Data Scientist / Systems Analyst

MIT Lincoln Laboratory•Lexington, MA

2d•$140,000 - $207,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Bioanalytics Systems & Technologies Group develops analytic and AI/ML solutions that use large and rapidly expanding biological datasets to address national security needs. Its work includes software architectures and systems, bioinformatics tools, and AI algorithms supporting biomedical, health, chemical and biological defense, biosecurity, public and global health, and warfighter performance. The Technical Staff member provides technical leadership across programs and works hands-on across the AI/ML lifecycle, from generative modeling and data strategy through rigorous evaluation. The role also serves as a principal investigator for projects, leads teams, defines research plans, and provides technical oversight. In this collaborative, interdisciplinary environment, the employee prototypes capabilities and solutions and recommends technology capabilities, requirements, architectures, and pipelines for U.S. government needs. The role connects data, model development, and capability evaluation into coherent, reusable technical approaches. The position is onsite. The selected candidate must undergo a pre-employment background investigation and be able to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD security clearance. U.S. citizenship is required.

Requirements

Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Data Science, Physics, Statistics, or a related scientific field; alternatively, a master's degree with 7 or more years of directly related experience may be considered.
Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills, including the ability to design approaches that generalize across data types and use cases.
Ability to understand broad motivations, operational constraints, and stakeholder needs while also engaging with underlying technical details.
Demonstrated experience applying AI/ML techniques to research questions or practical technical problems.
Ability to collaborate and lead small to medium teams with diverse backgrounds and skillsets to execute a technical vision and deliver program success.
Scientific writing skills and ability to present technical material clearly to technical experts and non-technical stakeholders.
Experience or capability in developing solutions in cloud environments such as AWS and working with data lakes or warehouses.
Experience or capability in data curation, annotation, integration, harmonization, and building scalable ML data pipelines.
Experience or capability with simulation environments, digital twins, or synthetic data generation for training and validating algorithms.
Experience or capability in systems analysis using modeling and simulation to understand trade-offs in complex systems.
Experience or capability in designing or applying evaluation frameworks and metrics for AI model or system performance and trustworthiness.
Experience or capability with health or healthcare-related data and analytics, including EHR data structures and clinical data standards.
Hands-on experience with generative modeling techniques and/or LLM-based tool development, such as RAG architectures, prompt engineering, or model evaluation.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret-level DoD security clearance.
U.S. citizenship is required.
Level 5: Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline or relevant technical field and typically 6 or more years of relevant experience; or master's degree and typically 4 or more years; or Ph.D. and typically 0 or more years; or equivalent education and experience.
Level 5: Diverse technical expertise and ability to adapt it to unfamiliar or emerging disciplines, systems, mission areas, or methods.
Level 5: Ability to apply significant technical judgment to broad challenges requiring integration across related systems or methods.
Level 5: Demonstrated ability to lead projects or major workstreams and deliver complex technical outcomes.
Level 5: Experience evaluating trade-offs, recommending paths forward, and adapting technical approaches to evolving project needs.
Level 5: Demonstrated mentorship, collaboration, and ability to communicate recommendations, risks, and technical findings to varied audiences.
Level 5: Experience contributing to technical reports, papers, presentations, proposals, or other formal technical deliverables.
Level 6: Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline or relevant technical field and typically 8 or more years of relevant experience; or master's degree and typically 6 or more years; or Ph.D. and typically 2 or more years; or equivalent education and experience.
Level 6: Deep and diverse technical expertise, ability to integrate knowledge across domains, and ability to establish direction in evolving systems or mission areas.
Level 6: Ability to apply technical judgment, program context, and stakeholder input to solve broad technical challenges.
Level 6: Proven experience leading complex programs, significant program elements, or multi-team technical efforts.
Level 6: Ability to evaluate alternatives, manage technical ambiguity, and influence decisions across teams or stakeholder groups.
Level 6: Strong record of mentorship, collaboration, technical communication, and contribution to team or Group capability development.
Level 6: Experience contributing to proposals, publications, technical reports, presentations, or other materials that shape program direction or technical initiatives.

Responsibilities

Analyze user needs and operational constraints.
Recommend technology capabilities, requirements, architectures, and data/ML pipelines.
Design, prototype, and evaluate analytics and modeling solutions.
Design and conduct technology verification and validation, including testing software and systems with users or subject-matter experts in realistic settings.
Collaborate with scientists, engineers, analysts, sponsors, mission partners, and internal leaders to translate technical work into mission-relevant capabilities and align priorities.
Communicate technical findings, recommendations, risks, and decisions to technical and non-technical audiences.
Lead projects, complex programs, major technical workstreams, multi-program initiatives, or technical portfolios involving multidisciplinary development, analysis, prototyping, integration, testing, evaluation, and technology transition.
Apply technical expertise and systems-level judgment to complex and ambiguous problems, evaluating alternatives, trade-offs, risks, stakeholder needs, and mission implications.
Translate broad or unclear objectives into actionable technical plans and influence program direction, architectures, systems, priorities, and roadmaps.
Assess and improve technical tools, processes, methods, documentation, execution practices, and organizational capability.
Serve as a technical resource and mentor by reviewing work, framing trade-offs and risks, and developing staff and emerging leaders.
Contribute to papers, reports, presentations, proposals, grants, roadmaps, and other materials that advance mission outcomes and technical direction.