What We Do:

At the Software Engineering Institute Artificial Intelligence Division, we conduct applied research and development in artificial intelligence for the practical design and implementation of AI technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to promote and advance the discipline of AI Engineering for defense and national Security.

To accelerate the adoption of AI for defense and national security mission capabilities, we

• Prototype real-world, mission-focused AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems

• Discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for robust, secure, and mission-worthy capabilities

• Conduct applied research in emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape

• Prepare mission partners to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, and maintaining AI capabilities

Are you creative, curious, and collaborative? Do you enjoy doing meaningful and complex work? Do you like to move fast and make things? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to the defense and national security community? Apply to join our team.

Position Summary:

As the Chief Engineer of our team, you will lead initiatives and/or teams of engineers, developers, analysts, and researchers to apply software and AI research, along with leading-edge technologies, to complex and challenging national security problems and mission needs.

Requirements:

• National Security Technology Leadership: You demonstrate knowledge and experience in defense and national security technologies and missions, including current and emerging priorities and challenges. You have significant experience leading the design and development of technology for mission applications. You are discerning and can demonstrate your role in driving high-impact solutions.

• Technical Expertise: You have a successful track record of leading, managing, and executing advanced technology development. You demonstrate a clear understanding of AI technologies and how to build AI systems. You demonstrate a clear understanding of AI Engineering and current trends in AI technologies. You effectively utilize modern technology development practices and demonstrate an ability to find the appropriate approaches across the spectrum of technology maturity.

• Innovation-Minded: You have an interest in and awareness of technology trends and opportunities. You naturally see opportunities to leverage emerging technologies to provide new and leap-ahead mission capabilities. You demonstrate an understanding of innovation practices; rapid, iterative technology development approaches; and methods to co-evolve mission workflows along with technology development to achieve high-impact outcomes.

• Talent Development: You have experience building and developing strong, interdisciplinary technical teams. You know your leadership style and have experience building, mentoring, and empowering designers, developers, and innovation teams.

• Managing in a Dynamic Environment: You have experience managing multiple simultaneous projects and thrive in a creative and high-energy environment. You are willing to experiment with new practices and develop effective processes, practices, and infrastructure to support great technology development.

• Customer and Mission Focused: You have a passion for understanding real-world problems and driving projects to find meaningful high-impact solutions that drive positive mission outcomes.

• Technical Pragmatism: While holding the big picture in mind you can predict the realities of how the project will manifest technically and can make recommendations and decisions.

• Multi-Domain Engineering Process: You have experience with a variety of modern software and systems engineering processes from across the entire lifecycle. You understand how and when to use them and how to tailor them for dynamic environments. You have the ability to grasp the big picture of systems and domains as well as strong reasoning skills and the ability to balance complex sets of tradespaces.

Duties:

• Build and demonstrate. You'll design and develop software solutions that provide needed capabilities to the government, building on state-of-the-art research in data analytics, information architectures, machine learning, artificial intelligence, software architectures, and operator-centric interaction. You'll support software development infrastructure and assist in building and configuring computing systems and resources. You'll build and demonstrate interactive prototypes.

• Test and evaluate. You'll conduct rapid software prototyping to demonstrate and evaluate technologies in relevant environments. You'll evaluate systems for performance and security. You'll test software based capabilities using novel testing and analysis techniques.

• Mission Engagement and Outreach: You will engage with defense and national security stakeholders and continually develop a high-impact portfolio of AI technology development and operational experimentation projects. You will regularly present our Division's overall mission and work to customers and stakeholders. You will build and maintain relationships across the defense and national security community. You will ensure that we regularly and continuously share the results and impact of our work with the broadest possible audience.

• Talent Development, Mentorship, and Management: You will help identify, recruit, retain, mentor, and develop high-caliber, interdisciplinary researchers and engineers developing advanced technology solutions for important and high-impact mission needs.

• AI Engineering: You will draw on best practices in AI Engineering to support our mission prototyping, test and evaluation, and operational experimentation activities. You will identify new practices, critical gaps, and opportunities to advance and promote the discipline of AI Engineering.

• Development Process, Practice, and Infrastructure: You will identify, experiment with, and implement improvements to how we execute our work, engage our customers, develop our people, and function as a mission-focused technology development organization

• Collaboration: You'll collaborate with our mission partners to understand challenges, needs, and opportunities for technology and mission innovations. You will partner closely with other technical managers and leaders across the organization to deliver exquisite capabilities to our mission partners. You'll contribute to improving the overall technical capabilities of the Division by mentoring and teaching others, participating in design and review sessions, and sharing insights and wisdom across the SEI and with partner labs.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Communication: You are an exceptional communicator and can interact collaboratively and diplomatically with customers and colleagues at all levels of experience and knowledge. You grasp the big picture, direction, and goals of an effort while having the natural ability to dig into the details on problems and technical concepts and provide clear direction. You can present complex ideas to people who may not have a deep understanding of the subject area.

• Dedication and Motivation: You can meet deadlines while multi-tasking-sometimes under pressure and with shifting priorities. You are self-motivated and can work toward a common vision with little oversight.

• Creativity and Innovation: You are creative and curious, and you are inspired by the prospect of collaborating with premier researchers and visionaries at Carnegie Mellon University. You quickly learn new ideas, technologies, and approaches. You are forward-looking and can connect applied research and new technologies with practical challenges and mission impact. You have a working knowledge of various approaches to value creation and a demonstrated entrepreneurial mindset.

• Knowledge and Learning: You possess broad technical interests along with a desire to maintain knowledge and awareness of the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in modern AI technologies. You maintain and are willing to update your understanding of what it takes to develop and adopt robust and reliable AI technologies for defense and national security missions.
  

Other Requirements:

• BS in Computer Science or related discipline with ten years of experience in hands-on software development; OR MS in the same fields with eight years of experience; OR PhD with five years of experience

• Flexible to travel to other SEI offices in Pittsburgh and Washington, DC, sponsor sites, conferences, and offsite meetings on occasion. Moderate (25%) travel outside of your home location.

• You will be subject to a background investigation and must be eligible to obtain and maintain a Department of Defense security clearance.
  

Benefits:

Our benefits philosophy encompasses three driving priorities: Choice, Control, and Well-being. Learn more at https://www.cmu.edu/jobs/benefits-at-a-glance/ . You can join an institution and inspire innovations that change the world.

Carnegie Mellon University is a welcoming workplace that considers applicants for employment without regard to, and does not discriminate on the basis of, gender, race, protected veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.