Principal Investigator Jobs
Principal Investigator jobs are open across academia, pharmaceuticals, biotech, and government research agencies, from early-career to senior and lead levels, with specializations in clinical trials, translational research, and basic science. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.
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Showing 5 of 98+ Principal Investigator jobs
The Opportunity:
CACI's Mission & Engineering Support (M&ES) line of business is building an AI Expeditionary Team to help our programs and customers move from AI curiosity to operational AI capability. We are seeking a hands-on AI practitioner to serve as an Expeditionary Principal Investigator and a trusted technical advisor to the division's AI & Technology Integration Lead.
You will be the bridge between program needs and technology teams. You will go to customer sites, listen, assess where AI can add value, demonstrate what is possible, and bring that understanding back to the broader company. There it informs roadmaps, estimates and team formation. We sell expertise, not just products: a successful prototype is one slice of a larger customer strategy, and your work shapes the plan, team structure and transition path that turn it into a lasting capability.
You will work within the context of the division’s technology roadmap, whose current themes include AI-enabled intelligence analysis and operations, ship digital twins, unmanned systems (UXS/CUXS) development and integration, AI-enabled model-based systems engineering, computer vision for full-motion video, AI-enabled geospatial and training solutions, and modernization of our training academies using advanced RAG and agentic pipelines. You will also help shape CACI’s AI Transformation Framework and the AI Expeditionary Team itself.
Responsibilities:
Required:
- U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Top Secret SCI security clearance.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, statistics, mathematics, engineering or another technical discipline. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered. A master's or doctorate is a plus.
- Typically 7+ years of related experience with a bachelor's degree, 5+ with a master's or 3+ with a doctorate.
- Demonstrated experience as a technical lead, principal investigator, lead architect or comparable role with responsibility for technical scope, delivery and outcomes.
- Deep, hands-on experience building generative AI systems, including LLM applications, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic workflows, together with a solid foundation in applied machine learning and evaluation methods.
- Experience leading customer-facing discovery or assessment work: engaging stakeholders, eliciting and documenting technical requirements, and turning them into a clear plan.
- Strong Python skills and experience with modern AI/ML tooling such as PyTorch, Hugging Face, scikit-learn, LangChain/LangGraph or comparable frameworks.
- Experience delivering integrated systems, not only standalone models, including APIs, data services, cloud deployment and testing.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to brief non-technical audiences, customers and senior leaders and to turn requirements discussions into clear technical plans.
- Project management skills sufficient to plan and run small multi-person efforts, along with the ability to work independently and to lead through influence.
- Willingness to work on site at DTC and to travel to customer sites, including extended visits.
Qualifications:
Desired:
- Active Top Secret SCI clearance; experience delivering capabilities for the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community or other U.S. Government customers.
- Experience building rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) estimates and staffing plans for technical efforts, and contributing to proposals or technical volumes.
- Experience transitioning prototypes into production or operational use, particularly in secure or classified environments.
- Experience with model adaptation or fine-tuning, LLM evaluation, red-teaming, and AI safety or guardrails.
- Familiarity with AWS or other cloud platforms, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD, and graph, vector or relational databases.
- Exposure to AI-enabled training and content generation, computer vision, geospatial analytics, digital twins or model-based systems engineering.
- Experience in Agile and DevSecOps environments, adapting process appropriately for exploratory work.
- Evidence of broader impact: patents, publications, conference talks, reusable platforms or internal communities of practice.
What You Can Expect:
A culture of integrity.
At CACI, we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member, you’ll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer’s missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.
An environment of trust.
CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. You’ll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.
A focus on continuous growth.
Together, we will advance our nation's most critical missions, build on our lengthy track record of business success, and find opportunities to break new ground — in your career and in our legacy.
Pay Range :
There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.
