Associate R&D Staff Member in Data Science for Advanced Manufacturing (Temporary)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory · Knoxville, TN
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Jul 14, 2026
Knoxville, TN
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
Mid level · Knoxville, TN · Doctorate required · Temporary
Advertised as Junior, but the requirements read as Mid.
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 9 people in the Knoxville, TN area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (data scientists). range 3–15
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $94,677 (middle half $80,502–$131,336).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (11)
This is a fixed-term 'Associate R&D Staff Member' (postdoctoral-style) appointment of up to 24 months with possible extension, subject to performance and funding — classified here as Temporary.
The title 'Associate R&D Staff Member' maps to an entry-level research scientist role requiring a Ph.D. with no stated years of post-doctoral experience; seniority is assessed as Mid given the expectation of independent research, publication, and mentoring of students and junior staff.
A Ph.D. is a hard gate per the Basic Qualifications section.
Visa sponsorship is explicitly unavailable for this position.
Candidates must be able to obtain a federal PIV card (Tier 1 background check), which is a federal employment requirement rather than a formal security clearance gate — not classified as a clearance requirement.
HPC, cloud, and distributed data systems are listed together as a single 'familiarity with' requirement under Basic Qualifications; alternatives reflect the three options named.
Uncertainty quantification appears under Basic Qualifications ('Familiarity with uncertainty quantification methods in AI/ML') and also under Preferred Qualifications; it is marked required based on its placement in the Basic Qualifications section.
PyTorch and TensorFlow are listed as interchangeable examples of deep learning frameworks under Basic Qualifications; PyTorch is used as the primary name with TensorFlow as an alternative.
Manufacturing/sensor data, streaming/edge AI, multimodal datasets, API-based data services, workflow automation, digital twins, and scientific machine learning all appear under Preferred Qualifications.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): workflow automation.
Posting is for a temporary engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
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