Applied Research Solutions

Applied Research Solutions, founded in 2012 and headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, operates at the intersection of national security and advanced technology. The company provides fully-cleared defense contractors, professionals, and subject matter experts to the Department of Defense and the Intelligence Community, tackling hard problems in machine learning , autonomy , cyber-physical systems , and directed energy . The threat model here is nation-state grade: think adversarial manipulation of autonomous systems, exploitation of cyber-physical attack surfaces, and the offensive and defensive implications of directed energy platforms. Applied Research Solutions positions itself to staff those gaps with cleared personnel who can operate in classified environments and move fast on complex technical domains without the overhead of a prime contractor. The company has been a Best Places to Work nominee since 2020 , citing a culture where employees are challenged to meet career goals while maintaining work/life balance. For cybersecurity professionals with active clearances and a taste for problems that don't have public CVEs or open-source patches, the Dayton-based operation represents a direct line into mission-critical work.