Senior ML Research Scientist — Frontier Lab

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

Benefits offered by this job

Tuition benefits

Paid time off

Retirement plan

Bus pass

On-site amenities

Job summary

Carnegie Mellon University’s SEI AI Division in Arlington, VA seeks a Senior Machine Learning Research Scientist for the Frontier Lab to lead applied research and prototype development supporting government missions.

You will operate with high autonomy, guiding technical work, while remaining hands-on in development, evaluation, and delivery. Collaboration across research and engineering efforts is expected.

Qualifications

• Requires PhD with 5+ years, MS with 8 years, or BS with 10 years of relevant experience.
• Deep expertise in frontier lab-aligned areas (agentic systems, LLM reliability/evaluation, CV evaluation, robustness/assurance, TEVV pipelines, multimodal learning, edge ML).
• Strong engineering capability to build prototypes, evaluation infra, and repeatable experiments.

Responsibilities

• Execute work within operational context, understanding users and workflows.
• Lead technical execution by defining tasks, milestones, and delivery quality.
• Design and run studies, build prototypes and reference implementations.
• Establish credible evaluation strategies and test pipelines for robustness and reliability.
• Serve as primary technical interface with customers; translate goals into measurable outcomes.
• Mentor junior staff and elevate research rigor and delivery habits across teams.
• Shape frontier lab directions and research agenda aligned with sponsor priorities.

Skills

Technical leadership

Mentorship

Time management

Communication skills

Research leadership

Education

PhD in related field

MS in related field

BS in CS/EE/Stats

Job description

Carnegie Mellon University’s SEI AI Division in Arlington, VA seeks a Senior Machine Learning Research Scientist for the Frontier Lab to lead applied research and prototype development supporting government missions.

You will operate with high autonomy, guiding technical work, while remaining hands-on in development, evaluation, and delivery. Collaboration across research and engineering efforts is expected.