Principal Data Scientist · Defense & Federal AI
Kianni Martinez
I build AI systems for the nation's most complex missions — and I believe the hardest problems in this field are never purely technical.
I build AI systems for the nation's most complex missions — and I believe the hardest problems in this field are never purely technical.
I am currently a Principal Data Scientist at SAIC, where I lead AI/ML strategy across a $4.6B+ opportunity pipeline — architecting modernization solutions across defense and civil federal agencies. My work spans enterprise-scale RAG systems, agentic workflows, and the technical whitepapers that define how next-generation data architectures actually get built and deployed at community scale.
My path here was not linear. I am an Air Force military brat, eldest of four, raised by a Combat Communications Colonel — now retired — whose standard was excellence without excuses. At 16, I was five feet from the blast in the 2016 Brussels Airport terrorist attack. I lost my mother — the only constant in an ever-changing lifestyle. My pillar. I nearly lost my left leg. I spent a year in rehabilitation — relearning how to stand, how to walk — and I still accepted my deferred college admission and AFROTC full-ride scholarship on the other side of it. I showed up every day despite it all.
I am a limb salvage patient. I wear an IDEO brace to move through the world. I have a Master of Data Science from UC San Diego, multiple federal civilian awards, and a job I am proud of. I tell this story not for sympathy but because it is the foundation of everything I build: I have never had the luxury of assuming a system was designed with me in mind. That shapes how I approach every novel challenge. It shapes how I approach AI.
I am building toward a PhD at the intersection of AI and limb salvage research — a field where young women like me are nearly absent from the literature. The longitudinal self-study is already running. The data exists. The research is live. The literature gap is the reason.
I am also a writer. My debut essay, What the Data Doesn't Know About Me, publishes May 15, 2026 — on Substack. I write for the ones who walk into rooms already calculating. And I serve as Chief Digital & Creative Officer of Gail's Dragonfly LLC — a role separate from my work at SAIC.
Leading AI and Data strategy across Navy, DoT, DHS, MPA, and VA — not at the project level, but at the community level. Building the RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, and data architectures that modernize entire agencies and defense communities.
Authoring the technical whitepapers and frameworks that define how next-generation systems actually get built — unifying legacy data paradigms with retrieval-augmented generation, agentic workflows, and modern LLM integration. The specifications that shape what gets deployed at scale.
Most AI adoption fails not because the technology is wrong but because the problem was never correctly named. I work at the level of the diagnosis — identifying what a mission, an agency, or a leadership team actually needs before any architecture is specified.
I have given speeches at military bases, schools, and national fundraising events since I was seventeen years old. I have presented AI strategy to federal executives and the stakeholders who determine what modernization actually funds. I move between technical and human registers without translation loss — because I have lived in both. Subject of Emmy Award-winning coverage. Still building.
Invite me to speakWhether you're a conference organizer, a collaborator, a journalist, or someone working at the intersection of AI and public service — I would like to hear from you. I am also always open to conversations about defense data strategy, responsible AI, and limb salvage research.
