AI Engineer​/Senior AI Engineer, AI Policy Lab

Full Time

Policy research needs to catch up to AI. Researchers at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) are pushing today’s AI tools to their limits, and the next generation of research and product tools for national security analysis hasn’t been built yet. CNAS is seeking an AI Engineer / Senior AI Engineer to embed with some of the nation’s top AI and national security researchers, editors, and designers.

You will prototype AI-enabled tools and products, refine the ones that work, and scale the best of them across the Center.

CNAS is making a substantial investment in its well-established AI and national security team by launching the AI Policy Lab, and the AI Engineer / Senior AI Engineer will be instrumental to that effort. You will report to the Vice President of Strategy and Communications. As an early member of the AI Policy Lab, you’ll help shape how the lab operates from the ground floor.

In this role, you’ll design, build, and deploy custom software, applications, and AI agent workflows that expand what CNAS researchers can accomplish in their work on AI policy, national security, and AI-related economic competition. You will serve as a technical partner embedded with CNAS research and business teams to build out innovative solutions to increase productivity and maximize policy impact.

The ideal candidate has a software engineering or computer science background, is highly proficient at using AI coding tools and agents to build applications and automated workflows and has a genuine interest in AI policy and national security. You enjoy working alongside non-engineers, turning research questions into durable, reusable tools, and teaching colleagues to get the most out of what you build.

This is a hands-on technical role with significant autonomy. This is not a research position.

You might be well-suited for this role if you’re:

• Experienced at building working software with AI coding tools such as Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or Cursor, from quick prototypes to tools colleagues rely on daily.
• Excited to work alongside researchers, learn how they work, and build custom tools and agent workflows that take their research further.
• Skilled at explaining technical concepts to non-engineers and helping colleagues become more capable AI users.
• Interested in how AI is reshaping national security.
• Comfortable with shifting priorities in a field that moves fast.
• Able to juggle short- and long-term projects while building durable tools others can use.
• Motivated by seeing your work used, not just shipped.

• Embed with CNAS researchers to build custom code, applications, and AI agent workflows that support their research and analysis.
• Rapidly prototype tools and refine them based on how colleagues use them.
• Build agents and pipelines that gather, process, analyze, and visualize documents, transcripts, and datasets for CNAS research.
• Build custom tools and software to automate business functions and accelerate productivity.

• Train staff to use, adapt, and build on the tools you create, and document best practices for advanced AI use.
• Help CNAS researchers who are already proficient AI users push their work further with code, agents, and advanced AI capabilities.
• Track new AI models, harnesses, systems, and capabilities and assess which are worth adopting.

• Standardize AI-enabled workflows for recurring tasks such as baseline research, copy editing, citations, contact management, and data tracking.
• Test, refine, document, and maintain AI tools for durable use.
• Test AI-assisted outputs for accuracy, objectivity, and sourcing to meet CNAS’s quality standards for independent, fact-based research.
• Ensure tools meet CNAS…