Freelance Data Science Physics Jobs in Virginia (NOW HIRING)

About the Team

STR's Intelligence Division researches and develops advanced analytics and machine learning-based solutions to solve challenging problems related to national security. Our team consists of passionate and motivated engineers with advanced degrees in engineering, computer science, mathematics, and data science, who are seeking opportunities to use their deep technical knowledge and creativity to tackle some of the hardest problems that our customers face. Our projects span multiple different data modalities and incorporate advanced algorithms, deep learning, and statistical techniques to uncover patterns in social media, structured and unstructured text, time series, geospatial, and imagery data, and must operate under challenging constraints not typically found in the commercial world. The tools and technologies we develop have real world impact and US Government analysts and operators use them to enable intelligence activities around the globe.

The Role

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will help research, develop, and integrate cutting-edge models and technologies into production systems that solve critical national security problems.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, engineers, and domain experts, you will analyze interesting and challenging datasets to develop innovative algorithmic techniques to discover trends and form valuable intelligence insights. You will explore a wide variety of quantitative models ranging from classical statistical methods to frontier language models. In addition, you will collaborate closely with customers to understand mission needs, define requirements, communicate technical developments and findings, and respond to user feedback.

This position can be based in Woburn, MA; or Arlington, VA. Applicants should expect to primarily work onsite.

What you will do:

• Investigate and analyze exquisite multimodal datasets to identify and expose hidden patterns and trends
• Develop, evaluate, and apply novel AI/ML models to automatically derive valuable insights for defense and intelligence analysts
• Think critically about robust modeling capabilities that generalize to support broad application against high-impact national security problems
• Collaborate with diverse teams to explore new domains and data modalities, investigate state-of-the-art research, tackle emerging problem spaces, and mentor others

Who you are:

• Active Secret security clearance, for which U.S citizenship is needed by the U.S government
• MS degree with 3+ years of experience, and/or PhD in Statistics, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics or other related discipline (or equivalent experience)
• Desire to tackle challenges, develop new skills, and explore unsolved problem spaces
• Experience developing and applying AI/ML methods to real-world data science problems, especially in settings where data is sparse, noisy, and/or high dimensional
• Familiarity with various algorithmic techniques such as Bayesian methods, predictive models, reinforcement learning, deep learning architectures, and large language models
• Comfortable creating data visualizations and communicating technical findings
• Proficient with Python and the traditional data science and machine learning stack, including NumPy, Pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch, and matplotlib
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively within cross-functional teams and communicate with customers and end users

Even better:

• Familiarity with geospatial and/or spatiotemporal data
• Demonstrated ability to conduct and lead research tasks amidst uncertain conditions with minimal oversight
• Experience working with large datasets (> 100 GB) and familiarity with big data infrastructure and frameworks such as AWS, Hadoop, Spark, Dask, or MapReduce
• Solid understanding of software engineering principles, including testing, scalability, observability, maintainability, and performance optimization
• Active Top Secret security clearance
• Experience in intelligence and military-related mission areas

Pay Information
Full-Time Salary Range: $140,000 - $190,000

The salary range listed is based on external market data. Offers are based on factors, such as but not limited to, the candidate's experience, education, training, key skills/critical skills, security clearances, and prevailing market and business conditions.