CS/EE research opportunities for employees

I'm looking for research opportunities in CS/EE as an employee (I am an engineer at Vandy). I have looked into the ISIS, but it doesn't explicitly state that they have research opportunities availabile for employees.

Just wondering if anyone has been in the same boat or has any pointers? Is it cool to just cold email profs/research labs asking if they have openings? CS research was extremely competitive at my alma mater (UCSD), but cold emailing was typically the way to get your foot in the door - not sure if the same is true here.