{"id":119659,"url":"https://alion.io/job/cmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher","title":"Senior AI-Native Software Engineering Researcher","company":{"id":46403,"name":"Software Engineering Institute","domain":"sei.cmu.edu","url":"https://alion.io/company/sei-cmu","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":20,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":30,"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Pittsburgh, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":131000,"max_usd":244000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":3667},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agentic Workflows","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-30","last_verified_at":"2026-10-28T21:12:01Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":91,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":91},"description":"The future of software engineering is AI-native. Our team works to shape that future through pioneering research, practical engineering methods, and close collaboration with government, industry, and academia.\nAt the AI-Native Software Engineering Directorate, we focus on how today's engineering teams can quickly exploit emerging technologies and harness AI capabilities to create and evolve software quickly without losing fundamental software qualities.\nTo address this new world, we :\nstudy and guide industry and government teams’ use of AI in software engineering\ndistill best practices and lessons from experiments and experience to shape AI-native software engineering\npilot and transition improvements with organizations and measure their success\ncreate novel agents and agentic workflows to support software engineering\napply AI to accelerate architecture-scale modernization\nhelp organizations establish AI-native software engineering practices\nguide organizations in evolving their software with architecture and AI-native approaches\nOur overarching goal is to create new workflows and tools that enable AI-paced delivery of software without loss of quality. We're seeking candidates with a demonstrated track record who are motivated to shape AI-native software engineering.\nAI-Native Software Engineering Researcher\nAs an AI-Native Software Engineering Researcher, you will focus on conducting research in application of AI to industry and government scale software engineering problems, applying your research in government and industry settings, and disseminating results to engineering teams and the broader research and software engineering community. You will help shape our AI-Native Software Engineering strategy through exploration of challenges such as:\nassessing the rapidly changing capabilities of AI models and coding agents\nestablishing metrics that help organizations understand their use of AI in development and guiding them through improvements\nidentifying gaps in AI workflows that result in unnecessarily poor outcomes (e.g., excessive technical debt, bad architecture decisions, or frequent rework loops)\ncreating novel agents or agentic workflows\ncreating or adapting practices and workflows to embed software engineering discipline\nstudying the cost implications of AI and developing strategies for more efficient use of AI (e.g., context management, token management, and balancing use of AI with non-AI approaches)\nYou will have the opportunity to work with world class software engineers, researchers, and data scientists working on national and global scale problems.\nKnowledge, Skills and Abilities\nComprehensive knowledge of software engineering fundamentals\nAbility to keep up with and adapt to rapidly changing technical advances\nA track record of conducting research and applying scientific methods to solve difficult problems\nStrong written and verbal communication skills; ability to convey complex technical ideas in a layperson’s terms\nDemonstrated track record publishing in top tier peer-reviewed venues\nStrong collaboration skills for working with colleagues and sponsors\nProficiency in writing funding proposals or pitching ideas for new research projects \nWillingness and ability to guide and mentor junior team members\nRequirements\nA PhD with at least five (5) years of relevant experience.\nYou will be subject to a background investigation and you must be able to obtain and maintain a Department of War security clearance.\nWilling to travel up to 25% of the time to locations outside of your home location. Travel sites include SEI offices in Washington, D.C., sponsor sites, and conferences.\nDesired Experience\nExperience leading research projects in novel areas\nSuccessful application of AI to improve research or software engineering progress\nExperience working with software engineering teams on large industry or government projects\nExperience working with leadership to plan, develop, and deliver an overall technical strategy\nLocation\nPittsburgh, PAJob Function\nSoftware/Applications Development/EngineeringPosition Type\nStaff - RegularFull time/Part time\nFull timePay Basis\nSalaryMore Information:\nPlease visit “Why Carnegie Mellon ” to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world.\n\nClick here to view a listing of employee benefits\n\nCarnegie Mellon University is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran.\n\nStatement of Assurance","description_format":"text","description_chars":4453,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"phd","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Engineering Services","Research Institutes"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-30T00:00:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":12,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.412,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":90,"expected_fill_days":30,"reasons":["conf:10","stale_co","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-28T05:59:10Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/cmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/cmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-29T01:15:17Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1776,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-30T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":46403},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=46403"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/cmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcmu-senior-ai-native-software-engineering-researcher"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":119659}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"sei.cmu.edu","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":119659},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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