We fuse rigorous, methodologically sound analysis with our cutting-edge technology platform, Narrative Analytics®. This powerful combination enables us to quantitatively analyze open-source media, deliver strategic recommendations, and craft executive-level communication strategies for clients with missions that matter.

Why Us?

Our team is a vibrant mix of communication specialists, data scientists, and subject matter experts with extensive experience across U.S. Government agencies, non-profit organizations, and Fortune 500 companies. By joining Protagonist, you'll immerse yourself in a collaborative environment where innovation thrives, and your contributions truly matter.

What We Do

Innovative Solutions: We co-develop cutting-edge solutions with our clients to address tough communication problems and capitalize on opportunities to make a tangible impact.
Data-Driven Insights: Our tools and methodologies provide actionable insights that help clients meet their communication objectives and stay ahead of global challenges.
Applied Expertise: We integrate our solutions within client organizations, leveraging our profound expertise to address critical issues and ensure sustainable success.

Be Part of Something Bigger

At Protagonist, you'll work on compelling projects that make a real difference. We seek talented individuals eager to contribute to our mission and grow alongside us. If you're passionate about communication, data analysis, and making an impact, we invite you to explore a career with Protagonist.

Explore Your Future with Us!

Ready to take the next step in your career? Join us at Protagonist and be part of a team that's making a difference.

Job Description

Note that this a temporary subcontract position-outstanding performance may lead to full-time consideration; We are also recruiting for a full-time Senior Machine Learning Engineer based in Washington, DC—please visit our careers page for details and to apply

You are a hands-on Machine Learning Engineer passionate about creating production-ready systems that power mission-critical work. You bring strong engineering discipline, systems thinking, and a bias toward scalable, well-architected solutions. You work across the full ML lifecycle—building and deploying tools that solve complex problems efficiently and reliably.

You are a strategic contributor and builder who collaborates across engineering, product, and client-facing teams to expand the role of AI at Protagonist. You are deeply curious, continuously learning, and committed to staying current with advances in machine learning, infrastructure, and software development.

Responsibilities

Partner with product, engineering, data science, and analysis teams to identify and execute high-impact NLP use cases
Translate business requirements and stakeholder needs into actionable ML solutions that deliver measurable value
Design and implement state-of-the-art NLP solutions with scalable pipelines for multi-modal, multi-language data, utilizing transformers, LLMs, and generative modeling techniques
Lead technical discussions with cross-functional teams to align on ML strategy, architecture, and implementation plans
Architect cloud-native ML solutions leveraging containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) and MLOps best practices
Implement RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) pipelines and vector search systems to enhance model performance
Develop, optimize, and maintain production-ready ML systems and infrastructure with a focus on cost-efficiency, reliability, reproducibility, and real-world performance
Build solutions for narrative detection, event classification, entity resolution, and other bespoke model applications
Fine-tune and deploy language models for specific business domains with parameter-efficient methods (LoRA/PEFT)
Improve foreign-language and noisy/mixed-modality input handling
Establish robust ML evaluation frameworks including regression testing and hallucination detection
Enhance data coverage and quality across structured and unstructured sources
Work with product managers to define success metrics and evaluation strategies for ML features
Lead by example in mentoring, planning, and cross-functional collaboration
Advance ML practices through knowledge sharing and contribute to product improvements
Evaluate and adopt best practices in ML systems and balance innovation with practical delivery

Requirements

Must be eligible to work on government contracts that may be restricted to U.S. persons; active or prior SECRET clearance preferred.
Bachelor's degree with 7+ years of work experience or advanced degree with 5+ years of work experience in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or related technical field.
5+ years of experience building and deploying ML systems in production with focus on NLP
Deep expertise in modern NLP approaches including transformers, LLMs, and embedding models
Proven ability to work effectively across engineering, product, and business teams to deliver ML solutions
Skilled in scaling ML for real-world applications and working with multi-modal (text, image, video) and domain-specific data.
Strong Python skills and fluency with deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face)
Experience with MLOps tools and practices (MLflow, Kubeflow, Airflow, model registries)
Proven experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and Infrastructure as Code
Knowledge of distributed computing frameworks (Spark, Ray) for large-scale data processing
Experience with vector databases (Pinecone, Milvus, OpenSearch) and search optimization
Familiarity with containerization, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines
Experience with orchestration tools (e.g., MLflow, Metaflow, Argo), cloud infrastructure, data lakes, and modern ML stack architectures.
Bonus: Experience integrating ML into dashboards or decision-support tools.
Effective communicator and cross-functional collaborator.
Strong self-starter comfortable with ambiguity and startup-like environments.
Prior experience managing direct reports is a plus.

Join Us

If you're passionate about technology and making an impact, apply today! Protagonist is dedicated to fostering a welcoming and innovative environment where everyone's voice can make a difference.

Protagonist is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Salary Range: This is an hourly based short-term contracted position; hourly rate commensurate with education and level of relevant experience.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.