About Precision Federal
Precision Federal is a small business building AI, data and software systems for government agencies. The company’s founder loves God, and the company is built on Christian faith: every number we publish is real, every claim we make is verifiable, and the work is done with excellence as service to God. Faith is welcome here and openly shared.
How this role works
- You join the bench. You apply with your weekly hours and start time. We set your hourly rate from your résumé, and we may name you on proposals that match this role. If we don't win, you owe nothing.
- A contract is awarded. The award funds the team named in the proposal. Your engagement begins at the hourly rate we agreed on.
- You work remote, paid from the contract. ~120–600 hrs per funded award — and if no award ever funds, you owe nothing and lose nothing.
What you'll do
- Serve as Principal Investigator: set the research questions, own the technical approach, and stand behind the results
- Design closed-loop and high-throughput experiments, and choose what the optimizer or active learner should be trying to find
- Check our materials models, descriptors and datasets against real synthesis, processing and characterization behavior
- Tell us when a result is an artifact of the instrument, the sample or the model rather than the material
- Review technical claims, milestones and reports before they reach the Government
Required qualifications
- PhD in materials science, chemistry, chemical engineering, physics or a closely related field
- A research record in polymer or soft-matter materials, or in electronic or photonic materials
- Hands-on experience with autonomous experimentation, self-driving labs, or materials informatics
- Based in the United States (this role is remote)
- U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (U.S. person)
- Willing to be named on a federal proposal with a one-page resume, and to sign a short letter of commitment
Preferred qualifications
- Prior PI or co-PI role on a federally funded research award
- Bayesian optimization, active learning or other sequential experiment design used on real lab hardware
- Robotic synthesis or processing platforms, and characterization such as XRD, GIWAXS, ellipsometry, UV-vis, Raman or electrical testing
- Python materials tools such as pymatgen, matminer, or comparable data and modeling stacks
- Publications or patents in polymers, organic electronics, photonics or semiconductor materials
Compensation & structure
1099 consulting engagement. $30–$70 per hour; we set your rate from your résumé and experience. Hours are funded by federal contract awards — this seat is scoped at roughly 120–600 hours per funded award, fully remote. Work and pay begin only if the contract is awarded — no award, no hours, no obligation.