Principal Research Scientist

Location:

Santa Clara, California, United States

Job ID:

R0121500

Date Posted:

2026-03-09

Company Name:

HITACHI AMERICA, LTD.

Profession (Job Category):

Engineering & Science

Job Schedule:

Full time

Remote:

No

Job Description:

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 .

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.

Qualifications:

• 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.

EOE-Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

For California only (as required by California’s Pay Transparency for Pay Equity Act ( SB 1162 ): A good faith estimate of the expected salary for this position in our California office upon hire is $215,000 – 230,000. Pay is determined based on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, depth of experience in the practice area. Employees are eligible to participate in Hitachi America’s variable pay program, subject to the program’s conditions and restrictions.

Qualified Applicants with arrest or Conviction records will be considered for Employment in accordance with the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE)-Females/Minorities/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

If you need a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job at Hitachi, please send the nature of request and contact information to accommodation@hal.hitachi.com. Queries other than accommodation requests will not be responded to.