Senior AI Engineer

The Mitre Corporation is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to develop, evaluate, and clearly communicate results for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning solutions. This role emphasizes hands-on work, rapid prototyping, and the ability to tackle complex technical problems while sharing advanced knowledge across the team. The position is based in McLean, VA (onsite).

Salary range: USD 143,600 - 215,400 per year (midpoint: $179,500). Experience: typically 5+ years in a related field.

What you’ll do

• Rapidly prototype and evaluate AI/ML approaches to determine feasibility and support project needs.
• Lead simple projects or take accountability for tasks within complex programs, including planning and guiding others’ work.
• When operating as a contributor, work independently with minimal instruction and direction.
• Identify and resolve complex problems, applying new perspectives to existing solutions and using judgment across Data Science and AI.
• Leverage advanced expertise in Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and share knowledge with others.
• Communicate complex results through writing and verbal updates for both technical and non-technical audiences.

Required qualifications

• Typically a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s; or 3 years with a Master’s; or a PhD with relevant experience who can contribute immediately; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Hands-on proficiency in AI/Data Science techniques including Large Language Models, Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and other ML approaches such as supervised, unsupervised, deep learning, and reinforcement learning.
• Computer programming skills in one or more languages such as Python, C/C++, Java, Scala, Julia, Rust.
• Security clearance: must have an active Top Secret/SCI with polygraph. U.S. citizenship is required to be considered for a security clearance.
• On-site requirement: minimum 3 days per week.

Technical focus areas

The role spans a broad set of AI and data capabilities, including:

• Machine Learning and model evaluation
• Large Language Models and techniques such as Prompt Engineering, Few-Shot Learning, Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and LLM fine-tuning and hosting
• Agentic AI frameworks and approaches
• DevOps for AI
• Computer Vision topics such as object detection, image classification, and diffusion models
• Natural Language Processing including encoders, summarization, classification, entity recognition, and topic modeling
• Databases across SQL, NoSQL, vector, and graph systems
• Data engineering for distributed processing and orchestration (for example Spark, Hadoop, Ray, Dask, Kafka, Airflow, Dagster, and NiFi)
• MLOps practices such as model deployment, monitoring, reproducibility, and containerization

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, or a related field with 3 years of relevant experience.
• Alternatively, a PhD in a related field.

Clearance requirements

• Candidate must have a minimum clearance of: Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph.
• Candidate must have or obtain within one year from the date of hire: Top Secret/SCI/Polygraph.