As a Senior Machine Learning Research Scientist in the Frontier Lab at SEI AI Division, you will serve as a senior individual contributor and technical leader, shaping and executing applied research and prototype capability development for government missions. This role involves high autonomy and hands-on work across the research-engineering spectrum, focusing on areas such as agentic AI, AI test evaluation, mission-tailored language models, multimodal learning, and tactical edge computing. You will lead technical execution, design studies, build prototypes, establish credible evaluation strategies, mentor junior staff, and engage with external communities to shape future work directions. The ideal candidate has a deep expertise in relevant areas, strong engineering capabilities, and the ability to communicate effectively with senior stakeholders. Experience leading applied research projects, designing TEVV efforts, and working within secure or operational environments is highly desired.
Lead technical execution by defining tasking and sequencing work into realistic milestones.
Design and run studies to produce evidence-backed insights for operational settings.
Establish credible evaluation strategies and test pipelines for mission-representative scenarios.
Serve as the primary technical interface, translating mission goals into measurable outcomes.
Proactively mentor junior staff, raising the bar for research rigor and engineering practice.
Maintain awareness of frontier developments and help shape future research directions.
Manage multiple priorities effectively with minimal oversight.
What we're looking for
PhD with 5 years or MS with 8 years of relevant experience in AI, ML, Computer Science.
Deep expertise in agentic systems, LLM reliability, CV evaluation, robustness/assurance, TEVV pipelines, multimodal learning, edge ML.
Strong engineering capability to build and maintain high-quality prototypes and evaluation infrastructure.
Proven ability to lead technical workstreams and coordinate multi-person execution effectively.
Demonstrated experience in designing and operating AI test, evaluation, verification, and validation efforts.
Ability to mentor junior staff and raise the bar for research rigor and delivery habits across teams.
Market check
Salary context
This listing doesn't show a salary. Similar roles on FindRole typically pay
$155,420–$236,400.
Peer median band
$155,420–$236,400
Median floor and ceiling across peers.
Typical midpoint (25–75%)
$162,000–$238,250
Middle half of comparable postings.
Based on 240 comparable postings.*
* 240 is the maximum number of comparable postings sampled.
Employer
About Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a leading private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, internationally recognized for programs in computer science, engineering, business, the arts, and artificial intelligence. Industry: Higher Education & Research
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