Data Scientist Principal Investigator

CACIs is seeking a staff-level Data Scientist/Researcher to serve as a Principal Investigator and Technical Leader in our Denver CO AI/ML Research and Integration Team. This is a hands-on role for someone who can shape ambitious research lead teams through technical uncertainty and turn promising prototypes into secure scalable capabilities with measurable mission and business impact.

Location: Denver CO. Candidates outside Colorado should be willing to relocate. This is not a remote position.

Eligibility:

• Must be a U.S. citizen
• There is not clearance required to begin employment. For this position but as a requirement of continued employment in this position you will be required to obtain a TS/SCI clearance.

Our IRAD team researches and develops mission-focused AI and software solutions supporting Defense National Security Intelligence and other customers. We work at the intersection of applied research and product deliveryidentifying high-value problems testing new approaches building working systems and partnering with delivery organizations to transition successful capabilities into operational use.

The Principal Investigator will help define the technical direction of a portfolio that may span generative AI and large language models retrieval-augmented generation natural language processing computer vision information extraction recommender systems knowledge graphs agentic systems and MLOps. The right candidate combines scientific judgment strong software and systems instincts and the ability to build alignment across researchers engineers customers and business leaders.

• Serve as Principal Investigator and technical lead for a portfolio of applied AI research efforts; define research questions technical approaches milestones evaluation plans risks and transition criteria.
• Identify and shape new research opportunities with technical leaders customers business development teams and program organizations; contribute to white papers proposals technical volumes estimates and funding briefings.
• Remain hands-on: design experiments build prototypes review code and models troubleshoot difficult technical issues and establish credible technical baselines.
• Architect end-to-end AI systems that integrate models data pipelines APIs search or retrieval services orchestration user applications and deployment infrastructure.
• Translate ambiguous mission or business needs into executable research plans and make sound build buy adapt and reuse decisions under incomplete information.
• Lead cross-functional teams of data scientists software engineers platform engineers domain experts and user-experience practitioners; delegate effectively while maintaining accountability for technical quality and outcomes.
• Develop other technical staff through mentoring design and code reviews modeling guidance constructive feedback and clear engineering expectations.
• Drive the transition of successful prototypes into secure maintainable production-grade capabilities by applying modern software engineering MLOps CI/CD testing documentation and artifact-management practices.
• Establish rigorous and reproducible evaluation methods including appropriate baselines quantitative and qualitative metrics error analysis operational constraints and responsible-AI considerations.
• Communicate complex technical work clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences through demonstrations reports roadmaps decision briefings and customer engagements.
• Track relevant advances in commercial and open-source AI assess their applicability and risk and turn useful discoveries into reusable architectures components and practices for teams across the company.

• Bachelors degree in computer science data science statistics mathematics engineering or another relevant technical or quantitative discipline. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
• Minimum of 7 years of professional experience.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a Principal Investigator research lead technical lead lead architect or comparable role with responsibility for technical scope team execution risk and outcomes.
• Deep practical experience applying machine learning to real-world problems with significant depth in two or more areas such as generative AI/LLMs NLP computer vision information extraction recommender systems graph or semantic methods supervised or unsupervised learning or reinforcement learning.
• Strong Python skills and experience with modern AI/ML libraries and frameworks such as PyTorch TensorFlow scikit-learn Hugging Face or comparable tools.

What You Can Expect:

A culture of integrity.

At CACI we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member youll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customers missions and driven by a higher purpose to ensure the safety of our nation.

An environment of trust.

CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. Youll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.

A focus on continuous growth.

Together we will advance our nations most critical missions build on our lengthy track record of business success and find opportunities to break new ground in your career and in our legacy.

Pay Range:

There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including but not limited to geographic location Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates relevant prior work experience specific skills and competencies education and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare wellness financial retirement family support continuing education and time off benefits.

The proposed salary range for this position is: