Freelance Data Science Physics Jobs in Virginia (NOW HIRING)

Leidos is seeking a Senior AI/Data Scientist to drive advanced AI development for a strategic Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) contract, executed in direct partnership with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). You will work within a multi-disciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and software developers to physically and functionally characterize hardened facilities and Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) processes in order to create physics based models capable of supporting various simulations. This role supports customers operating in classified environments and requires close collaboration with subject matter experts, designers, engineers, analysts, and mission stakeholders to deliver innovative, operationally relevant data science and AI solutions. The Senior Data Scientist will lead complex analytics efforts across the full solution lifecycle-from problem definition and requirements development through design, implementation, deployment, and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M). The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise, strong mission awareness, and the ability to communicate analytic insights to senior decision-makers.

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Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical contributor and analytic lead on complex, high-impact national security programs
• Partner with government customers and subject matter experts to define mission problems and analytic objectives
• Translate ambiguous operational challenges into actionable data science requirements and solution designs
• Design, develop, and deploy advanced analytics, statistical models, and machine learning solutions
• Apply advanced data science techniques including exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, predictive modeling, hypothesis testing, and algorithm development
  • Architect and deploy advanced machine learning models (e.g., Physics-Informed Neural Networks, Generative AI) that fuse engineering data with first-principles physics.
• Translate and integrate structured and unstructured data from diverse sources across classified environments into physical and functional characteristic models for hardened facilities and WMD processes to support effects-based simulations.
• Communicate analytic findings, insights, and recommendations to senior technical and non-technical stakeholders. Bridge the gap between software engineers, intelligence analysts, and domain scientists to integrate data pipelines and transition proof-of-concepts into production.
• Support deployment, monitoring, and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M) of analytic solutions
• Design, test, and deploy AI-driven software solutions to dramatically increase the efficiency, scale, and accuracy of engineering and scientific assessments.
• Architect, deploy, and maintain advanced AI/ML pipeline components across disparate security enclaves, transitioning models from low-side development environments to the High Side.
• Apply data science and AI algorithms to streamline overall program management, resource allocation, and mission execution metrics.
• Mentor and guide junior data scientists and contribute to analytic standards, best practices, and reusable frameworks
• Maintain awareness of emerging data science, AI, and big-data technologies relevant to national security missions

Required Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship is required
• Candidate must be eligible to obtain a TS/SCI w/ poly level clearance
• Master's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or a related quantitative field with 15+ years of relevant experience, or Bachelor's degree with 18+ years of relevant experience
• Extensive experience applying data science and advanced analytics to complex, mission-focused problems
• Expert-level proficiency in Python and/or R, including advanced data science and machine learning libraries
• Strong experience working with large, complex datasets from multiple sources
• Proven experience developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining software applications and AI models within a JWICS (Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System) network environment.
• Understanding of secure cross-domain solutions (CDS), data-transfer protocols, and the deployment of MLOps pipelines across air-gapped systems
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical efforts and influence analytic direction on large or complex programs
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including briefing senior leaders

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in engineering data solutions within AWS (Amazon Web Services) GovCloud or Commercial Cloud Services (C2S).
• Experience with Agile Scrum Development/Agile methodology.
• Experience supporting intelligence community, Department of Defense, or other national security customers
• Experience operating in classified computing environments
• Expertise in one or more advanced domains such as machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, graph analytics, or predictive modeling
• Experience with cloud-based or enterprise analytics platforms
• Demonstrated experience mentoring technical staff or serving as a technical lead
• Demonstrated experience providing instruction, instructional design, or curriculum development

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.