AI/ML Engineer

SRC, Inc. is currently seeking an AI/ML Engineer to join a team building machine learning and generative AI capabilities for defense and national security missions. This is a hands-on, early-career engineering role focused on the practical work of turning data into working models: assembling and curating datasets, training and fine-tuning models, and building the evaluation harnesses that tell us whether a model is actually good enough to field. You will work under the direction of senior engineers and scientists on tasks scoped within larger programs, with increasing ownership of discrete technical tasks as you develop. The work spans classical machine learning, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and the rapidly evolving generative AI toolchain, applied to real sensor data and real mission problems in ISR, EW, and advanced sensing. This is a strong fit for an engineer who wants to build depth in applied ML on problems where the data is messy, the ground truth is hard-won, and the results have to hold up under scrutiny.
What You'll Do
Build, clean, label, and version datasets from real and simulated sources, including handling class imbalance, distribution shift, and sparse or noisy labels
Train, fine-tune, and benchmark models using standard open-source frameworks, running experiments as assigned and documenting results clearly
Develop and run evaluation pipelines — task-specific metrics, held-out and adversarial test sets, regression suites — and report findings honestly, including negative results
Support generative AI efforts through prompt development and iteration, structured output design, retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, and comparative evaluation of open-weight and commercial language models
Assist with parameter-efficient fine-tuning (LoRA/QLoRA) and supervised fine-tuning of open-weight models for domain-specific tasks
Implement reinforcement learning experiments in standard environments and instrument them for reproducible measurement
Maintain reproducible experiment tracking, environment configuration, and code hygiene so that results can be regenerated by others
Contribute data, figures, and written findings to technical reports, program reviews, and oral presentations
Collaborate with algorithm engineers and domain experts to understand the sensor data and physical phenomenology behind the datasets you work with
What You'll Bring
Bachelor’s in computer science, Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, or a related technical discipline and 0+ years of experience (internships, co-ops, research assistantships, and substantial academic project work count)
Working proficiency in Python and the core scientific stack (NumPy, pandas, scikit-learn, matplotlib)
Familiarity with at least one deep learning framework, preferably PyTorch
Exposure to the Hugging Face ecosystem (Transformers, Datasets, Tokenizers) or equivalent open-source model tooling
Understanding of ML fundamentals: train/validation/test discipline, overfitting and regularization, cross-validation, and the metrics appropriate to classification, regression, detection, and generation tasks
Comfort with Git-based collaborative development
Clear written and verbal communication, and a willingness to say when a result doesn't hold up
Ways to Stand Out
Experience fine-tuning open-weight language models using PEFT methods (LoRA, QLoRA) or the TRL/Axolotl/Unsloth toolchain
Hands-on work with RAG systems: embedding models, vector stores, chunking strategies, and retrieval evaluation
Familiarity with LLM evaluation practice — LLM-as-judge, rubric-based grading, eval harness design, and the failure modes of each
Experience with experiment tracking and data versioning tools (Weights & Biases, MLflow, DVC)
Exposure to reinforcement learning libraries (Gymnasium, Stable-Baselines3, CleanRL) or to preference-based post-training methods (DPO, GRPO)
Experience with agentic workflows, tool-calling, or the Model Context Protocol (MCP)
Work with non-natural-image modalities: RF, radar, SAR, audio, time series, or multimodal data
Containerization (Docker) and experience running jobs on GPU clusters or cloud compute
Master's degree in a related technical discipline
What Sets Us Apart?
SRC, Inc., a not-for-profit research and development company, combines information, science, technology and ingenuity to solve “impossible” problems in the areas of defense, environment and intelligence. Across our family of companies, we apply bright minds, fresh thinking and relentless determination to deliver innovative products and services that are redefining possible®. When you join our team, you’ll be a part of something truly meaningful — helping to keep America and its allies safe and strong.