Principal Research Scientist

Hitachi • Santa Clara, CA

20h • $215,000 - $230,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Principal Research Scientist Company: Hitachi America, Ltd. Division: R&D/MIL (Mobility Innovation Laboratory) Location: Santa Clara, CA Status: Full Time Summary: Hitachi’s R&D Center, located in Santa Clara, CA, serves as a pivotal technology hub to support Hitachi’s global Social Innovation business. Our focus spans original and applied research, technology innovation, intellectual property creation, and solving real-world challenges. We collaborate closely with Hitachi’s product and business divisions, contributing to Hitachi's IoT and AI business across a variety of industries, with a special focus on optimized manufacturing. We are looking for a Principal Research Engineer to join our dynamic team. In this role, you will contribute to our Industrial Digital Transformation solution portfolio by leading innovation, formulating short and long term research strategies and guiding developers to build cutting edge prototypes. You’ll interact with Hitachi BUs to transition R&D assets into customer deployments and enhance BU portfolios. You’ll get a chance to engage in real-world deployments in mobility verticals at scale. For additional information about Hitachi America’s R&D in IoT/ML/AI for industrial applications, please visit Hitachi R&D Blog.

Requirements

• An MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field, accompanied by at least 10 years of experience in developing DX solutions in various Industry verticals especially transportation and mobility
• Technical understanding of Agentic AI and Generative AI, with the ability to apply these frameworks to complex industrial DX challenges esp. for mobility and transportation.
• Domain knowledge of mobility especially railways such as manufacturing, operations and maintenance from both OT and IT perspectives.
• Experience in designing hybrid DX solution architectures involving edge and cloud platforms.
• Experience in executing a technical POC to a scalable, commercially viable solution.
• Experience in identifying and managing external technology partners, startups, or academic collaborators to accelerate the incubation of new capabilities.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Help formulate short and long term research strategies for DX solutions within the mobility and transportation verticals.
• Lead other junior researchers in the transitioning of R&D assets into active customer deployments, ensuring prototypes are built for scalability and commercial success.
• Collaborate with a diverse team of software, network, sensing, and domain experts to develop unique, market-differentiated features.
• Actively engage in external facing opportunities such as customer meetings, liaison between R&D and Hitachi Business Units (BUs) and internal customers to gather requirements and promote R&D assets.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal