See if there are jobs at semi-governmental institutes. Think NOAA, NASA and the likes. These have engineering positions which require you to collaborate with scientists. The right project can earn you your name on a research paper.
I'm not in/from the US, so I can't apply for those position unfortunately, but I'm currently applying to semi-governmental institute technical-assistant position. But I'm afraid it would be a position that would be a "glorified IT-support/sysadmin" with some paper proof-reading... which is a point I'm about to ask on upcoming meeting.
As the other comment pointed out, if I have no say in direction/approach I'm skeptical how much I would enjoy working for it (with a reduced salary nonetheless)
I'm not in/from the US either, but almost every country has an institute dedicated to research in climate, space, defense or avionics.
It's not a bad idea to apply as a sysadmin if you can't get anything else. It'll get a foot in the door, and you'll learn how the organization is set up, what its daughter/sister organizations are, etc.
This is a good suggestion, but it might be limited depending on what level the OP is interested in. I would expect that the OP would be able to be a part of research, but would be unlikely that they would be able to have much say in the direction.
