Data Scientist and/or Systems Analyst

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

The Bioanalytics Systems & Technologies Group focuses on driving analytic and Al/ML solutions that leverage vast and rapidly expanding biological datasets to address national security needs. The Group’s efforts include developing software architectures and systems, bioinformatics tools, and AI algorithms to further the nation’s efforts in biomedical, health, chemical and biological defense, biosecurity, public and global health and warfighter performance.

Job Description

Our group is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Data Scientist and/or Systems Analyst to contribute technical leadership across a range of programs. This role is well-suited to someone who can work hands‑on across the AI/ML lifecycle — from generative modeling and data strategy through rigorous evaluation — while helping shape methods and tools that generalize across data modalities and mission applications. As Technical Staff, you will also be a principal investigator for projects, lead teams, define research plans, and provide technical oversight.

The work of the group is highly collaborative and interdisciplinary. Accordingly, the backgrounds of the researchers and program teams are diverse. As Technical Staff, you will work with your team to understand and support success by prototyping capabilities and solutions and providing recommendations regarding technology capabilities, requirements, architectures, and pipelines to provide guidance and meet the needs of the U.S. government in developing advanced technologies and algorithms. You will bring a systems-analysis mindset to connect data, model development, and capability evaluation into coherent, reusable technical approaches. You will work with your team to understand and support mission success by:

• Analyzing user needs and operational constraints
• Providing recommendations regarding technology capabilities, requirements, architecture, and data/ML pipelines
• Designing, prototyping, and evaluating analytics and modeling solutions
• Designing and conducting technology verification and validation, including testing software and systems with users or subject‑matter experts in realistic settings
• Collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, including scientists, engineers, and analysts—to translate technical work into mission‑relevant capabilities
• Communicating technical findings and recommendations clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders

Job Requirements

Requirements:

• Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Data Science, Physics, Statistics, or a related scientific field. In lieu of a Ph.D., a master’s degree with 7+ years of directly related experience may be considered. Additional experience beyond the Ph.D. is a plus.
• Strong analytical and systems‑thinking skills, with the ability to design approaches that generalize across data types and use cases.
• Ability to frame the “big picture” motivations, operational constraints, and stakeholder needs around an issue, while knowing when and how to dig into the underlying technical details.
• Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML techniques to answer research questions or solve practical technical problems.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively and to lead small to medium teams of diverse backgrounds and skillsets to execute a technical vision and deliver program success.
• Demonstrated skills in scientific writing and clear presentation of technical materials to varied audiences, including both technical experts and non‑technical stakeholders (e.g., clinicians, sponsors, program managers).
• This position is onsite only.

Experience with one or more of the following is a plus:

• Developing solutions in cloud environments such as AWS, and working with data lakes/warehouses
• Data curation, annotation, integration, harmonization, and building scalable ML data pipelines
• Simulation environments, digital twins, or synthetic data generation for training and validating algorithms
• Systems analysis using modeling and simulation to understand key trade‑offs in complex systems
• Designing or applying evaluation frameworks and metrics for AI model/system performance and trustworthiness
• Health or healthcare‑related data/analytics, including electronic health record (EHR) data structures and clinical data standards
• Hands‑on experience with generative modeling techniques and/or LLM‑based tool development (e.g., RAG architectures, prompt engineering, model evaluation)

• Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $145,200 - $170,000
• Experienced Hiring Range: $145,200 - $220,000

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.