Senior Data Scientist & National Security AI Lead

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Richland, Seattle (WA, WA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 229,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Health savings account

401(k) with company match

Job summary

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead cutting-edge applied research for national-security applications. You will design evaluation harnesses, develop test & evaluation methods, and shape the technical direction of large programs.

You will own critical workstreams and mentor staff, while securing funding aligned with AI research capabilities. The role requires onsite work in Richland, WA or Seattle, WA, and the ability to obtain a federal security

Qualifications

• BS/BA and 5+ years of data science experience -OR-
• MS/MA and 3+ years of data science experience -OR-
• PhD with 1+ year of data science experience
• Experience setting technical direction and leading technical work of yourself and others on research projects.

Responsibilities

• Own defined workstreams evaluating LLMs, VLMs, AI agents, agentic workflows, and integrated AI systems for national-security missions.
• Translate complex national security mission needs into strategic T&E frameworks, operational scenarios, evaluation criteria, and technical approaches for generative AI.
• Mentor junior staff and interns and coordinate work across multidisciplinary teams to grow junior staff into technical leaders.
• Design evaluation plans that integrate aggregate performance measures with behavioral analysis, failure characterization, robust testing, calibration, and uncertainty.
• Select, design, and/or develop evaluation environments, test harnesses, agentic harnesses, datasets, baselines, rubrics, and automated graders.
• Synthesize evaluation results and present technical reports and briefings to sponsors and domain experts.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

Data analysis

Machine learning

Team mentoring

Security clearance

Education

B.S./B.A. in data science

M.S./M.A. in a relevant field

PhD in a relevant field

Tools

Git

GitLab

Jira

Confluence

Job description

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is seeking a Senior Data Scientist to lead cutting-edge applied research for national-security applications. You will design evaluation harnesses, develop test & evaluation methods, and shape the technical direction of large programs.

You will own critical workstreams and mentor staff, while securing funding aligned with AI research capabilities. The role requires onsite work in Richland, WA or Seattle, WA, and the ability to obtain a federal security