Machine Learning Engineer (TS/SCI + Poly)

Description

The DarkStar Group, a GRVTY Company is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer with a TS/SCI + Poly clearance (applicable to this customer) to join one of our top projects in Herndon, VA.  Below is an overview of the project, as well as information on our company, our benefits, and our $25,000 referral program.

THE PROJECT

The DarkStar Group's team is charged with taking commercial and academic innovation high-side, in domains of Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI / ML) such as Computer Vision (Image and Video Processing), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Audio Modeling.  We also bring the best ideas, tools, and approaches in technology infrastructure (AWS, DevOps, etc.) to the IC.  The tech stack used is extremely broad - anything cutting edge in the commercial market, the open source community, or the academic research community is likely involved: and if something isn't being looked at yet, you can make that happen.

This effort supports ALL missions of the Intelligence Community, including cyber-related data science missions.  A seamless group of contractor and customer personnel work to create innovations that supply customer groups with the data sets, models, algorithms, software, and infrastructure they need to increase their mission success.  Management is hands off, gives the team the freedom to explore new approaches, and markets the best ideas and results to all the other IC customers.  

This project regularly needs various types of people - Data Scientists, Data / ETL Engineers, Analytic Software Engineers, Full Stack Developers, UI/UX Developers, and AWS/DevOps experts.  We're particularly interested in people with any of the following experience:

• developing AI / ML models (neural networks, tree based algorithms, etc.);
• conducting data analysis in the fields of Computer Vision, NLP, or audio signal processing;
• doing data ingest and ETL into sponsor environments; or
• building data-analytic software systems.

Work on this program takes place throughout the Reston/Herndon/Chantilly, VA area (we cannot support remote work) and requires a TS/SCI + Poly clearance (acceptable to this customer).

The Role

In this role, the candidate will work with other data scientists, software developers, and SMEs to apply the best practices and state of the art data science and machine learning processes. The candidate will develop rapid prototype solutions to mission challenges by leveraging existing open-source models and technologies. Sample topic areas may include object detection, data triage, search/optimization, image/video analysis, facial recognition, behavior detection, and automated discovery. 

Required Skills

• Experience developing and using agentic AI frameworks including Autogen. 
• Experience with prompt engineering beyond traditional code writing and debugging. Understanding of how to craft prompts for discrete tasks such as data labeling and processing.  
• Experience with asynchronous Python development using frameworks like Ray and FastAPI. 
• Experience developing and deploying AI/ML models as part of production systems, implementing software development best practices for scalability and reliability.  
• Experience developing and applying advanced machine learning methods including clustering, regression, optimization, recommender engines, and artificial neural networks. 
• Deploying models into multi-node Ray clusters utilizing various GPU resources. 
• Experience with developing and deploying resources to cloud environments.  
• Experience working in Linux and Windows environments and managing resources for efficiency. 

About The DarkStar Group

Our Company

The DarkStar Group is a small business that solves BIG problems. We're one of the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing private companies in the US, and our engineers and scientists support the most critical national security missions in Virginia, Maryland, and elsewhere. Data Science, Software Engineering, Cloud/AWS Infrastructure, and Cyber/CNO are our core areas of expertise. We offer interesting and important work, job security, some of the best and most flexible benefits you'll find in the IC, and salaries so strong that they'll likely surprise you. 

Our Benefits

The DarkStar Group offers exceptional compensation and benefits:

• very strong salaries;
• 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and all dependents;
• the ability to get increased salary if you don't need medical/dental/vision;
• 100% company-paid disability and life insurance benefits;
• a generously-funded HSA;
• an 8% 401(k) contribution; 
• 31 days of PTO/holidays to start (more with tenure);
• the ability to flex