Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning Lead Verification and Validation Engineer

About this role

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: • CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process . Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants .

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see  Notice to Out of State Applicants .

​     POSITION SPECIFICS ​ We are searching for a talented, experienced, organized, and a highly motivated AI/ML Engineer to join the Visualization and Decision Support Division within the All-Domain Analytics and Signatures Office (A2SO) at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) at Penn State.  You will lead our Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) and Data Curation Center of Excellence. This team serves as the foundation for effective machine learning—building, curating, and governing the data that directly determines whether AI/ML models succeed in operationally relevant environments. This position can be filled in State College, PA or Reston, VA .

ARL is an authorized DoD SkillBridge partner and welcomes all transitioning military members to apply.

You will: • Serve as the technical lead for the IV&V and Data Curation Center of Excellence, setting priorities, defining standards, and driving the team's technical direction • Mentor, guide, and coordinate a team of engineers performing data labeling, annotation, curation, and IV&V across multiple data modalities • Establish and evolve annotation standards, labeling guidelines, data governance frameworks, and quality assurance processes to ensure consistency and reproducibility at scale • Design and oversee data pipelines for ingestion, transformation, quality control, and cataloging of classified and open-source data • Lead IV&V efforts on datasets and model outputs, defining acceptance criteria and fitness-for-use standards • Serve as the primary point of contact between the data curation team and research scientists, algorithm developers, and program stakeholders to translate data needs into actionable plans • Present findings, status, and recommendations to leadership and sponsors through well-constructed briefings, papers, and technical artifacts • Evaluate and introduce tools, platforms, and best practices for annotation (e.g., CVAT, Label Studio), data versioning, and metadata management • Drive automation of manual data analysis and curation processes to improve efficiency and scalability • Architect and maintain data catalogs, metadata schemas, and access-controlled repositories that make curated datasets discoverable and accessible to the broader research team • Work within an Agile development environment within a large research team

Required Skills/Experience areas include: • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Science, Engineering, or a related technical field • Extensive experience designing and managing data curation, annotation, or IV&V workflows for AI/ML systems • Deep understanding of machine learning fundamentals, including how data quality, labeling strategies, and dataset composition impact model training, evaluation, and deployment • Strong proficiency in Python and SQL for data manipulation, pipeline development, and analysis • Experience with data annotation tools and platforms (e.g., CVAT, Label Studio, or equivalent) • Success in environments where various forms of communication and organizational skills were crucial to be effective

Preferred Skills/Experience areas include: • Prior experience leading or managing a technical team • Experience working with DoD or Intelligence Community data, workflows, or operational environments • Familiarity with geospatial data formats (shapefiles, GeoJSON, AIS), imagery/FMV exploitation, or signals data processing • Experience with data versioning tools (e.g., DVC, LakeFS) or data catalog platforms • Knowledge of IV&V methodologies and test and evaluation practices for data-driven systems • Experience with containerized development environments (Docker, Kubernetes) and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) • Master's degree or higher in a relevant field • Current eligibility to access classified information at the Top Secret/ SCI level or higher and may be subject to a government background investigation to updated clearance eligibility, if required

Your working location will be fully-on site located in either State College, PA or Reston, VA.   MINIMUM EDUCATION, WORK EXPERIENCE & REQUIRED CERTIFICATIONS If filled as R&D Engineer - Artificial Intelligence (ARL) - Principal Professional, this position requires:
Bachelor's Degree - Engineering or Science
19+ years of relevant experience
Required Certifications:
None

If filled as R&D Engineer - Artificial Intelligence (ARL) - Senior Professional, this position requires:
Bachelor's Degree - Engineering or Science
14+ years of relevant experience
Required Certifications:
None   ARL’s purpose is to research and develop innovative solutions to challenging scientific, engineering, and technology problems in support of the Navy, the Intel Community (IC), and other federal government customers.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION on ARL, visit our website at  www.arl.psu.edu .   BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.   Notice regarding employment at the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL):
Employees must be eligible to obtain a government security clearance, participate in t

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