Interested in this AI/ML Engineer role at US Office of the Director of National Intelligence?
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Summary
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The Policy \& Capabilities (PC) Directorate ensures the IC is best postured for the threats and challenges of an uncertain future, through strategy, policy, and capabilities development. PC is comprised of the Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) and Policy Strategy and Accountability (PSA) Office.
Learn more about this agency
This job is open to
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### The public
U.S. Citizens, Nationals or those who owe allegiance to the U.S.
### Clarification from the agency
Open to current and former Federal employees with competitive or excepted status; and all U.S. Citizens. Former members of the Peace Corps may be considered for ODNI employment only if five full years have elapsed since separation from the Peace Corps.
Duties
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The Policy, Strategy, and Accountability (PSA) Office is at the forefront of developing, implementing, and evaluating the National Intelligence Strategy, to restore our clandestine technological dominance while ensuring the protection of American civil liberties. Key functions include strategy and prioritization management, the development of IC policy, IC strategy and guidance on science, technology, and data, and net assessments and comparative analysis.
This office integrates the IC's data and technology efforts, driving the adoption of secure, interoperable, and mission\-ready capabilities that enhance decision\-making and ensure mission success through strategy, governance and oversight, policy support, and strategic engagements.
Plan and implement activities in support of the identification and synthesis of future technology trends to guide IC S\&T investments, manage contracts, coordinate forecasted activities, and develop periodic reports for the IC.
Manage the collection and evaluation of, and advocate for, new innovative technology concepts to enhance operations and mitigate mission gaps across the IC.
Manage the identification and review of substantive science and technology intelligence developments in coordination with the NISTC, and inform management and staff of emerging developments related to the S\&T programmatic initiatives.
Provide programmatic recommendations to management and other major stakeholders by gathering, analyzing, and summarizing data from across the IC.
Represent the organization at meetings, conferences, and other public forums to foster and cultivate strategic alliances with other IC components.
Prepare substantive findings, reports, briefing papers, and other communication vehicles; provide advice on policies and procedures governing S\&T intelligence information.
Develop and sustain professional networks across the IC and in operational and analytic communities.
Plan and support year round Intelligence Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Execution (IPPBE) activities with the IC elements that will inform senior decision makers on key S\&T issues.
Perform substantive evaluations of the S\&T implications of the Unified Intelligence Strategies and develop IPPBE engagement strategies.
Plan, evaluate, and prepare estimates of the technical maturity of key technologies used in IC acquisition programs.
Other duties, as assigned.
Requirements
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### Conditions of employment
- Must be a U.S. Citizen residing in the United States
- Appointment is subject to a suitability or fitness determination, as determined by a completed background investigation.
- Must be able to obtain and maintain a Top Secret security clearance based on an SBI with eligibility for sensitive compartmented information (SCI)
- Male applicants born after December 31, 1959, must complete a Pre\-Employment Certification Statement for Selective Service Registration.
- A two\-year trial period is required for all new permanent appointments to the ODNI.
### Qualifications
This is an excepted service GS\-14 position open to the public and all current federal employees at the GS\-14 and one level below. Current federal employees at the GS\-14 and one level below may apply to this position, and if selected will maintain pay set at their current grade and step. Current federal employees at grade levels GS\-12 and below are not eligible for this position and their application will not be forwarded to the hiring manager. All current federal employees that apply for this position must submit their most recent SF\-50, Notification of Personal Action (i.e., dated within the last 52 weeks from the closing date of this vacancy announcement) to verify their status of eligibility.
FREE RESPONSE ESSAY QUESTIONS
All applicants must answer the following four short, free response essay questions. The responses cannot exceed 200 words per question. By submitting your responses to the following questions, you certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model \[LLM]).
- How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the Federal government? Provide a concrete example from professional, academic, or personal experience.
- In this role, how would you use your skills and experience to improve government efficiency and effectiveness? Provide specific examples where you improved processes, reduced costs, or improved outcomes.
- How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you and explain how you would help implement them if hired.
- How has a strong work ethic contributed to your professional, academic or personal achievements? Provide one or two specific examples and explain how those qualities would enable you to serve effectively in this position.
