Machine Learning Engineer - Global Public Sector

Overview

Scale AI is dedicated to creating dependable artificial intelligence solutions to support critical global decisions. Our work primarily involves developing custom AI applications impacting millions, producing top-tier training data for national large language models (LLMs), and providing advisory services to amplify AI's influence.

Role Summary

In our Global Public Sector team, we seek Machine Learning Research Engineers who integrate advanced AI capabilities into impactful government solutions. This role goes beyond standard implementations to lead research into autonomous agent design, reliability, and AI safety. You will convert cutting-edge research into scalable, production-ready systems for high-stake government applications.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead research and design of reliable, multi-step autonomous agent systems capable of sophisticated reasoning for national security and policy challenges.
• Develop comprehensive evaluation strategies and benchmarking protocols, including red-teaming, to ensure safety, fairness, and performance of AI in sensitive, high-stakes environments.
• Analyze and optimize model performance across both open and proprietary models using techniques like context engineering and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) for specialized domains.
• Architect agent frameworks, including harnesses and tool-use protocols, enabling LLMs to act as trustworthy autonomous agents within complex workflows.
• Advance reliability and safety by implementing robust evaluation frameworks and mitigation strategies addressing hallucinations in regulated data contexts.
• Build agents capable of autonomous data synthesis and extensive reasoning to facilitate extraction of actionable insights from vast datasets.
• Customize and optimize AI models for niche applications such as low-resource languages, complex optical character recognition (OCR), and constrained GPU environments.
• Create new automated benchmarks defining success criteria for public sector AI solutions, ensuring superior accuracy and sovereignty standards.
• Serve as a technical consultant to public sector leaders, advising on AI safety, practical limitations, and performance trade-offs of emerging technologies.

Candidate Profile

• Strong programming expertise in Python with experience developing modular, scalable, production-level AI infrastructure and agent harnesses.
• Proven ability to translate theoretical AI research into functional prototypes and products, adept at assessing research viability for production deployment.
• Experience designing and executing advanced evaluation methodologies, including benchmarking and red-teaming of LLMs beyond academic datasets.
• Preferred advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Mathematics, or related fields focused on machine learning, or demonstrated equivalent industry impact.

Desirable Skills

• Deep knowledge in developing multi-agent systems, chain-of-thought enhancements, and reliable tool-calling mechanisms.
• Background in sovereign AI, including experience with highly regulated data, on-premises deployments, or government-sensitive use cases.
• Familiarity with optimizing model inference for limited computational resources and stringent latency requirements.
• Entrepreneurial mindset comfortable with ambiguity and pioneering novel research directions aligning with specific mission objectives.

Additional Information for Applicants in Qatar

Applicants residing in Qatar must have or obtain proper residency and work permits as mandated by Qatari authorities. Personal details such as residency status and nationality will be collected exclusively for immigration compliance and will not influence hiring decisions beyond lawful requirements. Successful candidates will be supported throughout the visa application process.

Terms & Conditions

Applicants may only be considered once every 90 days for the same role to ensure a fair evaluation process.

About Scale AI

Scale AI develops reliable AI systems that impact global decision-making. Collaborators include industry leaders and government institutions such as Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and US military agencies. We foster an inclusive, equal-opportunity workplace committed to accessibility and accommodation for candidates with disabilities.

Privacy & Compliance

We collect and handle personal data solely for recruitment purposes and adhere to strict privacy standards and labor transparency laws. Personal data is processed carefully to protect applicant rights according to our internal policies.