The proposed salary range for this position is:
$108,400 - 227,500 USDThe Opportunity:
CACI's Mission & Engineering Support (M&ES) line of business is building an AI Expeditionary Team to help our programs and customers move from AI curiosity to operational AI capability. We are seeking a hands-on AI practitioner to serve as an Expeditionary Principal Investigator and a trusted technical advisor to the division's AI & Technology Integration Lead.
You will be the bridge between program needs and technology teams. You will go to customer sites, listen, assess where AI can add value, demonstrate what is possible, and bring that understanding back to the broader company. There it informs roadmaps, estimates and team formation. We sell expertise, not just products: a successful prototype is one slice of a larger customer strategy, and your work shapes the plan, team structure and transition path that turn it into a lasting capability.
You will work within the context of the division’s technology roadmap, whose current themes include AI-enabled intelligence analysis and operations, ship digital twins, unmanned systems (UXS/CUXS) development and integration, AI-enabled model-based systems engineering, computer vision for full-motion video, AI-enabled geospatial and training solutions, and modernization of our training academies using advanced RAG and agentic pipelines. You will also help shape CACI’s AI Transformation Framework and the AI Expeditionary Team itself.
Responsibilities:
Required:
- U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Top Secret SCI security clearance.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, data science, statistics, mathematics, engineering or another technical discipline. An equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered. A master's or doctorate is a plus.
- Typically 7+ years of related experience with a bachelor's degree, 5+ with a master's or 3+ with a doctorate.
- Demonstrated experience as a technical lead, principal investigator, lead architect or comparable role with responsibility for technical scope, delivery and outcomes.
- Deep, hands-on experience building generative AI systems, including LLM applications, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and agentic workflows, together with a solid foundation in applied machine learning and evaluation methods.
- Experience leading customer-facing discovery or assessment work: engaging stakeholders, eliciting and documenting technical requirements, and turning them into a clear plan.
- Strong Python skills and experience with modern AI/ML tooling such as PyTorch, Hugging Face, scikit-learn, LangChain/LangGraph or comparable frameworks.
- Experience delivering integrated systems, not only standalone models, including APIs, data services, cloud deployment and testing.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to brief non-technical audiences, customers and senior leaders and to turn requirements discussions into clear technical plans.
- Project management skills sufficient to plan and run small multi-person efforts, along with the ability to work independently and to lead through influence.
- Willingness to work on site at DTC and to travel to customer sites, including extended visits.
Qualifications:
Desired:
- Active Top Secret SCI clearance; experience delivering capabilities for the Department of Defense, Intelligence Community or other U.S. Government customers.
- Experience building rough-order-of-magnitude (ROM) estimates and staffing plans for technical efforts, and contributing to proposals or technical volumes.
- Experience transitioning prototypes into production or operational use, particularly in secure or classified environments.
- Experience with model adaptation or fine-tuning, LLM evaluation, red-teaming, and AI safety or guardrails.
- Familiarity with AWS or other cloud platforms, containers (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD, and graph, vector or relational databases.
- Exposure to AI-enabled training and content generation, computer vision, geospatial analytics, digital twins or model-based systems engineering.
- Experience in Agile and DevSecOps environments, adapting process appropriately for exploratory work.
- Evidence of broader impact: patents, publications, conference talks, reusable platforms or internal communities of practice.
What You Can Expect:
A culture of integrity.
At CACI, we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member, you’ll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer’s missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.
An environment of trust.
CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. You’ll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.
A focus on continuous growth.
Together, we will advance our nation's most critical missions, build on our lengthy track record of business success, and find opportunities to break new ground — in your career and in our legacy.
Pay Range :
There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.
The proposed salary range for this position is:
$108,400 - 227,500 USDSee All 98 Principal Investigator Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
Find Principal Investigator JobsPrincipal Investigator Job Market
Who's Hiring
- Alliance Clinical Network10
- Professional Case Management8
- Westwood Professional Services6
- The IMA5
- Burns & McDonnell5
Top Industries Hiring
- Consulting & Professional Services
- Medical Devices
- Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals
What Employers Look For
The qualifications that appear most often in principal investigator jobs.
