Senior Data Scientist (Active Secret Clearance)

Build, Deploy, and Maintain AI for an Unpredictable World Meridian Softworks helps organizations harness the power of artificial intelligence to solve real-world national security and business challenges by serving as the command center between data, models, and business outcomes. Founded by data scientists and engineers, Meridian Softworks set out to make the journey from deployment to ongoing optimization simple and effective. With Meridian Softworks, organizations aren’t just deploying AI—they’re building systems that remain reliable, adaptable, and ready to scale in an unpredictable world. Mission-critical operations require models that perform where they’re deployed, scale as workloads grow, and adapt rapidly as AI capabilities advance. Meridian Softworks meets these demands, increasing reliability and performance while lowering costs—and enabling confident, data-driven decision-making in dynamic environments. The Role As a Senior Data Scientist at Meridian Softworks, you’ll be challenged—and trusted—on day one to be a core contributor to the projects, products, and direction of the company. You will represent Meridian Softworks as a technology builder on projects and solutions that leverage Chariot, our proprietary AI operations platform, and you will inform and contribute to future capabilities of that platform. You will work as part of a team of data scientists, machine learning engineers, software engineers, and DevOps engineers to transform machine learning models into functional products. You’re right for this opportunity if you value and possess technical expertise and enjoy pushing the boundaries of your own capabilities. You’re outcome driven and are passionate about applying both software and data science to solve real-world problems. You know that being customer focused, rigorous in approach, clear in communication, and able to identify repeatable value opportunities are all critical to success. You are able to sense the needs of the customer, identify evolving demands, and then synthesize that feedback into actionable suggestions for Meridian Softworks’ product teams. Your day-to-day will include: Developing and validating machine learning models and custom analytic algorithms that are applied to image, video, text, geospatial, time series, and structured data Implementing AI-based software solutions for cloud and edge environments Conducting mission-critical fieldwork in support of customers and other stakeholders This position follows a hybrid work model, combining remote work with on-site support at customer locations in the Northern Virginia area, with up to 10% travel. The Right Fit In addition to the specific skills and expertise detailed below, we are looking for individuals who share our values. Sharing a set of values allows us to move at the speed of trust. Collectively, we value a high-trust work environment where people respect each other and use candor kindly and constructively. We value work that intersects passion and perseverance, we geek out about the potential of our contributions, and we find joy in working hard on things that matter. Finally, we value taking ownership, having agency, and feeling individual responsibility for collective results. Here’s what we’re looking for: BS degree in computer science, machine learning, mathematics, or a related discipline and 6+ years of relevant experience Proficiency in machine learning and data science, and applying both to image and video data Proficiency in implementing and analyzing data structures and algorithms Proficiency in programming languages and libraries common to machine learning; excellence in Python is essential, as is knowledge of libraries like TensorFlow, PyTorch, and/or scikit-learn Experience developing anomaly detection algorithms for AI systems, models, data, and workflows Exposure to software development life cycle and tools (e.g., Git, Agile) Active Secret (or above) US security clearance Due to the nature of this role, candidates must have US citizenship The Wish List We’re very interested in candidates who possess the above qualifications, and we appreciate and consider the addition of: Active TS/SCI security clearance Graduate degree in computer science, machine learning, mathematics, or a related discipline Experience deploying machine learning and data science, and applying both to production environments Exposure to DevOps and cloud infrastructure (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, major cloud providers) Experience processing a variety of unstructured data types (e.g., imagery, full-motion video, text, acoustic, sonar, RF, geospatial, graphs, telemetry signals) Experience building AI agents and agentic workflows Experience implementing ETL pipelines, data pipelines, and/or workflow automation Experience developing software in a compiled programming language (e.g., Go, Rust, C++, Java) Experience building full-stack applications (i.e., back end, front end, REST) Experience delivering technology solutions in secure government environments Experience wo