FAS AI​/ML Engineering Director Fellow Washington, DC remote​/hybrid​/in-person

Washington, DC [remote/hybrid/in-person]

Does FAS sound like an organization that you would be energized to join? Is it aligned to your values?

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) takes quite seriously our role as a beacon and voice for the science community.

FAS has a rich history: after the devastating bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, a group of atomic researchers – deeply concerned about the use of science for malice – created an organization committed to using science and technology to benefit humanity.

The group they created – the Federation of Atomic Scientists – soon became the Federation of American Scientists in recognition of the hundreds of scientists across diverse disciplines who joined together to speak with one voice for the betterment of the world.

Today, we are a group of entrepreneurial, intrepid changemakers, forging a better future for all through the nexus of science, technology and talent. We value equity, inclusion, and transparency. As a collective, we are building an organization focused on being impact-driven, customer-focused, and growth-oriented as a force for good in the world.

The FAS Impact Fellowship is a selective fellowship program that supports the development and placement of emerging scientific and technical talent within high-impact roles across federal and state governments. From education to immigration, wildfire resilience, national security, and housing, Impact Fellows are serving across a variety of federal and state agencies in roles that augment existing government teams as they confront some of the greatest scientific and social challenges of our time.

What’s the “elevator pitch” for the role?

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Talent Hub is seeking an Impact Fellow for a 24 month term to join the Department of Information Technology within a state government.

The Gubernatorial Administration has an ambitious vision to become a national leader in the responsible and productive use of artificial intelligence. Guided by the state’s AI Roadmap, the Governor’s office aims to harness AI to improve government services, making them more responsive, efficient, and impactful.

State agencies are eager to explore how AI can improve public services and deliver better outcomes for residents. To turn that momentum into impact, the state is interested in building the technical capacity and modernizing the systems needed to move from ideas to implementation.

To achieve this goal, the state is collaborating with FAS to recruit an AI/ML Engineering Director who will lead high-impact projects, expand technical capacity, and help drive the use of AI to modernize public services. The position will support innovation across workforce systems and help position the state as a national model in the innovation economy.

As the AI/ML Engineering Director, you will lead technical strategy, delivery, and capacity-building to expand the state’s ability to develop and scale AI solutions. Your work will focus on:

• Identifying areas where state-led AI experimentation can have the greatest impact
• Identifying systemic barriers – such as gaps in technical expertise, procedural bottlenecks, or infrastructure/architectural limitations – that slow the adoption of AI tools across state government.
• Developing technical, policy, and talent solutions to remove these barriers and accelerate the implementation of AI projects.
• Evaluating, prototyping, implementing, and optimizing AI/ML systems to ensure they are production-ready, scalable, and high-performing.
• Leading and/or supporting high-impact AI deployments in priority areas – such as streamlining permitting or transforming legacy systems – that deliver on improved operations, customer experience, and service design.
• Championing an AI/MLOps strategy for the State AI product lifecycle.
• Building longer-term capacity by establishing practices that enable sustained AI adoption, including with and for agentic systems.

The potential impact for this role includes:

• Increasing the State’s ability across agencies to run high-priority proofs of concept, evaluate success, and scale…