Intelligence Pipeline Engineer

Zignal Labs • Washington, DC

1d • $100,000 - $120,000

About The Position

At Zignal Labs, we operate at the forefront of AI-powered media intelligence and operational data analytics, supporting some of the most mission-critical defense, intelligence, and commercial programs in the world. We are seeking an Intelligence Pipeline Engineer to join our growing team. This role blends intelligence tradecraft, operational data engineering, AI-driven workflows, and real-time mission support. This role is designed for professionals who can independently own operational intelligence workflows, drive pipeline optimization efforts, operationalize AI-enabled capabilities, and collaborate cross-functionally to support mission-critical operations.

Requirements

• Active TS/SCI clearance preferred or ability to obtain and maintain one
• 8+ years of experience supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, defense contractor, or related operational intelligence environments
• Experience designing, operating, or optimizing intelligence collection workflows, operational monitoring pipelines, or AI-assisted analytical systems
• Strong understanding of OSINT methodologies, operational collection strategies, and intelligence tradecraft
• Advanced experience building and refining Boolean logic, heuristic filtering, operational tagging systems, or enrichment workflows
• Familiarity with AI/ML concepts including NLP, clustering, anomaly detection, entity extraction, computer vision, or multimodal analysis
• Ability to independently manage competing operational priorities in dynamic mission environments
• Strong communication and cross-functional collaboration skills

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Python, SQL, APIs, workflow orchestration, or scripting for operational automation and pipeline management
• Experience supporting real-time operational monitoring and mission-critical alerting systems
• Familiarity with AI-assisted analytical workflows, prompt engineering, or operational LLM integration
• Experience collaborating with engineering or product teams to operationalize new capabilities
• Experience mentoring analysts or engineers in operational intelligence environments
• Familiarity with foreign social media ecosystems and globally distributed information environments relevant to defense missions

Responsibilities

• Design, configure, maintain, and optimize operational intelligence collection pipelines supporting real-time monitoring and alerting workflows
• Independently build, curate, tune, and manage structured datasets, collection logic, enrichment workflows, and operational intelligence pipelines
• Develop and refine advanced collection strategies using Boolean logic, heuristics, metadata enrichment, tagging frameworks, geospatial filtering, and signal scoring methodologies
• Drive continuous improvements in signal quality, workflow efficiency, operational relevance, and data reliability
• Deploy, evaluate, monitor, and optimize AI/ML and computer vision models supporting operational intelligence workflows
• Develop, test, and refine LLM-driven workflows, prompt frameworks, and AI-assisted alerting systems
• Support multimodal intelligence workflows integrating text, image, video, metadata, geospatial, and behavioral signals into actionable operational insights
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Customer Success, and mission stakeholders to operationalize new capabilities and improve workflows
• Lead operational troubleshooting, pipeline hardening, workflow optimization, and issue resolution efforts
• Identify emerging collection opportunities, platform shifts, operational risks, and regional digital ecosystem changes
• Contribute to operational standards, workflow documentation, and best practices for intelligence pipeline engineering
• Mentor junior team members supporting operational intelligence workflows
• Uphold classification, security, legal, and ethical standards for government-facing operational environments

Benefits

• At Zignal, you’ll work at the forefront of AI-powered data intelligence, supporting some of the most mission-critical defense and intelligence programs in the world. You’ll play a key role in how large-scale data is collected, refined, and deployed in support of national security and critical commercial environments.

What This Job Offers

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