Research Engineer (1-year contract), SMU Urban Institute

Responsibilities

The SMU Urban Institute, launched in early 2024, is a university-level research institute dedicated to advancing an interdisciplinary research agenda. Leveraging SMU's strategic position as a dynamic management university in Singapore's city centre, the Institute aims to make a meaningful impact through the study of Asian cities. We are currently seeking individuals with specific skillsets to support the various ongoing research projects at the Institute.

We are seeking a Research Engineer (RE) to work with the Lead PI and the Co-PIs on a project investigating the feasibility of outdoor lane-level road navigation and indoor pedestrian navigation solutions.

The Job Scope Involves

• Software Implementation: creating deployable software modules from GNSS/RTK correction algorithms, integration of positioning outputs into indoor and outdoor maps, user interface development.
• Field Testing & Data Collection: assist in deploying and testing navigation solutions, conduct indoor testing across varied venues (shopping malls, MRT stations, bus interchanges), process GPS and other navigation traces for analysis.
• Documentation & Reporting: maintain clear technical documentation of implemented systems, support preparation of project reports and milestones.
• Data Management: follow SMU Research Data Management policies and project data-handling arrangements.
• Collaboration: work closely with PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and Co-PIs to ensure software implementation correctly reflects research intent, liaise with stakeholders and technical counterparts in government agencies as needed for data access and testing.
• Other duties as assigned.
  
  

Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a closely related field OR a Bachelor's degree in a relevant field with minimum 2 years relevant working experience.
• Proficiency in at least one mobile development stack (e.g., Android/Kotlin/Java, iOS/Swift, or cross-platform frameworks such as Flutter/React Native) and/or modern web development (JavaScript/TypeScript, React/Vue, backend frameworks such as Node.js, Python Flask/Django).
• Basic understanding of GNSS/GPS concepts, or willingness to quickly learn RTK correction concepts and satellite positioning fundamentals.
• Familiarity with version control (Git), basic DevOps/deployment practices, and API integration.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently with moderate supervision, translating high-level research goals into concrete engineering deliverables.
• Good communication skills to liaise effectively with academic researchers and external partners.
• Organized and detail-oriented, particularly regarding accurate data collection and documentation for ground-truth comparison and reporting purposes.
• Willingness to conduct field testing (e.g., riding in test vehicles, visiting multiple indoor sites such as malls and MRT stations) as part of validation work.
• Familiarity with sensor APIs (Wi-Fi scanning, Wi-Fi RTT, IMU/accelerometer-gyroscope data) is highly desirable.