Senior Data Scientist (Active Secret Clearance)
Striveworks · Tacoma, WA
$185,000–$230,000from the description
Jul 22, 2026
Tacoma, WA
Jul 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual-contributor role focused on developing and validating machine learning models and custom analytic algorithms across image, video, text, geospatial, time series, and structured data. The work involves implementing AI software for cloud and edge environments, primarily on-site at a government customer location, and feeding customer insights back into product development. Suits an experienced data scientist with an active Secret clearance.
Senior level · 6+ years · Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard, WA · Bachelor's required · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $137,172 (middle half $96,445–$164,970). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role sits at the intersection of data science and software engineering — developing and validating ML models AND implementing AI-based software solutions. Alt SOC 15-1252 (Software Developers) is a genuine runner-up.
JBLM is located within the Bremerton-Silverdale-Port Orchard CBSA (14740); however, Tacoma is more commonly associated with the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue CBSA (42660). The posting says 'Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, WA' — JBLM straddles Pierce County and is often addressed as Tacoma/Lakewood. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue (42660) may be the more appropriate CBSA.
An active Secret clearance (or above) is explicitly required as a hard gate, along with US citizenship.
TensorFlow, PyTorch, and scikit-learn are listed together with 'and/or' — TensorFlow is emitted as the primary skill with PyTorch and scikit-learn as alternatives, reflecting that any one satisfies the requirement.
The 'image/video and/or text data' proficiency requirement is captured as a single skill reflecting the domain expertise gate; it is not a named tool but is a concrete, domain-specific technical requirement explicitly called out in the required qualifications.
Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, AI agents, and ETL pipelines all appear under the explicit 'The following isn't required, but we'd love to see it' section and are marked preferred accordingly.
The role is hybrid/on-site at JBLM with 25% travel expected; it is not remote.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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