AI Engineer - Mission Innovation Lab

Carnegie Mellon University; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, prescription, dental, and VIS

Retirement plan with employer contrib.

Tuition benefits

Paid time off and holidays

Life and AD&D insurance

Bus pass and family support programs

Job summary

Carnegie Mellon University’s SEI AI Division in Arlington, VA seeks an AI Engineer who blends deep‑learning research with production‑grade software to deliver mission‑critical capabilities for defense and national security. The role involves designing, fine‑tuning models, building end‑to‑end data pipelines, and implementing secure CI/CD in a government‑sponsored environment.

You will collaborate with senior researchers and sponsors to translate research into robust AI capabilities, working

Qualifications

• Eight+ years of related experience or five+ years with an MS.
• Proficiency in Python and a compiled language (C/C++ or Java).
• Background investigation and DoW security clearance eligibility.
• Onsite 5 days/week at SEI office in Pittsburgh, PA or Arlington, VA.
• Experience with ML, LLMs, PEFT/LoRA, and data pipelines.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and fine‑tune AI models for mission capabilities.
• Build autonomous agents and multi‑step pipelines; use LangChain and tool‑calling.
• Create retrieval‑augmented generation pipelines for factual accuracy.
• Develop end‑to‑end data pipelines and back‑end services (Python, C/C++, Java).
• Set up CI/CD, containerization, and security scanning; manage model registries.
• Mentor junior staff and collaborate with government sponsors on design reviews.

Skills

Python

C/C++

Java

ML theory

LLM fine-tuning

PEFT/LoRA

LangChain

RAG pipelines

ModelContext protocols

DevSecOps awareness

TensorFlow/PyTorch/JAX

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science / ML / Applied Math

MS degree with 5+ years experience

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

REST/GraphQL APIs

Airflow / Prefect / Ray

Hugging Face Transformers

LangChain

Model registries / CI-CD tooling

Job description

At the SEI AI Division, we conduct research in applied artificial intelligence and the engineering questions related to the practical design and implementation of AI technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to mature the discipline of AI Engineering for Defense and National Security.

As our government customers adopt AI and machine learning to provide leap-ahead mission capabilities, we

• build real-world, mission-scale AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems
• discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for robust, secure, scalable, and human-centered mission capabilities
• prepare our customers to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, and maintaining AI capabilities
• identify and investigate emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape

Are you creative, curious, energetic, collaborative, technology-focused, and hard-working? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to government organizations and beyond? Apply to join our team.

Overview

As an AI Engineer who thrives at the intersection of deep‑learning research and production‑grade software development, you will translate cutting‑edge AI concepts into robust, mission‑scale solutions for the warfighting community. You will work comfortably with large‑scale foundation models such as GPT and LLaMA, designing and deploying agentic workflows, as well as apply and advance traditional ML research and engineering across domains such as natural language processing, computer vision, time series forecasting, and other predictive analytics. You will collaborate closely with senior researchers, software engineers, and government sponsors to define problem statements, iterate on experimental designs, and deliver secure, reliable AI capabilities that meet stringent mission requirements.

The Mission Innovation Lab within the SEI’s AI Division works with the defense and national security community to translate the “recently possible” in AI into reliable mission and warfighting capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and fine‑tune a variety of AI models.
• Design autonomous agents and multi‑step pipelines using LangChain, ReAct, tool‑calling, or custom orchestration; employ the ModelContext protocol to manage stateful interactions.
• Build Retrieval‑Augmented Generation pipelines that combine external knowledge bases with LLMs to improve factual accuracy for warfighting applications.
• Implement end‑to‑end data pipelines, ETL processes, and back‑end services (Python, C/C++, Java) that feed data to models.
• Create CI/CD pipelines for model training, validation, containerized deployment (Docker/Kubernetes), and security scanning; maintain model registries, monitoring, and version control of context protocols.
• Produce rapid prototypes, run benchmarks, and conduct robustness/adversarial testing in realistic environments.
• Work closely with senior ML engineers, software developers, and government customers; mentor junior staff and contribute to design reviews and documentation.
• Stay current with emerging LLM architectures, agentic paradigms, PEFT/LoRA methods, and AI‑safety techniques; translate new research into operational capabilities.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field with at least eight (8) years of relevant experience, or a MS degree in the same with at least five (5) years of relevant experience.
• You will be subject to a background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain an active Department of War (DoW) security clearance.
• You must be able and willing to work onsite 5 days per week at an SEI office in either Pittsburgh, PA or Arlington, VA.
• Proficiency in Python and at least one compiled language (C/C++ or Java); experience with REST/GraphQL APIs and containerization.
• Strong grasp of ML theory (supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement learning) and evaluation metrics.
• Hands‑on experience fine‑tuning LLMs and using frameworks such as Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, or comparable agent tools.
• Familiarity with building RAG pipelines (vector stores, dense/sparse retrievers).
• Experience applying PEFT/LoRA methods (e.g., LoRA, adapters) to large models.
• Understanding of ModelContext protocols for managing model state across multi‑turn interactions.
• Experience building evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, or data quality pipelines
• Experience with TensorFlow, PyTorch, or JAX; knowledge of data‑pipeline tools (Airflow, Prefect, Ray) is a plus.
• Awareness of DevSecOps practices (CI/CD, GitOps, container security scanning, model‑registry concepts) is desirable.

Desired Experience

• Deploying LLM APIs (FastAPI, gRPC) at scale, handling latency and load balancing.
• Building multi‑tool agents, planner‑executor loops, or tool‑calling pipelines for complex decision‑making.
• Conducting adversarial testing, implementing input sanitization, and contributing to AI‑safety research.
• Utilizing GPU/TPU resources, mixed‑precision training, and distributed training frameworks such as DeepSpeed or ZeRO.
• Prior work on defense, intelligence, or government‑focused AI projects and familiarity with DoW acquisition or compliance processes.
• Contributing to open‑source AI and ML libraries, agentic frameworks, or context‑protocol implementations.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Analytical thinking: decompose complex AI problems into tractable components and iterate rapidly.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for documenting designs and presenting results to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Proven teamwork: collaborate in interdisciplinary groups, mentor peers, and contribute to shared codebases.
• High curiosity and autonomy: proactively explore emerging technologies and integrate them into mission work.

Joining the CMU team opens the door to an array of exceptional benefits.

Benefits eligible employees enjoy a wide array of benefits including comprehensive medical, prescription, dental, and vision insurance as well as a generous retirement savings program with employer contributions. Unlock your potential with tuition benefits, take well-deserved breaks with ample paid time off and observed holidays, and rest easy with life and accidental death and disability insurance.

Additional perks include a free Pittsburgh Regional Transit bus pass, access to our Family Concierge Team to help navigate childcare needs, fitness center access, and much more!

For a comprehensive overview of the benefits available, explore our Benefits page.

At Carnegie Mellon, we value the whole package when extending offers of employment. Beyond credentials, we evaluate the role and responsibilities, your valuable work experience, and the knowledge gained through education and training. We appreciate your unique skills and the perspective you bring. Your journey with us is about more than just a job; it’s about finding the perfect fit for your professional growth and personal aspirations.

Are you interested in an exciting opportunity with an exceptional organization?! Apply today!

Location

Arlington, VA, Pittsburgh, PA

Job Function

Software/Applications Development/Engineering

Position Type

Staff – Regular

Full Time/Part time

Full time

Pay Basis

Salary

More Information:

• Please visit “Why Carnegie Mellon” to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world.
• Click here to view a listing of employee benefits
• Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.
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