Demonstrated ability to understand and synthesize new scientific and technical advances from a range of technical disciplines into policy or investment recommendations that will impact mission.
Extensive knowledge and experience with the IC's technology community, including research and development entities, and broad understanding of the organizations, missions and functions, and operating practices of the IC.
Demonstrated oral and written communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively with peers and stakeholders from across the IC and Department of Defense.
Demonstrated ability to resolve highly unstructured and interconnected problems involving both difficult technology and complex human relations or programmatic issues.
Extensive knowledge and experience with work of special significance or significant direct effects over a wide region or over multiple programs or may include responsibility for a new technology especially critical to the IC programs.
Demonstrated ability to work within a wide area of responsibility carried out under administrative direction in terms of broad agency policies, objectives, and mission statements.
### Education
Bachelor's Degree
### Additional information
JOB INTERVIEW TRAVEL
Candidates from outside the Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA) may be selected for a telephone, teleconference, or in\-person interview.
SALARY DETERMINATION
The ODNI uses a rank\-in\-person system in which rank is attached to GS employees on the basis of individual qualifications, experience, and performance. Individuals whose current GS grade is equivalent to the grade of the advertised position will retain their current grade and step. Individuals who transfer to the ODNI from a non\-GS pay scale will have base pay converted to the appropriate GS grade and step as determined by the Chief of Human Resource Management.
In some cases when a current federal civilian employee applies for an ODNI position that is a lower grade than his or her personal grade, the candidate's personal grade will be downgraded to the grade of the advertised ODNI position and pay will be set at the step that is closest to, and not less than, the employee's current annual base rate of pay, not to exceed the maximum step rate of the GS grade to which assigned.
RELOCATION EXPENSES
For new ODNI employees, reimbursement for relocation is discretionary based on availability of funds.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATIONS
The ODNI provides reasonable accommodations to otherwise qualified applicants with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process, please notify the Reasonable Accommodations Office Representative by email at DNI\_COO\_HRM\_RA\[email protected], by telephone at (703\)275\-3900 or by FAX at (703\)275\-1277\. Your request for reasonable accommodations will be addressed on a case\-by\-case basis. *PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT YOUR APPLICATION TO THE REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION EMAIL ADDRESS. THIS EMAIL IS FOR REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION REQUESTS ONLY.*
The ODNI is an equal opportunity employer and abides by applicable employment laws and regulations.
Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.
Benefits
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A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.
Review our benefits
Eligibility for benefits depends on the type of position you hold and whether your position is full\-time, part\-time or intermittent. Contact the hiring agency for more information on the specific benefits offered.
How you will be evaluated
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You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
You must submit the supporting documents listed under the required documents section of this announcement. We will review your resume and supporting documentation to ensure you meet the basic qualification requirements. If you are among the best qualified, you may be referred to the hiring manager for consideration and may be called for an interview.
Required Documents
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A complete application package must include:
a. RESUME: Resumes must be no longer than two (2\) pages in length. Resumes longer than two (2\) pages will be removed from consideration. Applicants are encouraged to carefully review the vacancy announcement, particularly the MDRs, and construct their resume to highlight their most significant experience and qualifications relevant to this job opportunity. You must ensure the resume contains all of the required information and you organize it so we can associate the following information for each experience/position: job title; name of employer; beginning and ending dates of employment (month/day/year format), and hours worked per week. We will assume full\-time unless otherwise stated. Additionally, include a detailed description of job duties, accomplishments, related skills and responsibilities, to include any supervisory/managerial responsibilities and number of staff supervised (if applicable), and series and grade or equivalent (if a federal position).
b. ESSAY QUESTION RESPONSES: The responses cannot exceed 200 words per question (please see questions in the Requirements section above). By submitting your responses to these questions, you certify that you are using your own words and did not use a consultant or AI (such as a large language model \[LLM]).
c. COVER LETTER: Applicants must submit a professional narrative as a supplement to the resume to elaborate on their qualifications and previous work performed.
d. CURRENT SF\-50: Federal Government employees must provide your official most recent SF\-50 (i.e., dated within the last 52 weeks from the closing date of this vacancy announcement). An SF\-50, *Notification of Personnel Action*, is used to verify current federal status, position, title, grade, and organization of record. If your SF\-50(s) does not provide the information needed to make a final determination for qualification, you will be found ineligible for the position.
e. POSITION NUMBER: Reference the announcement number in the subject line on each document submitted.
