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Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Dogwood Management Partners, LLC

Posted today

Job Requirements

Fort Belvoir, VA
Top Secret Polygraph not specified
Senior Level Career (10+ yrs experience)
Salary not specified
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Job Description

Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Location: Fort Belvoir, Virginia
Work Schedule: Full-time, 40 hours per week, on-site up to five days per week
Clearance Required: Active DoD Top Secret
Citizenship: U.S. citizenship required
Travel: None anticipated

Dogwood Management Partners is seeking a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to support a U.S. Army defensive cyber operations mission at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. This position will lead the design, development, deployment, and sustainment of scalable machine-learning capabilities within an AWS-based environment.

The successful candidate will work directly with government stakeholders, Army security teams, software vendors, and other technical teams to transform operational requirements and available technologies into secure, production-ready solutions. This individual will also evaluate third-party platforms and code, integrate point solutions into broader defensive cyber capabilities, and mentor junior technical personnel.

Key Responsibilities

Lead the design and development of data-intensive machine-learning solutions using distributed-computing technologies.
Build, deploy, retrain, maintain, and monitor machine-learning models in production environments.
Design and use cloud-based architectures, technologies, and platforms to deliver optimized ML capabilities at scale.
Collaborate with government stakeholders, Army security teams, vendors, and cross-functional Agile teams to define requirements and deliver integrated technical solutions.
Evaluate third-party platforms, models, and source code to determine whether they are secure, supportable, and fit for the intended mission.
Apply secure-development and model-governance practices to reduce software vulnerabilities and manage model risk.
Develop production-quality software using Python, Scala, or Java.
Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and task oversight to junior engineers and other team members.
Communicate technical risks, recommendations, and solution options clearly to government and program leadership.

Required Qualifications

Active DoD Top Secret clearance. A polygraph is not required.
U.S. citizenship.
Ability to work on-site at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, up to five days per week.
Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, electrical engineering, or a closely related technical field.
At least eight years of professional experience designing and building data-intensive solutions using distributed-computing technologies. Internship experience does not count toward this requirement.
Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and delivering machine-learning models or components that solve operational or business problems.
Experience deploying, maintaining, retraining, and monitoring ML models in production.
Experience developing solutions within AWS or another comparable cloud environment.
Strong programming experience with Python, Scala, or Java.
Experience working with cross-functional Agile development teams.
Demonstrated ability to lead technical work and mentor junior personnel.
Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Preferred Qualifications

Master’s or doctoral degree in computer science, electrical engineering, mathematics, statistics, data science, or a related field.
Five or more years of experience in an ML, AI, MLOps, or technical-lead role.
AWS machine-learning or cloud architecture experience, including services such as Amazon SageMaker.
Experience with Spark, Databricks, Hadoop, or comparable distributed data-processing technologies.
Experience with model governance, ML security, vulnerability reduction, and responsible AI practices.
Machine learning, artificial intelligence, data science, or AWS certification.
Prior experience supporting the U.S. Army, Department of Defense, defensive cyber operations, or another national-security mission.

Position Details

This is a full-time position supporting an active federal program. The current period of performance is expected to run through January 13, 2027, with a potential extension. Candidates must be willing and able to perform the work on-site at Fort Belvoir. Remote work is not available for this position.

About Dogwood Management Partners

Dogwood Management Partners is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business providing cybersecurity, software development, cloud engineering, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and enterprise IT services to federal customers. Dogwood maintains a Top Secret facility clearance and supports mission-critical programs across the federal government.

Dogwood Management Partners provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable law.
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