Lead Data Scientist, AI Knowledge Retrieval Systems

We are a fast-growing defense technology company whose AI-powered intelligence platform is deployed across the full spectrum of defense acquisition — supply chain, science & technology, sustainment, production, and modernization. Our software gives the acquisition community the speed and analytical depth to rapidly imagine, produce, and field critical warfighting capabilities, turning data into strategic advantage for national security clients. We have offices in the Washington DC metro area and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

What's The Role?

We are looking for an exceptional Lead Data Scientist to own the architecture and delivery of our next-generation agentic knowledge retrieval and deep research systems. This is a senior individual-contributor leadership role — you will be the primary technical authority on search science, RAG, knowledge graphs, and multi-agent AI while also setting the direction for a team of data scientists and AI engineers. If you thrive on turning ambiguous, hard problems into production AI systems that matter to national security, this role was built for you.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and lead delivery of a complex, multi-modal intelligent agent system for knowledge retrieval and deep research — the central nervous system of our AI platform.
• Define the multi-year technical roadmap for AI knowledge retrieval initiatives, translating vague business challenges into concrete, scalable research and product goals.
• Design and deploy agentic AI systems capable of deep conversational knowledge exploration, robust problem solving, and accurate question answering over large, heterogeneous proprietary datasets.
• Lead development of hybrid knowledge retrieval systems combining embedding models, knowledge graphs, and traditional methods (e.g., BM25) using paradigms such as GraphRAG and RAG-RL.
• Drive state-of-the-art ranking and reranking pipelines — bi-encoder, cross-encoder, multi-tower architectures — within production search and retrieval systems.
• Build and deploy multi-agent AI reasoning frameworks (ReAct, Chain-of-Thought) for complex knowledge exploration and decision support.

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• Collaborate with product, data engineering, and software development teams to translate high-level requirements into production-ready AI solutions integrated with client data platforms.
• Mentor and elevate junior and senior engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and high-impact delivery.
• Champion AI innovation: stay current with the rapidly evolving LLM and agentic AI landscape and actively transfer knowledge across the team.
• Conduct internal workshops and lead technical discussions to nurture a strong AI culture across the organization.
• Spend some time on site with clients - approximatley 10% travel - mostly between Pittsburgh and the D.C area.

What Skills Do I Need?

• 7+ years of professional experience as a Data Scientist in an industry setting.
• Expert-level knowledge of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures and complex indexing strategies for large-scale, heterogeneous datasets.
• Proven ability to build production-ready knowledge retrieval, conversational AI search, and deep research systems leveraging state-of-the-art LLMs, multi-modal embedding models, vector databases, and knowledge graph systems.

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• Deep hands-on experience with hybrid retrieval combining embedding models, knowledge graphs, and traditional methods; practical knowledge of GraphRAG, RAG-RL, and related advanced retrieval paradigms.
• Expert knowledge of ranking and reranking models (bi-encoder, cross-encoder, multi-tower) in search and knowledge retrieval contexts.
• Strong proficiency building and deploying multi-agent AI systems and reasoning frameworks for complex knowledge exploration.
• Experience using AI coding tools (e.g., Claude Code or similar) to accelerate team deliveries at scale.
• Proven track record owning end-to-end execution of large-scale AI/ML projects from ideation to production.
• Excellent communication skills: able to translate complex AI concepts for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• You must be a U.S. Citizenship

Compensation

• Base Salary based upon experience but expect around $200,000

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• 20-30% bonus - paid quarterly
• Equity - between $125,000 - $175,000 with 4 year vest
• Unlimited PTO
• 401(k) with 4% immediate vesting
• Professional development reimbursement
• We can also provide relocation assistant if you need to move to the Pittsburgh or D.C. area.

Why Join Us

This role offers the rare combination of cutting-edge AI research, real-world national security impact, and the autonomy to define and build systems that matter. You’ll work on hard problems with exceptional colleagues, on a platform that is genuinely changing how the defense acquisition community operates.

We are also targeting an IPO in the near future, so your equity will actually worth something here!