation required to collect data to support research objectives. Key instrumentation that will be utilized includes a photometric range, mobile retroreflectometer, instrumented vehicle, eye tracking systems, and portable field equipment. Key responsibilities include assistance with development of experimental designs, data collection, data analysis, and reporting. Supervision of staff and students may be required on a task-by-task basis. This position will require overnight travel (including out of state) and work at night to meet the data collection needs of research projects. Continued employment in this position is contingent upon availability of funding and satisfactory performance.

Essential Duties:

• Assist with the development of innovative approaches to collecting traffic operations and highway safety data. 10%

• Assist with or lead the collection, reduction, and development of preliminary descriptive statistics summary of acquired research data, which may include supervising staff/students: Design, build, install, and program tools and devices for executing visibility measurements and other field data collection. Conduct laboratory and in-field experiments (travel required). Install, operate, and troubleshoot vehicle instrumentation for various sensors, such as LiDAR, RADAR, audio/video, global positioning system (GPS), distance measuring instrument (DMI), photometric equipment, and biometric equipment. Install, operate, and troubleshoot dash-mounted and head-mounted eye-trackers. Install, operate, and troubleshoot in-field vehicle counter/classifier data collection equipment. 70%

• Prepare graphs, documentation and presentations summarizing testing results. 15%

• Other Duties as assigned. 5%

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree

• 4 years related experience

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Comfortable with data collection in the highway right-of-way.

• Mechanically inclined and includes experience with hardware and software design along with an understanding of applied physics.

• Ability to travel overnight and work at night to meet project data collection schedules and needs.

• Ability to work with others.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Understanding of the operation of photometric equipment, including retroreflectometers and computer controlled photometric range.

• Understanding of vehicle instrumentation and computer systems to acquire vehicle data, GPS data, eye tracking data and other forms of data for human factors studies.

• Background in electrical systems, physics, transportation, and/or engineering.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer committed to diversity.