AI/ML Data Scientist & Systems Analyst — Onsite Lead

MIT Lincoln Laboratory; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 145,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Pension

401K matching

Paid leave

Job summary

MIT Lincoln Laboratory seeks a highly capable Data Scientist and/or Systems Analyst to provide technical leadership across AI/ML programs. You will work hands-on across the lifecycle—from model development to rigorous evaluation—while shaping reusable capabilities for national security applications.

You will lead teams, define research plans, and provide oversight, directing efforts across data strategy, architecture, and validation.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Data Science, Physics, Statistics, or related field; or Master’s with 7+ years of related experience.
• Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills with ability to generalize across data types and use cases.
• Experience applying AI/ML techniques to research questions or practical problems.
• Ability to lead small to medium teams and communicate with diverse stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Analyze user needs and operational constraints.
• Recommend technology capabilities, architecture, and data/ML pipelines.
• Design, prototype, and evaluate analytics and modeling solutions.
• Conduct technology verification and validation with users and subject‑matter experts.
• Collaborate with scientists, engineers, and analysts to translate work into mission capabilities.
• Communicate findings clearly to technical and non‑technical stakeholders.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Systems thinking

AI/ML experience

Leadership

Scientific writing

Stakeholder communication

Education

PhD in a related field

Master’s degree +7 years experience

Tools

AWS

Data lakes

RAG architectures

Prompt engineering

Job description

MIT Lincoln Laboratory seeks a highly capable Data Scientist and/or Systems Analyst to provide technical leadership across AI/ML programs. You will work hands-on across the lifecycle—from model development to rigorous evaluation—while shaping reusable capabilities for national security applications.

You will lead teams, define research plans, and provide oversight, directing efforts across data strategy, architecture, and validation.