Senior Data Scientist

Who We Are

Aptima is a technological leader in the national security industry. Our mission is to drive the future of national security by engineering scalable solutions that fuse technological innovation with human potential to transform how individuals and teams train, develop, and perform in mission-critical environments.

Our culture is rooted in our core values, which have evolved over time and our employees have embraced: Integrity, Ingenuity, Excellence, Respect, Engagement, Teamwork. At our core, Aptima researches, develops, and innovates within an area that engineering firms largely ignore, the human component. To impact the world in meaningful ways, you must bring those innovations to light, and that is precisely what we do.

How You Will Make An Impact

The Senior Data Scientist leads data driven problem solving, including design and technical execution, by applying modern AI/ML techniques in dynamic systems that drive our tech enabled solutions for our Department of War (DoW) customers. This role combines expertise in translating problem requirements and model selection with applied AI system design and project leadership, serving as a technical lead on multidisciplinary programs and coordinating the work of AI engineers and researchers. The position emphasizes end-to-end data modeling ownership, hands on interaction with stakeholders, and translation of mission needs into operationally effective capabilities, while contributing to proposals, customer engagements, and internal technical excellence.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design of ML/AI models, interaction workflows, and recommendation system’s designed for skill selection or staff profiles.
• Understand the science that can inform requirements addressing trust, explainability, complexity, and characteristics of modern ML solutions.
• Serve as technical lead or task lead on AI and human–AI system development efforts, coordinating work across AI engineers and researchers.
• Translate mission needs and human performance objectives into system requirements, technical architectures, and evaluation plans. Review and guide system implementations to ensure usability, explainability, and operational suitability.
• Design and execute experiments and statistical studies to evaluate traditional AI/ML, as well as generative AI and agentic systems.
• Design, develop, and oversee analytic pipelines and performance metrics to operationalize complex behavioral and organizational constructs using real-world data.
• Translate quantitative results into clear, actionable insights for technical teams, behavioral scientists, and government stakeholders, bridging theory, data, and system implementation.
• Lead technical contributions to proposals, system designs, and customer deliverables. Present technical work internally and at relevant external forums to include conferences, customer briefings, and other venues.
• Mentor junior staff and promote best practices in human-centered AI system development. Contribute to internal initiatives for AI system development and evaluation.