Lead AI Scientist, Agentic Knowledge Retrieval

Air; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 140,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Air is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to provide visionary technical leadership for AI and data science initiatives supporting national security clients. You will spearhead end-to-end AI solutions, including agentic search, deep research, retrieval, and scalable platforms.

Strong emphasis on leadership, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and rapid prototyping. You will mentor engineers, guide model strategies, and ensure robust architectures throughout the Air Enterprise Readiness

Qualifications

• Minimum 7+ years as a Data Scientist in industry.
• Experience leading large AI projects end-to-end.
• Strong understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Proficiency with embedding models and multi-modal AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and development of the 'Air Brain' AI system.
• Define multi-year AI roadmap aligned with business and defense domains.
• Mentor senior engineers and build high-performing teams.
• Deliver production-ready AI solutions integrated with client data platforms.
• Collaborate with AI Research, Data Engineering and Software Development teams.

Skills

Data science leadership

AI/ML

RAG architectures

Multi-modal embeddings

Knowledge graphs

Leadership & mentoring

Problem solving

Tools

Claude Code

Vector databases

BM25

MLOps

Job description

Air is seeking a Lead Data Scientist to provide visionary technical leadership for AI and data science initiatives supporting national security clients. You will spearhead end-to-end AI solutions, including agentic search, deep research, retrieval, and scalable platforms.

Strong emphasis on leadership, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and rapid prototyping. You will mentor engineers, guide model strategies, and ensure robust architectures throughout the Air Enterprise Readiness