Junior Data Scientist

ASRC Federal is a leading government contractor furthering missions in space, public health, and defense. As an Alaska Native owned corporation, our work helps secure an enduring future for our shareholders. ASRC Federal AFSS is a premier provider of systems engineering, software engineering, system integration, and project management services for real-time, mission-critical defense systems.

About the role

We are seeking a Data Scientist or Machine Learning professional to provide junior-level support on a NASA contract in Greenbelt, MD. The ideal candidate will have proven experience in developing advanced machine learning models, statistical analysis, and multimodal data systems for large, complex datasets.

Responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and optimize machine learning and deep learning models for scientific and real-world applications, including vision-language systems and multimodal architectures.
• Construct and manage large-scale datasets (e.g., image-text pairs) for model training and evaluation.
• Design and execute multi-stage inference pipelines, evaluation frameworks, and fine-tuning strategies to improve model reliability and accuracy.
• Apply statistical modeling and time series forecasting techniques (e.g., SARIMA, LSTM) to predict trends in domains such as sustainable aviation fuels and green hydrogen.
• Analyze complex datasets using regression, NLP, and quantitative methods to extract actionable insights for policy and research.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including NASA scientists and academic researchers, to disseminate findings through publications and presentations.
• Author technical documentation and present diagnostics and results at conferences and symposiums.
• Teach and mentor students in data analytics and computer science, developing supplementary materials and project-based modules.
• Additional duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Statistics, or related discipline.
• Strong programming skills: Python, R, SQL, MATLAB, SAS, HTML/CSS; experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, Linux, Git.
• Expertise in machine learning, deep learning, time series forecasting, statistical modeling, computer vision, NLP, and multimodal learning.
• Experience with data preprocessing, feature engineering, data visualization, and quantitative analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to build scalable data pipelines and process large, unstructured datasets.
• Excellent communication skills, with experience presenting technical findings to diverse audiences.
• Must meet government NAC and citizenship/permanent residency requirements for access to NASA GSFC. Extensive background investigation will be performed as a requirement of the job.
• Some travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Research experience in academic or government settings (e.g., NASA).
• Experience developing vision-language models and multimodal neural network architectures.
• Prior teaching or mentoring experience in computer science or data analytics.
• Publications or presentations at scientific conferences.

Benefits

• Health care, dental, and vision insurance.
• Life insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Education assistance.
• Paid time off including PTO, holidays, and other paid leave required by law.

Pay

The salary offered will depend on several factors including, but not limited to, relevant experience, skills, education, geographic location, internal equity, business needs, and other factors permitted by law.