- PhD in a relevant scientific discipline with an established independent research agenda
- Demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications as first or corresponding author
- Experience as principal investigator or co-investigator on externally funded grants
- Proficiency in IRB protocols, human subjects research regulations, and GCP compliance
- Ability to mentor graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior research staff
- Familiarity with statistical analysis software such as R, SAS, or SPSS for data interpretation
Tips for Your Principal Investigator Job Search
Lead your resume with funding history
Hiring committees want to see grants you've secured, not just projects you've contributed to. List each award by agency, mechanism, and your role as principal investigator or co-investigator so reviewers can gauge your independent funding record at a glance.
Tailor your research statement to the lab
Generic research statements get screened out fast. Read the lab's three most recent publications, then mirror their methodology language and open questions in your statement so the committee sees you've thought about where your work fits their agenda.
Apply early to roles that fit
Migrate Mate lists principal investigator openings from across the United States in one place, so you can find roles that match and apply directly to each listing.
Target postings by IRB and compliance scope
Principal investigator roles in clinical research require documented IRB training, human subjects certification, and sometimes FDA regulatory experience. Filter openings by these requirements before applying so you spend time only on roles where your compliance credentials already align.
Prepare a five-year research roadmap for interviews
Search committees routinely ask where your research program is headed. Have a concrete answer: two or three specific aims, the funding mechanisms you plan to pursue, and the collaborators or core facilities you'd engage. Vague answers signal a candidate who hasn't thought beyond their current postdoc.
Negotiate startup packages before you accept
Lab space, equipment, graduate student lines, and protected research time are all negotiable before you sign an offer. Ask for each item in writing, compare what peer institutions have offered candidates in similar fields, and counter before the first offer becomes the final one.
Principal Investigator Jobs: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies are hiring the most principal investigators?
The most active employers for principal investigators right now are Alliance Clinical Network, Professional Case Management, and Westwood Professional Services, and the most openings are in Texas, Florida, and California, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Academic medical centers, federal research agencies, and large pharmaceutical companies consistently post the highest volumes of openings.
How many principal investigator jobs are remote?
About 53% of principal investigator openings are fully remote or hybrid as of November 2026, though the share varies sharply by sub-field. Epidemiology, health services research, and computational biology roles offer the most remote flexibility, while positions requiring wet-lab work, clinical site oversight, or core facility access are almost always on-site.
How do you become a principal investigator?
Most principal investigators earn a doctoral degree, complete one or more postdoctoral fellowships to build an independent publication record, and then apply for faculty or staff scientist positions that carry PI eligibility. Securing your first independent grant, typically a career development or R21 award from a federal agency, is the clearest signal that institutions and collaborators recognize you as an independent researcher rather than a trainee.
Can you get a principal investigator role with limited independent experience?
Some institutions hire junior or associate principal investigators who are still developing their independent programs, particularly in clinical trials coordination, federally funded center grants, and industry research settings. Strengthening your application means listing any grants on which you held co-investigator status, naming the students or technicians you've supervised, and framing your publication contributions to show intellectual leadership rather than technical execution.
What does the principal investigator interview process look like?
Most academic and research institution searches involve an initial screening call with a department chair or search committee, followed by an on-site visit that includes a research seminar open to the department, a chalk talk where you walk a small committee through your future aims, and one-on-one meetings with faculty whose work overlaps yours. Industry and government laboratory searches tend to compress this into two or three structured interviews focused on scientific fit, regulatory experience, and team leadership competencies.
Where can I find and apply to principal investigator jobs?
You can find and apply to principal investigator jobs on Migrate Mate, which lists current openings from across the United States in one place. Find roles that match your research area and experience level, then apply directly to each listing from the page.
See All 98 Principal Investigator Jobs
Find roles that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.
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