At the SEI AI Division, we conduct research in applied artificial intelligence and the engineering questions related to the practical design and implementation of AI technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to mature the discipline of AI Engineering for Defense and National Security.
As our government customers adopt AI and machine learning to provide leap-ahead mission capabilities, we
build real-world, mission-scale AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems
discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for robust, secure, scalable, and human-centered mission capabilities
prepare our customers to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, andmaintainingAI capabilities
identifyand investigate emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape
Are you creative, curious, energetic, collaborative, technology-focused, and hard-working? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to government organizations and beyond? Apply to join our team.
Overview
As an associate AI Engineer who thrives at the intersection of deep-learning research and production-grade software development, you will translate cutting-edge AI concepts into robust, mission-scale solutions for the warfighting community. You will work comfortably with large-scale foundation models such as GPT and LLaMA, designing and deploying agentic workflows, as well as apply and advance traditional ML research and engineering across domains such as natural language processing, computer vision, time series forecasting, and other predictive analytics. You will collaborate closely with senior researchers, software engineers, and government sponsors to define problem statements, iterate on experimental designs, and deliver secure, reliable AI capabilities that meet stringent mission requirements.
The Mission Innovation Lab within the SEI's AI Division works with the defense and national security community to translate the "recently possible" in AI into reliable mission and warfighting capabilities.
Key Responsibilities
Design, develop,and fine-tunea variety of AI models.
Design autonomous agents and multi-step pipelines usingLangChain,ReAct, tool-calling, or custom orchestration; employ the Model?Context protocol to manage stateful interactions.
Build Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipelines that combine external knowledge bases with LLMs to improve factual accuracy forwarfightingapplications.
Implement end-to-end data pipelines, ETL processes, and back-end services (Python, C/C++, Java) that feed data to models.
Create CI/CD pipelines for model training, validation, containerized deployment (Docker/Kubernetes), and security scanning;maintainmodel registries, monitoring, and version control of @context protocols.
Produce rapid proto@types, run benchmarks, and conduct robustness/adversarial testing in realistic environments.
Work closely with senior ML engineers, software developers, and government customers; mentor junior staff and contribute to design reviews and documentation.
Stay current with emerging LLM architectures, agentic paradigms, PEFT/LoRAmethods, and AI-safety techniques; translate new research into operational capabilities.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science,Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field with at least 3 years of relevant experience (or an M.S. with 1 year)
You will be subject to a background investigation and must be able to obtain andmaintainan active Department ofWar(DoW) security clearance.
You must be able and willing to work onsite 5 days per week at an SEI office in either Pittsburgh, PA or Arlington, VA.
Proficiencyin Python and at least one compiled language (C/C++ or Java); experience with REST/GraphQLAPIs and containerization.
Strong grasp ofMLtheory (supervised, unsupervised, reinforcement learning) and evaluation metrics.
Hands-on experience fine-tuning LLMs and using frameworks such as Hugging Face Transformers,LangChain, or comparable agent tools.
Familiarity with building RAG pipelines (vector stores, dense/sparse retrievers).
Experience applying PEFT/LoRAmethods (e.g.,LoRA, adapters) to large models.
Understanding of Model?Context protocols for managing model state across multi-turn interactions.
Experience building evaluation frameworks, benchmarks, or data quality pipelines
Experience with TensorFlow,PyTorch, or JAX; knowledge of data-pipeline tools (Airflow, Prefect, Ray) is a plus.
Awareness ofDevSecOpspractices (CI/CD,GitOps, container security scanning, model-registry concepts) is desirable.
Desired Experience
Deploying LLM APIs (FastAPI,gRPC) at scale, handlinglatencyand load balancing.
Building multi-tool agents, planner-executor loops, or tool-calling pipelines for complex decision-making.
Conducting adversarial testing, implementing input sanitization, and contributing to AI-safety research.
Utilizing GPU/TPU resources, mixed-precision training, and distributed training frameworks such asDeepSpeedorZeRO.
Prior work on defense, intelligence, or government-focused AI projects and familiarity withDoWacquisition or compliance processes.
Contributing to open-source AIandMLlibraries, agentic frameworks, or @context-protocol implementations.
Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities
Analytical thinking: decompose complex AI problems into tractable components and iterate rapidly.
Strong written and verbal communicationskillsfor documenting designs and presenting results to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Proven teamwork: collaborate in interdisciplinary groups, mentor peers, and contribute to shared codebases.
High curiosity and autonomy: proactively explore emerging technologies and integrate them into mission work.
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Job Function
Software/Applications Development/Engineering
Position Type
Staff - Regular
Full time/Part time
Full time
Pay Basis
Salary
More Information:
Please visit "Why Carnegie Mellon (http://www.cmu.edu/jobs/why-cmu/index.html) " to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world.
Click here (https://www.cmu.edu/jobs/benefits-at-a-glance/) to view a listing of employee benefits
Carnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran .
Statement of Assurance (https://www.cmu.edu/policies/administrative-and-governance/statement-of-assurance.html)
Always focused on the future, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) advances software as a strategic advantage for national security. We lead research and direct transition of software engineering, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence technologies at the intersection of academia, industry, and government. We serve the nation as a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and are based at Carnegie Mellon University, a global research university annually rated among the best for its programs in computer science and engineering.
Our people apply special knowledge and skills and are part of an elite research university. We perform research and apply our expertise every day to foresee problems and exploit opportunities in software engineering, AI engineering, and cybersecurity. Quality software that is secure will control the future. At CMU SEI, we are engineering that ever-greater software-fueled future.
Need Help?
For technical assistance, email hr-help@andrew.cmu.edu or call 412-268-4600.
If you are an individual with a disability and you require assistance with the job application process, please contact Equal Opportunity Services by emailing employeeaccess@andrew.cmu.edu or calling 412-268-3930.
