AI and Data Science Solution Engineer

MIT Lincoln Laboratory; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Pension / MIT funds

Matching 401K

Paid leave

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA, seeks a technically seasoned staff member to lead complex, multi-domain initiatives applying advanced algorithms, AI/ML, and data science. You will guide teams, mentor engineers, and deliver high-impact prototypes and transition to operations.

You will interface with sponsors and leaders, translate broad strategies into executable plans, and advance mission needs through robust software frameworks and rigorous testing.

Qualifications

• Level 5/6 Technical Staff roles require advanced STEM education with multi-year experience and broad technical breadth.
• Ability to lead projects or major workstreams and deliver complex technical outcomes.
• Experience evaluating trade-offs, risk, and program direction across teams.
• Strong mentorship, collaboration, and clear communication of technical findings.

Responsibilities

• Lead projects or major workstreams involving multidisciplinary development, prototyping, integration, and transition.
• Apply deep technical judgment to solve complex, ambiguous problems and guide roadmaps.
• Translate objectives into actionable plans and influence architectures and priorities.
• Collaborate with sponsors, partners, and leaders to align priorities and deliverables.
• Mentor staff and emerging leaders, reviewing work and framing trade-offs.
• Contribute to technical reports, proposals, and papers advancing mission outcomes.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI/ML methods

Graph analytics

Mentorship

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in STEM

Master’s degree

PhD

Equivalent combination of education and experience

Tools

Python

GitHub

CI/CD practices

Job description

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The Homeland Sensors and Analytics Group designs, builds, and fields solutions that significantly enhance the tactical decision-making process of analysts and operators who secure the homeland. This includes security for critical infrastructure, land and maritime borders, transportation systems, and soft targets / crowded places. It also includes support for law enforcement, special operations, and intelligence analysts who track and disrupt transnational criminal and terrorist organizations. To do this, the group works on a combination of novel sensing technologies and data analytics techniques to provide better threat awareness to decision makers. The group designs systems that collect and process a wide range of data types — including radar, visible imagery and video, non-visible imagery, text, time-series data, and 3D point clouds — often applying advanced machine learning methods to convert raw data into actionable insights. The group places an emphasis on taking technology from the concept phase through deployment and transition to achieve operational impact.

Job Overview

MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Staff provide critical through expert multi-domain or new-domain innovative research supporting the Laboratory’s national security mission. They prototype state-of-the-art technology solutions and engage across the program lifecycle, leading projects or major/multiple technical workstreams in partnership with project, program and team/Group leaders. As a Technical Staff member, you will lead complex technical efforts requiring deep expertise, sound judgment, with the ability to successfully navigate technical complexity. Depending on the level, you will lead projects, major workstreams, complex programs, multi-program initiatives, or technical portfolios on extraordinary technology prototype efforts and creative new ideas and approaches that support critical mission needs. Depending on the level, you will translate broad Group strategy into clearly defined research or executional deliverables. Through integrating your deep technical expertise across disciplines, you consistently drive high-quality mission outcomes.

As a successful candidate, you will connect deep and diverse technical expertise with broader Laboratory objectives, perform independent research, develop creative approaches, and translate broad strategy into executable plans. You will work across or guide multidisciplinary teams through ambiguous trade-offs; helping develop and execute programs, creating briefings and reports, and often interfacing with sponsors. You effectively support sponsor, mission-partner, and Laboratory leadership’s needs through daily or weekly technical briefings, program documentation, proposals, and may conduct advanced capability road mapping and development. You will also guide and mentor Associate Technical Staff, Assistant Technical Staff, and other technical support personnel.

Additional Job Overview Details

The Homeland Sensors and Analytics group is seeking a researcher and engineer to build software solutions incorporating advanced algorithms, AI/ML, and data science models. This work will be performed as part of collaborative, interdisciplinary teams, with the selected candidate sometimes serving as the team lead. Specifically, the candidate will direct the design, software implementation, and testing of novel algorithms relevant to Homeland Security and Defense applications. Familiarity with AI/ML concepts (including frontier models), graph analytics, statistical models, or data science methods is considered important, as well as experience with the design and implementation of such methods within robust software frameworks. This position will provide the opportunity to learn about mission-relevant applications of data analytics tools, conduct independent research on applicable models and techniques, and enable the deployment of developed solutions to achieve operational impact. The position will also allow the candidate to interface with different agencies and user bases within the US Government, to discuss technical concepts, and present results.

