AI/ML Engineering Director Fellow

FAS • Washington DC, DC

7h • $164,000 - $164,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

AI/ML Engineering Director Fellow Full-time FAS staff Remote/Hybrid. Why FAS? Does FAS sound like an organization that you would be energized to join? Is it aligned to your values? The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) takes quite seriously our role as a beacon and voice for the science community. FAS has a rich history: after the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a group of atomic researchers – deeply concerned about the use of science for malice – created an organization committed to using science and technology to benefit humanity. The group they created – the Federation of Atomic Scientists – soon became the Federation of American Scientists in recognition of the hundreds of scientists across diverse disciplines who joined together to speak with one voice for the betterment of the world. Today, we are a group of entrepreneurial, intrepid changemakers, forging a better future for all through the nexus of science, technology and talent. As a collective, we are building an organization focused on being impact-driven, customer-focused, and growth-oriented as a force for good in the world. The FAS Impact Fellowship is a selective fellowship program that supports the development and placement of emerging scientific and technical talent within high-impact roles across government. From education to wildfire resilience, national security, and housing, Impact Fellows are serving across a variety of government agencies in roles that augment existing government teams as they confront some of the greatest scientific and social challenges of our time. To Sum It Up… What’s the “elevator pitch” for the role? The FAS Talent Hub is seeking an Impact Fellow for a 24-month term to join the Department of Information Technology within a state government. This Gubernatorial Administration has an ambitious vision to become a national leader in responsible, productive use of artificial intelligence (AI). State agencies are eager to explore how AI can improve public services and deliver better outcomes for residents. To turn that momentum into impact, the state is building a new AI Innovation Lab to scale responsible, productive AI across Executive Branch agencies. To achieve this goal, the state is collaborating with the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) to recruit an AI/ML Engineering Director who will lead high-impact projects, expand technical capacity, and help drive the use of AI to modernize public services. This entrepreneurial leader will support innovation across workforce systems and help position the state as a national model for using AI in the public interest. Current employees of the state are not eligible for this position.

Requirements

• 5 - 7 years of engineering leadership, preferably mentoring and growing engineering teams to design/build/ship AI systems.
• Exceptional ability to build strong relationships with cross-functional peers in Design, Legal, Product, and other diverse disciplines.
• Envision the “art of the possible” – you have a strong point of view on where AI is going next and will make a plan to keep our state at the forefront.
• Deep knowledge of the end-to-end AI product lifecycle, from user research to continuous improvement and monitoring.
• Hands-on experience defining and implementing robust frameworks for system orchestration, continuous evaluation, and post-deployment monitoring.
• A holistic approach to building AI: You value its ethics and impact as much as its accuracy.

Nice To Haves

• A track record building and launching AI systems in highly regulated industries, including the government and healthcare, is preferred but not required.

Responsibilities

• Identifying areas where state-led AI experimentation can have the greatest impact.
• Identifying systemic barriers – such as gaps in technical expertise, procedural bottlenecks, or infrastructure/architectural limitations – that slow the adoption of AI tools across state government, and developing technical/policy/talent solutions to remove these barriers.
• Shape an emerging accelerator program for agencies starting their AI journeys, shepherding them from business use case definition to helping them deploy to higher environments.
• Collaborate with agencies through AI office hours, solutions architecture sessions, and ongoing guidance to help them find the best fit-for-purpose AI, from models to data patterns.
• Ensure that the AI Innovation Lab's work, from team structure to tech stack, aligns with industry best practices to make sure we offer state agencies the most responsible, productive AI possible.
• Scrub in as needed to build AI solutions alongside agency partners.
• Championing an MLOps strategy for the state’s first AI Innovation Lab, which aims to scale AI pilot projects into ongoing AI products.
• Building longer-term capacity by establishing practices that enable sustained AI adoption, including with and for agentic systems.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed