Senior Principal Applied Scientist

Siemens; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 197,000 - 267,000; Full time

Job summary

Siemens is seeking a Senior Principal Applied Scientist in Washington, DC to set the scientific direction for a pod and own the path from research to production. You will lead end-to-end applied research, design evaluation frameworks, and mentor teams, influencing architectural choices with rigorous evidence.

You will collaborate with engineers to deploy robust, production-grade pipelines, manage data quality, model drift, and safety, and champion responsible AI with strong communication to

Qualifications

• 10+ years in applied machine learning, AI research, or data science.
• Strong foundation in ML theory and practice across training, evaluation, and deployment.
• Proven ability to set science direction and ship results to production.
• Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks and toolchains.
• Track record of building evaluation/benchmarking for a roadmap.

Responsibilities

• Set the applied science roadmap for the pod and influence technical direction.
• Design and own evaluation/benchmarks for generative and predictive models.
• Lead end-to-end applied research projects from literature review to production.
• Collaborate with engineers to deploy models in production-grade pipelines.
• Mentor scientists/engineers on rigor, reproducibility, and documentation.
• Champion responsible and trustworthy AI with bias detection and risk management.

Skills

ML theory

Production ML

Communication

Science direction

Mentoring

Tools

Python

ML frameworks

Job description

Siemens builds the systems the physical world runs on: factories, power grids, buildings, trains, hospitals. Industrial and physical AI is a major opportunity in applied AI, and one of the harder ones to get right. There is a generation of AI-powered products to build.

We are an applied science organization building the science behind them. The work sits at the intersection of machine learning research, real world data, and production systems running in industrial environments.

As Senior Principal Applied Scientist, you set the scientific direction for the pod. You decide which problems are worth solving with ML, what methods to apply, how to evaluate them, and how to move them from a research result to a model that runs in production. You are accountable for the science: the rigor, the evidence, and the outcomes.

This is a senior individual contributor role. Your impact comes from owning the hypotheses, the evaluation, and the path from research to production, and from raising the scientific bar across the team.

Key responsibilities

• Set the applied science roadmap for the pod across the core AI capabilities the product depends on, for example multimodal perception, computer vision, language and agentic reasoning, time series modeling, control

• Convert product and system requirements into clear research questions, hypotheses, and success metrics

• Design and own the evaluation and benchmarking frameworks for generative and predictive models, including offline metrics, online experimentation, and robustness testing in industrial conditions

• Lead applied research projects end to end, from literature review and method selection through experimentation, ablation, and productization

• Work with engineers to take models into production grade pipelines: data readiness, optimization, inference, observability

• Influence architectural and system decisions with scientific evidence and tradeoff analysis

• Identify and de-risk scaling challenges: data quality, model drift, latency, throughput, cost, safety

• Mentor scientists and engineers on experimentation rigor, reproducibility, and documentation

• Champion responsible and trustworthy AI: bias detection, model risk management, human in the loop controls

Basic qualifications

• 10+ years in applied machine learning, AI research, or data science, with a track record of models that shipped to production and made an impact

• Strong foundation in machine learning theory and practice across training, evaluation, and deployment

• Demonstrated experience setting the science direction for a portfolio of work and shipping it through to production with engineering teams

• Proficiency in Python and modern ML frameworks and toolchains

• Track record of building evaluation and benchmarking that the team can run a roadmap against

• Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to explain complex ML concepts to engineers, product managers, and senior leaders

Preferred qualifications

• Experience setting science direction across multiple capability areas at the same time

• Experience bringing applied research into real world products in industrial or physical domains: manufacturing, automation, robotics, energy, mobility, infrastructure, healthcare

• Breadth across multimodal ML, generative AI, retrieval, agentic workflows, control, or planning

• Scientific ML for physical systems: surrogate modeling, operator learning, physics-informed ML, geometry-aware ML, differentiable simulation, AI for semiconductor/EDA

• Experience standing up evaluation, online experimentation, or production monitoring as practices, not just for a single model

• Publications, patents, open source contributions, or significant internal technology transfers that the field can point to

• Experience hiring and mentoring senior or staff level scientists

• Experience working with globally distributed research, product, or engineering organizations

About the Team:

We are an early-stage engineering team solving hard technical problems at the intersection of AI, systems, and real-world interaction. We operate with high autonomy, collaborate closely across functions, and maintain high technical standards. Principal Engineers at our company are expected to lead by example, model engineering excellence, and shape both what we build and how we build it.

Our Commitment to Equity and Inclusion in our Diverse Global Workforce:

We value your unique identity and perspective. We are fully committed to providing equitable opportunities and building a workplace that reflects the diversity of society, while ensuring that we attract the best talent based on qualifications, skills, and experiences. We welcome you to bring your authentic self and transform the everyday with us.

You’ll Benefit From

Siemens offers a variety of health and wellness benefits to our employees. Details regarding our benefits can be found here: https://www.benefitsquickstart.com/siemens/index.html
The pay range for this position is $197,268 - $267,036 annually with a target incentive of 20% of the base salary. The actual wage offered may be lower or higher depending on budget and candidate experience, knowledge, skills, qualifications, and premium geographic location.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

Siemens is an Equal Opportunity Employer encouraging inclusion in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship status, ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability unrelated to ability, marital status, family responsibilities, pregnancy, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, transgender, sex stereotyping, order of protection status, protected veteran or military status, or an unfavorable discharge from military service, and other categories protected by federal, state or local law.

EEO is the Law

Applicants and employees are protected from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any characteristic protected by Federal or other applicable law.

Reasonable Accommodations

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Pay Transparency

Siemens follows Pay Transparency laws.

Application Deadline

This role will be posted for a minimum of five (5) days from the original posting date. The posting timeline may change based on applicant volume to ensure we attract and consider a strong and representative candidate pool.

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Criminal History

Qualified applications with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable local and state laws.