Aptima Inc is hiring a Senior AI Engineer – Human–AI Systems to lead the design and technical execution of AI-enabled systems that integrate human cognition, behavior, and team dynamics with machine intelligence for Department of Defense applications. This role combines expertise in human–AI interaction and behavioral science with applied AI system design and project leadership.
What You'll Do
- Lead the design of human–AI teaming concepts, interaction workflows, and mixed-initiative system behaviors for DoD applications.
- Translate mission needs and human performance objectives into system requirements, technical architectures, and evaluation plans.
- Design and execute human-subject experiments and quantitative studies to evaluate trust, workload, decision quality, team effectiveness, and system impact.
- Design, develop, and oversee analytic pipelines and performance metrics to operationalize complex behavioral and organizational constructs using real-world data.
- Serve as technical lead or task lead on AI and human–AI system development efforts, coordinating work across AI engineers and researchers.
- Translate quantitative results into clear, actionable insights for technical teams, behavioral scientists, and government stakeholders.
- Lead technical contributions to proposals, system designs, and customer deliverables.
- Mentor junior staff and promote best practices in human-centered AI system development.
What We're Looking For
- MS or PhD in cognitive psychology, human factors/HCI, AI/computer science (with human–AI focus), systems engineering, psychology/IO, or a related field.
- Demonstrated expertise in the science of human cognition, team dynamics, trust in automation, human–AI interaction, and applied behavioral science.
- Strong quantitative modeling and statistical analysis background, including experimental design, regression modeling, multivariate analysis, psychometric modeling, and simulation.
- Proficiency in Python and/or R for data analysis, modeling, simulation, visualization, and development of reproducible analytic workflows.
- Experience developing custom metrics, indices, and analytic pipelines to operationalize complex behavioral, organizational, or team constructs using real-world, imperfect data.
- Experience designing and executing human-subject experiments and analyzing performance data.
- Experience leading technical tasks or serving as technical lead or deputy PI on government-funded programs.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including proposal and customer-facing technical work.
- Proven ability to translate quantitative results into clear, actionable insights for technical teams, behavioral scientists, and non-technical stakeholders.
- Ability to manage and coordinate multidisciplinary technical teams.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
Nice to Have
- Familiarity with DoD research environments.
Technical Stack
- Python
- R
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or any other status protected by applicable national, federal, state or local law.
