Technical Manager

What We Do: 

At the SEI AI Division, we conduct research in applied artificial intelligence (AI) and the engineering questions related to the practical design and implementation of AI technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to mature the discipline of AI Engineering for Defense and National Security.    

As our government customers adopt AI and machine learning to provide leap-ahead mission capabilities, we    

• Build real-world, mission-scale AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems   
• Discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for human-centered, robust, secure, and scalable mission capabilities   
• Prepare our customers to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, and maintaining AI capabilities   
• Identify and investigate emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape   
   

Are you creative, curious, and collaborative? Do you enjoy doing meaningful and complex work? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to government organizations and beyond? Apply to join our team.   

Position Summary: As the Technical Manager for the SEI AI Division’s Trust Lab, you will oversee our staff, a portfolio of projects, and the development of future research projects focused on trustworthy, responsible, and human-centered AI (building on new and existing practices of human-computer interaction, user experience, responsible AI, and more) to improve the state of the art and share best practices. You will partner with the Trust Lab Lead to execute the strategic direction and manage the sponsor relationships and funding mechanisms.

Requirements: 

• People Development and Management: You have experience building and developing strong, interdisciplinary technical teams. You can build on practical management experience to find creative and high-impact people and team management practices. You know your leadership style and have experience mentoring, empowering, and building people.   

• Managing in a Creative, Dynamic Environment: You have experience managing multiple simultaneous projects and thrive in a creative and high-energy environment. You are willing to experiment with new management practices and develop effective processes, practices, and infrastructure to support successful people and projects.  
• Technical Leadership and Project Management: You have a successful track record of leading, managing, and executing projects for complex software systems such as AI, autonomy, and other advanced technologies where user experience practices are integrated in the development cycles. You know what it takes to build technology solutions for hard problems, with shifting priorities. You are user-centered and accomplishment-focused, driving projects and leading teams to successful, high-impact outcomes.  
• Advanced Technology Experience: You have broad experience and knowledge of AI systems and other leading-edge technologies relevant to the DoD. You have worked in areas related to human-computer interaction, user experience, autonomy, computer vision, AI, advanced computing, or related fields. You are familiar with processes and frameworks associated with the development of modern mission-critical AI solutions.
• Customer and User Focused: You have a passion for understanding real-world problems and driving projects to find meaningful high-impact solutions to customer and user problems.
• Innovation-Minded: You have an interest in and awareness of technology trends and opportunities. You are familiar with technical challenges and emerging trends.  

Duties 

• Project Management: You will oversee and manage a portfolio of projects that are building the practice of trustworthy AI including practices of responsible AI (RAI), technical ethics, human-computer interaction (HCI), user experience (UX), human-machine teaming (HMT), information architecture (IA), and other related practices and methods.
• Talent Development and Management: You will help identify, recruit, retain, mentor, and develop a high-caliber, interdisciplinary team developing advanced technology solutions for important and high-impact needs.  
• Customer and Innovation Community Engagement: You will engage with customers and stakeholders regularly, representing the Lab and the AI Division as well as presenting our mission and our work to various audiences. You will build and maintain relationships with the DoD innovation ecosystem including relevant capability development and technology communities.

• Delivery Process, Practice, and Infrastructure: You will identify, experiment with, and implement improvements to how we execute our work, engage our customers, develop ou