Forward Deployed Senior Data Scientist

Company Description

Air is the leader in Enterprise Readiness. Our mission is to establish readiness as a real-time condition that is continuously achieved. Today, a dangerous Readiness Gap exists between what the front line needs and what is delivered. Our AI-native platform, Air Enterprise Readiness, aligns development, production, delivery, and sustainment into one coordinated execution system for government agencies and industrial suppliers. By revealing true capacity, exposing real constraints, coordinating resources, and executing at the speed of operational demands, the front line gets what it needs to succeed.

Job Description

We are seeking an inquisitive Data Scientist to join our team, leveraging deep expertise in Artificial Intelligence and a keen understanding of complex Defense Acquisition challenges. Your primary focus will be to work with our proprietary and commercial datasets to find critical connections, derive actionable knowledge, and identify potential issues that help our government clients make more informed decisions. Your role will involve designing, developing, and rapidly deploying scalable AI solutions that transform these insights into mission-critical capabilities. You will have the opportunity to expand and grow data-driven research across Air, leading new areas to apply advanced analytics to drive strategic business and national security results. As part of our team, you must be an AI expert with a strong command of data science fundamentals and a proven ability to bring data-driven solutions to life within the defense ecosystem.

In order to do this job well, you must be a highly organized problem-solver and possess excellent oral and written communication skills, capable of translating complex AI concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences. You are independent, driven, and motivated to jump in and roll up your sleeves to get the job done. You lead by influence and motivation. You have a passion for great work and nothing less than your best will do. You share our intolerance of mediocrity. You’re uber-smart, challenged by figuring things out and producing simple, impactful AI solutions to complex defense problems. Knowing there are always multiple answers to a problem, you know how to engage in a constructive dialogue to find the best path forward. You’re scrappy. We like scrappy. We need a creative, out-of-the-box thinker who shares our passion and obsession with quality and rapid prototyping/deployment.

This role is a full-time position located out of our office in Arlington, VA, Pittsburgh, PA, or Remote. 

This role may require up to 60% travel.

Scope of Responsibilities

• Develop AI/ML/DS systems to address defense problems.
• Develop new AI-based stack of technologies for particular customer needs.
• Development of evaluation solutions for AI deployments.
• Lead the end-to-end execution of AI projects, ensuring alignment with strategic objectives and timely delivery.
• Work closely with partner teams, including AI research, data engineering, and software development, to deliver robust AI systems.
• Collaborate with the AI leadership to clearly define product and applications scope, translating high-level requirements into actionable technical plans and delivering AI platforms and solutions.
• Drive the development of scalable, AI-based platforms designed to support and power solutions for a diverse range of customers within the defense ecosystem.
• Champion the introduction of new AI innovations. Stay current with the rapidly evolving fields of Artificial Intelligence, Large Language Models (LLMs), and agentic systems, and actively transfer this knowledge and best practices for implementation across the team.
• Mentor and guide other team members, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and high-impact work.
• Create agentic AI systems, using AI orchestrators and particular AI reasoning capabilities as tools.

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship is required

Required Skills: 

• Oversee the full lifecycle of AI projects within Air AI ecosystem.
• Understanding of coding AI (such as Claude Code) and experience how to use it to scale up AI team deliveries
• Ensure timely project delivery and strategic goal alignment.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (AI Research, Data Engineering, Software Development).  
• Define robust software architecture for AI systems  and project roadmaps.
• Translate high-level AI system requirements into actionable technical plans.
• Deliver production-ready AI solutions integrated with clients data platforms and workflows.
• Drive the implementation of scalable AI/ML platforms.
• Maintain deep expertise in cutting-edge AI, including LLMs and agentic systems. Train models, build systems based on AI innovations
• Champion innovation and best practices across the organization.
• Mentor and coach team members.
• Foster a high-performing culture of technical excellence and continuous growth.
• Demonstrate strong National Security domain knowledge.

Desired Skills: 

• A strong publication record in the top conferences in one of the AI, ML NLP, decision science areas
• Deep knowledge of LLM and Agentic system evaluation, experience in building evaluation systems
• Experience in LLM posttraining or fine tuning 
• Experience with MLOps practices, including deployment, monitoring, and management of large-scale models in cloud environments (e.g., GCP, AWS, Azure).
• Track record of successfully transitioning AI research prototypes into robust, production-grade enterprise solutions

We firmly believe that past performance is the best indicator of future performance.  If you thrive while building solutions to complex problems, are a self-starter, and are passionate about making an impact in global security, we’re eager to hear from you.

Air is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans status or any other characteristic protected by law.