Research Architect – Resilient Battlefield Communications

What if your research could redefine how military commanders leverage advanced network communication to maintain seamless command and control - even in the most challenging environments? 
As a Research Architect at Systematic, you'll drive our agenda in resilient communication software for tactical C4ISR environments – securing funding, anchoring PhD partnerships, and translating findings into products deployed in real operations around the world.

The job

The Mobile programme develops and maintains mission-critical software for vehicles and dismounted commanders, including the SitaWare suite used across NATO nations and allied forces. The programme is growing, and this role is central to that ambition. You'll drive research in wireless network communication for tactical and battlefield environments, with a focus on systems that perform under contested, degraded, and intermittent conditions. 

You'll formulate research questions on how C2 applications, data synchronisation, and situational awareness must adapt when connectivity is compromised. Working with the Research Lead, PhD researchers, and university partners, you'll design experiments, build simulations, and ensure that findings shape both our reference architectures and our product roadmap. A key part of the role is also contributing to research applications - including programmes such as the Danish Innovation Fund and the European Defence Fund - and experience with this is an advantage.

 
In addition, some of your key tasks will be to:
•    Develop conceptual models and experimental setups to explore how distributed systems behave under varying communication conditions
•    Evaluate research outcomes against Systematics end-to-end C4ISR architecture and contribute to architectural decisions
•    Ensure that research-driven features meet key quality attributes, including security, scalability, and performance
•    Supervise PhD researchers within your field, shaping hypotheses, experiments, and publications so they remain ambitious, focused, and relevant
•    Communicate technical findings clearly to engineers, architects, and operational defence stakeholders.

Joining the team
The position is embedded in the Development organisation, working closely with Product Management and the Research Lead. You will engage with customers and academic partners to ensure that research is grounded in real operational challenges and translates into long-term product and system impact.
You'll join a well-established R&D team of eight experienced and skilled colleagues in Aarhus, who have worked closely together for several years. The team develops software for some of the most demanding environments imaginable – from active military conflicts to disaster relief operations – and takes quality and rigour seriously. 
You'll be the primary link between the development team and ongoing research activities, collaborating closely with PhD researchers and academic partners in a programme with real momentum and room to grow. It's a role with genuine intellectual freedom and strong management support to pursue research that matters.

Your qualifications

You hold a PhD in Computer Science, Software Engineering, networks, or a closely related field. This is a firm requirement. You bring post-PhD experience as a Software Architect, researcher, or in a comparable role - or equivalent experience from a postdoctoral position or sustained industrial R&D - and you have a proven track record at the boundary between research and industry.

Critically, you have hands-on experience in the field where wireless infrastructure communication meets defence or operational research. You know how to navigate that space, engage with university partners as a peer, and translate experimental outcomes into product-relevant architectural guidance. You also have experience supervising PhD students within your area of expertise. Experience contributing to competitive research applications is an advantage - the more the better.

On the technical side, you have deep knowledge of software architecture principles and patterns applied to distributed, networked systems. Your understanding of network communication – including protocols, routing, resilience in degraded environments, and quality of service – allows you to work confidently at a high level of abstraction. 

You also have practical experience with cybersecurity in distributed systems, covering secure communication, authentication, authorisation, encryption, and threat modelling. You're comfortable documenting and communicating architecture through diagrams and decision records, and you have experience designing and evaluating experiments, simulations, or models to support research conclusions.
Beyond the technical, you're proactive, highly independent, and equally at ease presenting to academic partners and to operational defence stakeholders.

Fluency in English – spoken and written – is essential. Travel is limited to approximately ten days per year, primarily for research collaboration, partner visits, and conferences.

Please note that you must be able to present a clean criminal record and have lived in a NATO and/or EU country for the past seven years, as we work with security-classified projects. Read more: https://systematic.com/int/careers/security-clearance/

Welcome to Systematic Aarhus
At our Aarhus office, you can look forward to joining our Employees Club, which offers nearly 100 events a year of both social and professional character. Here, you can take advantage of a range of on-site perks from physiotherapist-led massages and an in-house hairdresser to sports clubs, game tables and even our own padel court. Our canteen is a standout feature, serving a daily selection of delicious and healthy dishes. Beyond the office, you will also enjoy benefits like free ARoS +1 access and various shopping discounts.

Never stop developing
Systematic is uniquely people-centric, truly international and proudly rooted in Denmark with more than 1,100 employees. Together, we write intelligent and innovative code to drive progress and improve lives. We develop IT solutions that make a real difference where it matters most. This is why we never stop developing. Here, there is room to be professional and personal. It is not just a place to work but a place to belong.

Start your development here
We will be assessing applications on an ongoing basis as we wish to welcome our new colleague as soon as possible, so click Apply Now and send us your CV today. If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us on tel. +45 8943 2000 and ask for Rasmus Dyrberg.

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