Senior AI/ML Lead
General Information
Requisition # 682
Locations USA-VA-Arlington
Posting Date 03/20/2026
Security Clearance Required - ACTIVE IRS MBI
Remote Type Hybrid
Time Type Full time
Description & Requirements
Elder Research Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MANTECH international Corporation seeks a motivated, career and customer-oriented Senior AI/ML Lead to join our team in Arlington, VA. This is a hybrid position with several days onsite over the course of a month.
We are seeking a Senior AI/ML Lead to drive advanced modeling and analytical approaches supporting fraud detection and identity theft analytics. This role provides technical leadership across the lifecycle of machine learning models used to detect risk, identify anomalous activity, and strengthen fraud prevention capabilities.
The ideal candidate brings deep technical expertise and experience deploying analytical models in production environments operating at enterprise scale.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Provide technical leadership for machine learning and advanced analytics initiatives.
- Design, develop, and evaluate models used to detect fraud, identity theft, and anomalous behavior.
- Support the full lifecycle of analytical models, including development, validation, deployment, and monitoring.
- Assess, refresh, consolidate, and modernize existing analytical model portfolios.
- Apply machine learning, statistical modeling, and AI techniques to large-scale datasets.
- Collaborate with data engineers and subject matter experts to integrate models into operational systems.
- Document methodologies, model performance metrics, and analytical findings.
- Support technical reviews, program briefings, and stakeholder discussions
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Science degree in a relevant field such as statistics, computer science, economics, mathematics, analytics, data science, data engineering, business, or social sciences
- 3+ years of experience applying analytics to fraud detection, identity theft analytics, risk modeling, or financial crime detection.
- Advanced experience in machine learning, applied statistics, data science, or artificial intelligence.
- Demonstrated experience supporting full model lifecycle management in production analytics environments.
- Expertise in predictive modeling, anomaly detection, and supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques.
- Strong experience working with large-scale datasets in distributed or enterprise analytical environments, including Databricks, PostgreSQL, or similar platforms.
- Proficiency in SQL, Python, and related analytical programming languages.
- Experience performing feature engineering, model evaluation, model monitoring, and analytical workflow automation.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced degree (MS) in analytics, computer science, data science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, management information systems, decision science, or related fields
- Familiarity with tax administration or financial transaction environments, including regulatory or compliance-driven analytics.
- Ability to translate complex analytical results into insights usable by operational and program stakeholders.
- Strong documentation and communication skills for technical and executive audiences.
Clearance Requirements:
- Must currently possess an IRS Public Trust clearance with Full Background Investigation
Physical Requirements:
- Must be able to remain in a stationary position 50%
- Needs to occasionally move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
- Frequently communicates with co-workers, management, and customers, which may involve delivering presentations.
- Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations
About Elder Research, Inc - People Centered. Data Driven
Elder Research considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to disability or veteran status or any other status protected under any federal, state, or local law or regulation.
If you need a reasonable accommodation to apply for a position with Elder Research, please email us at [email protected] and provide your name and contact information.
Skills Required
- Bachelor of Science degree in a relevant field
- 3+ years of experience in fraud detection or analytics
- Advanced experience in machine learning and statistics
- Experience supporting full model lifecycle management
- Expertise in predictive modeling and anomaly detection
- Experience with large-scale datasets in analytical environments
- Proficiency in SQL and Python
What We Do
Elder Research is a recognized leader in data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence consulting. Founded in 1995 by Dr. John Elder, Elder Research has helped government agencies and Fortune Global 500® companies solve real-world problems in diverse industry segments. Our goal is to transform data, domain knowledge, and algorithmic innovations into world-class analytic solutions. When we combine the business domain expertise of our clients with our deep understanding of advanced analytics, we create a team that can extract actionable value from the data. Our areas of expertise include data science, text mining, data visualization, scientific software engineering, and technical teaching. Experience with diverse projects and algorithms, advanced validation techniques, and innovative model combination methods (ensembles) enables Elder Research to maximize project success for a continued return on analytics investment. In 2020 we acquired the Institute for Statistics Education at Statistics.com to provide focused data science, analytics, and statistics training for corporations and individuals. The Institute’s certificates and degrees are certified by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and its courses are approved by the American Council on Education. Elder Research’s Analytics Services are designed to scale based on the unique requirements of each organization and can maximize the client’s return on analytic investment. Elder Research is also a leader in advanced analytic training and offers a variety of training services directed at each of the key stakeholders within an organization. Training builds a common foundation and vision for analytics across business units and lead to the successful adoption, deployment, and maintenance of analytic models within an organization.
