Biometrics AI​/ML Engineer

Overview

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is the largest U.S. Department of Energy science and energy laboratory, conducting basic and applied research to deliver transformative solutions to compelling problems in energy and security. The Human Analysis and Biometrics (HAB) group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) conducts research, development, and deployment of human and group recognition technologies to address national security and other worldwide challenges.

We are seeking a technical contributor in AI/ML research to build models and pipelines, design and implement evaluations and benchmarks, and disseminate results through publications and briefings. You will partner with multidisciplinary researchers across ORNL and external collaborators to enable data‑driven decision‑making in a variety of contexts.

• Contributes to requirements definition, design, and development of software applications in supporting the needs of projects as directed by the Principal Investigator and/or software team lead.
• Develop AI/ML models and systems for diverse data and mission contexts.
• Conduct independent and collaborative research in AI/ML, with a focus on multimodal learning, computer vision, and scientific machine learning.
• Develop novel algorithms and architectures for tasks such as multimodal retrieval, reasoning over complex data, and predictive modeling.
• Design and implement reproducible pipelines for data acquisition, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, packaging, and deployment.
• Help the group envision, design, develop, test, and deploy human analysis and biometric recognition tools and prototypes.
• Conduct rigorous statistical analysis to aid in data exploration and interpretation.
• Benchmark and test & evaluate AI/ML systems against performance metrics and robustness; define and implement measures of success for deployment‑ready systems.
• Disseminate results via technical reports, publications, presentations, and sponsor briefings.
• Visualize and explain complex data and model results to technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Contribute to research proposals and statements of work.
• Deliver ORNL's mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. Promote equal opportunity by fostering a respectful workplace.

• A BS degree in computer science, computational science, data science, artificial intelligence, or related field.
• Experience with agile software development methodologies such as SCRUM.
• Strong foundation in machine learning, deep learning, or computer vision.
• Strong Python development skills and familiarity with git, CLI tooling, VS Code.
• Proficiency with PyTorch and/or Tensor Flow, along with other Python ML development packages; experience building, training, evaluating ML/DL models.
• Experience implementing reproducible data/model pipelines and documenting assumptions, parameters, metrics, and results.

• Experience with predictive modeling and generative AI/LLMs, including RAG systems.
• Familiarity with LLM inference servers (e.g., vLLM, Ollama).
• Familiarity with high‑performance computing (HPC) and distributed training environments.
• Hands‑on benchmarking / test & evaluation of AI systems.
• Interest in AI applications for safety, risk modeling, or scientific workflows.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Motivated self‑starter with the ability to work independently and participate creatively in collaborative teams across the laboratory.
• Ability to function well in a fast‑paced research environment, set priorities to accomplish multiple tasks within deadlines, and adapt to ever‑changing needs.

• Q clearance. This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a clearance from the Department of Energy. As such, this position is a Workplace Substance Abuse (WSAP) testing designated position. WSAP positions require passing a pre‑placement drug test and participation in an ongoing random drug testing program.

As a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an impressive 80‑year…