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About This Role
Standard Job Description
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THE WORK
The Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) Engineer designs, creates, tests, and productizes AI/ML algorithms to solve business challenges. The AI/ML models they create should be capable of learning and making predictions as defined by the business logic developed to meet customer requirements. The AI/ML Engineer should be proficient in all aspects of model architecture, data pipeline interaction, and metrics application, interpretation, and presentation. The AI/ML Engineer needs familiarity with foundational concepts of application development, infrastructure management, data engineering, and data governance. Through an understanding of training, retraining, deploying, scheduling, monitoring, and improving models through iterative user and system feedback, the AI/ML Engineer designs and creates scalable solutions for optimal performance. The AI/ML Engineer may be responsible for leading geographically diverse teams and will often serve as a primary POC for AI\-related matters, so must have exceptional analytical, problem\-solving and communication skills.
WHO WE ARE
At Lockheed Martin, we're a pioneering aerospace and defense company that's been at the forefront of innovation for decades. With a long\-standing history of pushing boundaries, we're now shaping the future of cyber and intelligence. Our team is committed to innovating at the Edge, where we harness the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and cyber technologies to stay ahead of emerging threats and opportunities
WHO YOU ARE
At Lockheed Martin, you will work with our team of skilled AI/ML Engineers design, create, test, and productize AI/ML algorithms that learn, predict, and make informed Expert knowledge of multiple programming languages (i.e. Python, Java, C\+\+ decisions, meeting the evolving needs of our customers. With strong familiarity with Hadoop, we develop and deploy scalable AI/ML models that integrate with data pipelines, infrastructure, and applications.
WHY JOIN US
Providing ongoing training, mentorship, and development opportunities to help our cyber and intelligence professionals stay at the forefront of their field and achieve their career goals.
Competitive and comprehensive benefits package.
Rewards and recognition for your hard work.
Medical and dental coverage.
401k retirement savings plan.
Paid time off for work/life balance.
And more
Designs, develops, documents, tests, and maintains full spectrum cyber solutions. Develops and automates secure systems to support cyber offensive, defense and full spectrum cyber operations.Conducts vulnerability research, reverse engineering, penetration testing (red/blue teams), develops and integrates low\-level firmware, and/or develops specialized cyber software solutions and tools based on mission requirements. Applies system knowledge of subject matter (hardware, software, networks, cloud, etc.) to conduct research to evaluate potential vulnerabilities and develop new capabilities to exploit and/or mitigate vulnerabilities.
Basic Qualifications
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TS/SCI w/ Poly
Five (5\) years experience in applied machine learning in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity is required.
A Master's or Ph.D. degree in advanced math, artificial intelligence, data science, computer science or deep learning from an accredited college or university.
5 additional years of machine learning experience with a relevant Bachelor's degree may be substituted for a Master's degree. Experience with standard machine language frameworks, e.g. Pytorch, TensorFlow.
Desired Skills
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Technical Skills:
o Strong proficiency in AI/ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Hugging Face.
o Expertise in model training, evaluation, and deployment.
o Hands\-on experience with AWS tools like SageMaker, Lambda, EC2, and S3\.
o Experience in developing full\-stack software applications (JavaScript, Python, Java, etc.).
o Solid understanding of data structures, algorithms, and system design.
Experience \& Background:
o Extensive experience in machine learning model development, including natural language processing (NLP).
o Experience with model evaluation, optimization, and performance monitoring.
o Proven experience in software engineering with strong coding skills.
o Experience working in a government or defense\-related environment is highly preferred.
Pay Information
Full\-Time Salary Range: $135700\.00 \- $251900\.00
At Lockheed Martin, we know mission success starts with taking care of our people. Our Total Rewards program is designed to attract top talent, support your well\-being, and help you grow—both professionally and personally.
The salary range for this position is as listed on the requisition. Please note that the salary information listed is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market(work location) and business considerations when extending an offer.
Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Flexible work arrangements and schedules (e.g., 4x10\), 401(k) match, Paid time off, Holidays, Parental Leave, EAP, Flexible Spending Accounts, Education Assistance, Life Insurance, Short\-Term Disability, and Long\-Term Disability.
- Annual short\-term and/or long\-term incentive compensation programs may be offered depending on the position. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and can vary from year to year and are tied to a range of performance metrics.
- For (Washington state applicants only) Non\-represented full\-time employees: accrue at least 10 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; receive at least 90 hours for holidays. Represented full time employees accrue 6\.67 hours of Vacation per month; accrue up to 52 hours of sick leave annually; receive at least 96 hours for holidays. PTO, Vacation, sick leave, and holiday hours are prorated based on start date during the calendar year.
Salary Context
This $135K-$251K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $175K across 2162 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Lockheed Martin, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $214,900 based on 6,420 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($193K) sits 10% below the category median. Disclosed range: $135K to $251K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Lockheed Martin AI Hiring
Lockheed Martin has 3 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Annapolis Junction, MD, US, Herndon, VA, US, Littleton, CO, US. Compensation range: $169K - $251K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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