Job Duties & Responsibilities

• Lead projects, complex programs, major technical workstreams, multi-program initiatives, or technical portfolios involving multidisciplinary development, analysis, prototyping, integration, testing, evaluation, and technology transition.
• Apply deep technical expertise and systems-level judgment to highly complex and ambiguous problems, evaluating alternatives, trade-offs, risks, stakeholder needs, and mission implications.
• Translate broad or unclear objectives into actionable technical plans and influence program direction, architectures, systems, priorities, and roadmaps across teams, Groups, or mission areas.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, sponsors, mission partners, and internal leaders to align priorities, resolve dependencies, and guide decisions and deliverables.
• Assess and improve technical tools, processes, methods, documentation, execution practices, and organizational capability.
• Serve as a technical resource and mentor by reviewing work, framing trade-offs and risks, and developing staff and emerging leaders.
• Contribute substantially to papers, reports, presentations, proposals, grants, roadmaps, and other materials that advance mission outcomes and technical direction.

Minimum Qualifications

Candidates will be considered for the appropriate level based on their education, experience, demonstrated technical expertise and breadth, leadership responsibilities, and the scale and complexity of programs or technical efforts they have led.

Level 5 – Technical Staff

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field and typically 6+ years of relevant experience; or Master’s degree and typically 4+ years of relevant experience; or PhD and typically 0+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Diverse technical expertise with demonstrated ability to adapt that expertise to unfamiliar or emerging disciplines, systems, mission areas, or methods.
• Established education, skills, and experience demonstrating the ability to apply significant technical judgment to broad challenges requiring integration across related systems or methods.
• Demonstrated ability to lead projects or major workstreams and deliver complex technical outcomes.
• Experience evaluating trade-offs, recommending paths forward, and adapting technical approaches to evolving project needs.
• Demonstrated mentorship, collaboration, and ability to communicate recommendations, risks, and technical findings to varied audiences.
• Experience contributing to technical reports, papers, presentations, proposals, or other formal technical deliverables.

Level 6 – Technical Staff

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline or other relevant technical field and typically 8+ years of relevant experience; or Master’s degree and typically 6+ years of relevant experience; or PhD and typically 2+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Deep and diverse technical expertise with demonstrated ability to integrate knowledge across domains and establish direction in evolving systems or mission areas.
• Established education, skills, and experience demonstrating the ability to incorporate technical judgment, program context, and stakeholder input to solve broad technical challenges.
• Proven experience leading complex programs, significant program elements, or multi-team technical efforts.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate alternatives, manage technical ambiguity, and influence decisions across teams or stakeholder groups.
• Strong record of mentorship, collaboration, technical communication, and contribution to team or Group capability development.
• Experience contributing to proposals, publications, technical reports, presentations, or other materials that shape program direction or technical initiatives.

Additional Minimum Qualifications

• Ph.D. in computer science, mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering, information science, applied mathematics, data science, or an equivalent field. In lieu of a Ph.D., a Masters with at least 4 years of directly related experience will be considered.
• Knowledge to develop, implement, test, and evaluate algorithms and software
• Proficiency with Python
• Experience with one or more common machine learning, computer vision, or natural language processing toolboxes
• Experience architecting and building software systems designed to meet end-user requirements.
• Ability to work both in a team-oriented environment and independently.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly share technical concepts with a wide spectrum of audiences.
• Experience with some software development best practices and collaboration tools (e.g., github)

Experience in the following areas is desired

• Statistical modeling and inference
• Social network analysis
• AI/ML models and methods
• Collection and analysis of publicly available information
• Familiarity with additional programming languages like C++ or Java.
• Experience with DevSecOps or CI/CD practices

Hiring Range: $140,000 - $187,000
Hiring Range 2: $155,000 - $207,000

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including—but not limited to—the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate’s experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements. This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work-life balance. Benefits offered to employees include:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
• MIT-funded pension
• Matching 401K
• Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)
• Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information; U.S. citizenship is required.