{"id":892876,"url":"https://alion.io/job/covar-machine-learning-engineer","title":"Machine Learning Engineer","company":{"id":674282,"name":"CoVar","domain":"covar.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/covar","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":4,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["McLean, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":138000,"max_usd":265000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1332},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Computer Vision","optional":false},{"name":"Detectron2","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"NumPy","optional":false},{"name":"ONNX","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"PyTorch","optional":false},{"name":"SciPy","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Synthetic Data","optional":false},{"name":"TensorFlow","optional":false},{"name":"TensorRT","optional":false},{"name":"YOLO","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-03-05T16:07:54Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-31","last_verified_at":"2026-11-06T22:51:16Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":246,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":245},"description":"Machine Learning Engineer\nLocation: McLean, VA (hybrid); occasional travel to Durham, NC and customer sites \nAbout CoVar\nCoVar is a small AI/ML R&D software company with offices in Durham, NC and McLean, VA, that uses artificial intelligence to solve problems that matter. Our teams build AI/ML solutions that help the DoD detect enemies and threats, help biomedical researchers find new cures, and help monitor machinery to prevent injuries and environmental catastrophes. We are passionate engineers dedicated to pushing the bounds of what AI/ML can do in the real world. \nAbout the Role\nWe’re seeking a Senior ML Engineer (Technical Lead) with deep hands-on expertise in machine learning and computer vision, who can also lead DoD-focused programs, own customer engagement, contribute to business development, and help grow and manage a local engineering team in McLean over time. You’ll lead end-to-end technical delivery - from data to deployment - while serving as the primary technical point of contact for our customers. \nThis role is ideal for someone who enjoys building production-grade ML systems, mentoring engineers, and translating complex technical work into compelling customer outcomes. \nWhat You’ll Do \nLead programs end-to-end: Scope requirements, set technical strategy and milestones, plan resourcing, manage risks, and deliver results for DoD-focused ML/CV projects. \nOwn customer relationships: Run technical discussions, requirement discovery, demos, standing meetings, and briefings with senior stakeholders; turn feedback into clear roadmaps. \n Stay deeply hands-on (50 - 70%): Build data pipelines, train/evaluate CV models, and write production code.\nDesign, train, and optimize detection/segmentation/tracking models and custom computer-vision pipelines; handle imbalanced data, domain shift, and real-world constraints.\nDeploy models to production (typically on the edge), instrument for monitoring, and iterate with CI/CD.\n\nContribute to business development: Write technical sections of proposals/white papers, help shape capture strategy, provide level-of-effort estimates, and present prototypes. \nCommunicate and publish: Present results to high-level DoD and industry customers; author technical reports; publish novel work in classified/unclassified settings when applicable. \nMinimum Qualifications\n Experience: 5+ years designing, building, and deploying machine learning systems in production (8+ preferred). Strong track record leading technical delivery for complex projects. \n ML/CV expertise: Deep understanding of ML fundamentals (e.g., gradient descent, cross-validation, ROC/PR curves, confusion matrices, mAP).\nComputer vision experience with modern architectures (e.g., YOLO family, CenterNet, RetinaNet, Detectron2, ViTs, segmentation networks), augmentation strategies, and evaluation.\nExperience with data curation/annotation workflows and dataset quality control.\n\n Software engineering: Python (NumPy, scipy, pandas/polars), PyTorch (preferred) or TensorFlow, git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and code quality practices. \n MLOps & deployment: Experiment tracking, Docker, ONNX/TensorRT, deploying inference services to the edge (e.g., NVIDIA Jetson). \nCommunication & leadership: Excellent technical communication, customer-facing experience, and proven ability to lead cross-functional efforts. \nEducation: B.S. in engineering, math, computer science, or related field; M.S./Ph.D. preferred. \nClearance: Eligibility for U.S. security clearance. This requires U.S. citizenship. \nPreferred Qualifications (Bonus) \nPrior Department of Defense project experience, including briefing senior stakeholders and navigating DoD acquisition processes. \nActive Secret or TS/SCI clearance; experience working in classified environments. \nExperience managing or mentoring engineers; contributing to hiring and performance development. \nExperience with proposal writing (SBIR/STTR, RFPs), technical volume authorship, and live demos. \nExperience with multi-sensor fusion, signal-processing, tracking, synthetic data generation, domain adaptation, or semi/active learning for data-limited environments. \nFamiliarity with edge hardware optimization, and performance profiling. \nOpen-source contributions, publications, or patents in ML/CV.\nWhy This Role Matters \nYou’ll be a key technical leader in our McLean office - setting technical direction, building a local team, and ensuring our DoD partners see tangible mission impact from AI/ML solutions. If you thrive in high-impact environments where you can both build and lead, we’d love to talk. \nBenefits\nCompetitive salary, cash bonus, equity structure, and 401k with employer contributions\nExcellent health care coverage, including dental and vision plans\nParental leave\nShort-term and long-term disability insurance\nLife insurance\nFlexible work schedule\nTuition support\nPTO and paid holidays\nVisit us: www.covar.com","description_format":"text","description_chars":4917,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Equity","Flexible schedule","Life insurance","Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Machine Learning","Industrial AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-14T08:11:45Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":8,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.286,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":245,"expected_fill_days":36,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-11-06T05:58:05Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/covar-machine-learning-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/covar-machine-learning-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-06T23:03:39Z","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":1978,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-07T00:00:00Z"}},"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":674282},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=674282"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcovar-machine-learning-engineer"},{"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%2Fcovar-machine-learning-engineer"},{"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%2Fcovar-machine-learning-engineer"},{"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/covar-machine-learning-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcovar-machine-learning-engineer"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":892876}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"covar.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":892876},"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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