Artificial Intelligence / Autonomy Engineer

MITRE’s National Security New Professionals Accelerator Program ( https://sites.mitre.org/newprofessionals/ ) is seeking highly motivated, early career candidates passionate about solving problems for a safer world. This program will provide unique work opportunities, onboarding, and mentoring to build your skills as a future leader. You will accelerate your career while preparing for impactful, rewarding work at MITRE. Successful candidates will gain exposure and experience in topics of common interest to the entire national security community. Our goal is to prepare you to thrive in a technically rooted, mission-focused career at MITRE – one where the unique background, skill set, and experience you bring inspires creative and innovative solutions.

You will interact with a diverse group of program peers, MITRE national security leaders, and staff solving real-world problems. Over the course of this structured six-month program, you will hone your skills and develop strong professional networks in the national security sector and across our Innovation Centers, helping solve critical national challenges. Before transitioning to MITRE’s permanent national security or technical staff, you will benefit from the following program pillars:

• An intensive, experiential onboarding program

• Focused mentoring with MITRE national security leaders and experts in your field

• An in-depth rotational work program

Job Responsibilities:

Working alongside MITRE mission specialists and engineers, you will be supporting a national security sponsor while helping to design, develop, and implement solutions and technologies to address the artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomy challenges of our government sponsors. You will learn about MITRE sponsor missions and apply your technical knowledge and skills to problem-solving and innovation. At the culmination of the New Professionals Accelerator Program, you will become part of MITRE’s National Security team focused on sponsor missions with a strong technical background enabling you to be a future leader in the company.

From robotics to enhanced decision-making, you will learn to apply AI and autonomous engineering expertise, innovative concepts, and technology solutions to address every facet of our sponsor’s AI and autonomy challenges to include:

• Artificial intelligence
• Autonomous systems
• Computational linguistics
• Computer vision

What are some examples of the projects that I might work on?

• Using AI to improve situational awareness for robotics in denied environments
• Improving autonomy to reduce cognitive load on intel analysts or robotic system operators
• Use of natural language processing techniques to sort through millions of intelligence documents and summarize their content
• Develop tools that will analyze the state of the battlefield and make recommendations to commanders
• Research and assessment of feasibility of current technologies applied to sponsor problems

What does an ideal MITRE New Professional AI or Autonomy Engineer bring to the position?

• Hands-on experience gained from previous work experience or relevant intern/co-op work
• Applied knowledge of AI or autonomy principles, tools, and devices
• Proficiency in multiple learning techniques and the languages required to implement them
• Interdisciplinary background, with at least of one of those disciplines being artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, computer science, computer engineering, or a related technical field
• Evidence of being a life-long learner, with a passion for the field
• High-level desire to help our nation solve critical problems

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor of Science in computer science, computational linguistics, statistics, applied mathematics, robotics, electrical engineering, or a related technical field and 2 years of relevant experience
• Programming experience in C/C++, Python, R, or similar
• Experience in one or more areas of AI-focused computer science, such as Natural Language Processing, Neural Networks, Computer Vision, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Algorithmic Foundations of Optimization, Quantum Information Science, Data Science, Software Engineering or similar

Preferred Qualifications:

• 1-3 years of experience in AI or autonomy principles, tools, and devices
• Experience working projects related to national security for one or more government agencies
• Interdisciplinary background, with evidence of continual learning
• Strong theoretical background in at least two learning techniques: supervised (e.g., support vector machines, regression, decision trees), unsupervised (e.g., clustering, neural networks), or reinforcement
• Demonstrated experience applying supervised and unsupervised techniques to structured data
• Experience with more than one toolkit for implementing AI/ML algorithms (e.g., TensorFlow, OpenAI Gym)
• Ability to visualize and interpret patterns in data for a non-technical audience
• Familiarity with data management best practices
• Familiarity with DevOps patterns and practices