Assistant Data Scientist

Carnegie Mellon University

Data Scientist role at SEI focused on advanced analytics for cybersecurity challenges. Collaborating with experts to develop innovative solutions and influence national cybersecurity strategy.

Posted 5/21/2026full-timeArlington • Pennsylvania, Virginia • 🇺🇸 United StatesMid-LevelSeniorWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

BigQueryCyber SecurityNumpyPandasPythonPyTorchSparkTensorflow

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Data Scientists at the SEI use advanced statistics, data analytics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to help our government and industry clients research and solve cybersecurity challenges.
In this role, you will work with our customers to identify areas where advanced statistical techniques can help tackle problems, plan and develop prototype solutions, and build out final products.
You'll get a chance to work with elite cybersecurity professionals and university faculty to build new technologies that will influence national cybersecurity strategy for decades to come.
You will co-author research proposals, execute studies, and present findings to DoW sponsors and at academic conferences.
Our team works on a wide range of projects. Our current work includes research in generative AI and large language models, computer vision, multimodal AI, agentic AI, and assurance of AI systems.
Additionally, we craft metrics and experimental designs for large-scale cybersecurity research programs, develop human-in-the-loop machine learning solutions, and build classifiers to identify security vulnerabilities.
If you are a data science or statistics expert with an interest in cybersecurity, we want to hear from you!

Requirements

What you’ll need

BS in data science, machine learning, computer science, statistics, or related highly-quantitative discipline.
Willingness to complete modest travel to various locations to support the SEI’s overall mission.
You will be subject to a background check and must be able obtain and maintain a U.S. Department of War security clearance.
Experience in predictive modeling, data science, and/or AI & machine learning
Deep understanding of statistical modeling techniques and advanced data analytics
Proficient with at least one mathematical/statistical programming package (e.g., R, python numpy/scipy/pandas/polars, MATLAB, etc.)
Innovative and inquisitive with ability to imagine novel analytical solutions to problems
Thrives in a multi-disciplinary environment
Strong communication skills.
Expertise in one or more of the following: Recommendation systems, Time-series forecasting (Prophet, NeuralProphet, Chronos, Lag-Llama, etc.), NLP / LLMs (fine-tuning, RAG, evaluation, prompt engineering), Causal inference / uplift modeling / synthetic controls, Modern ML frameworks: LightGBM/XGBoost, CatBoost, PyTorch,JAX, TensorFlow), LLMs / agentic workflows (LangChain/LlamaIndex/Haystack), Experience deploying models (FastAPI, Triton, KServe, SageMaker, Vertex AI, or similar), Experience working with big data (Spark, Trino, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks).
Experience in cybersecurity and privacy is a plus is a plus.
Experience in U.S. Government work and/or with FFRDCs, UARCs an National Labs is a plus.
Demonstrated ability to learn new concepts and grow into new areas of work.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Please visit “ Why Carnegie Mellon ” to learn more about becoming part of an institution inspiring innovations that change the world.
Click here to view a listing of employee benefits.

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Hard Skills & Tools

data sciencemachine learningadvanced statisticspredictive modelingstatistical modeling techniquesdata analyticsnatural language processingtime-series forecastingrecommendation systemscybersecurity

Soft Skills

strong communication skillsinnovativeinquisitiveability to imagine novel analytical solutionsthrives in a multi-disciplinary environmentdemonstrated ability to learn new concepts

Certifications

BS in data scienceBS in machine learningBS in computer scienceBS in statistics