Failure to submit any of the above\-mentioned required documents may result in loss of consideration due to an incomplete application package. It is your responsibility to ensure all required documents have been submitted.
### If you are relying on your education to meet qualification requirements:
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
How to Apply
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We encourage you to read the entire announcement prior to submitting your application.
In order to be considered, you must apply via USAJOBS. The ODNI will not accept emailed applications. Your application must be received by 11:59 PM (EST) on the closing date of this announcement. Applications received after the closing date will NOT be eligible for consideration. All attachments should be in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.
Do not include the following types of information in your profile or resume:
- Classified or government sensitive information
- Social Security Number (SSN)
- Photos of yourself
- Personal information such as age, gender, religious affiliation, etc.
- Encrypted and digitally signed documents
### Agency contact information
ODNI HRM HOST
ODNI\_HRM\_HOST\[email protected]
Address
*POLICY AND CAPABILITIES*
*Director Of National Intelligence*
*Washington, DC 20511*
*US*### Next steps
Once you successfully complete the application process, you will receive an acknowledgement of receipt email. Please note that the acknowledgement email does not ensure completion of your application. You must ensure that you submit all required documentation.
The most highly qualified candidates will be referred to the hiring manager for further consideration and possible interview. We expect to make a selection within 60 days of the closing date of this announcement. Due to the large number of applications received, applicants will be contacted ONLY if they have been selected for an interview.
Overview
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Accepting applications
Posted yesterday · Apply by 07/03/26
Due by 11:59 p.m. ET on July 3, 2026
This job will close when we have received 100 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Location
few vacancies in the following location:
Bethesda, MD
No matching locations found.
Work site options
Telework eligible
No
Remote job
No
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—You may qualify for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with agency policy.
Salary
$121,785 \- $187,093 per year
GS\-14, open to GS\-13
Pay scale \& grade
GS 14
Promotion potential
None
Learn more about pay scale and grade
Pay scale and grade determines the salary of the job.
Work schedule
Full\-time
Travel Required
25% or less \- You may be expected to travel for this position.
Appointment type
Permanent
Occupations and job series
- 1301 General Physical Science
Supervisory status
No
Federal service type
This job is in the Excepted Service
Represented by a union
No
Drug test
Yes
Security clearance
Sensitive Compartmented Information
Financial disclosure required
Yes
Some jobs require financial disclosure to identify conflicts of interests.
Announcement number
26\-12984041\-DNI/PC
Control number
872751400
Salary Context
This $121K-$187K range is below the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1937 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 3,823 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 69% of the market. At US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, 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 in Demand for This Role
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 $181,170 based on 12,692 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $165,000. This role's midpoint ($154K) sits 15% below the category median. Disclosed range: $121K to $187K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($275,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,880; Mid: $165,000; Senior: $227,400; Director: $247,800; VP: $250,000.
US Office of the Director of National Intelligence AI Hiring
US Office of the Director of National Intelligence has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Positions span McLean, VA, US, Bethesda, MD, US. Compensation range: $187K - $197K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (590 positions) offer remote work, while 3,217 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,643 roles, $211,000 median); San Francisco (2,168 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,792 roles, $191,580 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 3,823 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 112 entry-level, 1,798 mid-level, 1,516 senior, and 397 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (590 positions). The remaining 3,217 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,100. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,500. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($275,000 median, 41 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 55 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 434 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 3,823 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,629), Data Scientist (322), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (112) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,798) and senior (1,516) 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 397 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (590 positions), with 3,217 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 $200,100. Top-quartile roles start at $253,500, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $275,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. 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 (1,979 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (899 postings), Rag (839 postings), Gcp (726 postings), Pytorch (595 postings), Prompt Engineering (595 postings), Claude (540 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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