The government contractors will not pay for top tier CS talent. They can afford it, but they won't. FANG is paying like 400k TC for 10 years experience CS major. Lockheed is not paying that for anyone except maybe executives.
Also the way government contracts work is anathema to how ML works. ML is billions of dollars to produce some coefficients for a neural network, using all of the various open source software available and using advanced cloud infrastructure to make the data collection to ML pipeline as smooth as possible. 5 years ago working for a defense contractor I was still burning fucking source code to CDs to hand merge software diffs to our non-cloud repository.
The irony is that the government is so worried about spying that they neuter their own ability to do engineering by WAAAAY more than they lose in terms of spying. China doesn't have to steal anything and they have already crippled US defense research. You want to know why you pay so much in taxes to the military industrial complex and get so little in return? The simple answer is that the money people are not the same people who make the rules. The security people make a rule that slows down engineering by 50%? They don't give a fuck they are not the ones paying for additional people or schedule slippage. Fuck I would spend 40 hours of engineering time evaluating a choice between two $100 parts because every purchase of materials had to have a lengthy justification.
If you worked in the private sector at a big company that simply sells shit to stores (like I have) you'd love the autonomy. Whether it's making a judgement call on costs, approving yes/no or even ordering company lunch. As long as your decision is sound and not stupidly overboard one way or the other, people are mature enough to accept decisions.
You'd think big corporations would be the biggest penny pinching profiteering cheapskates ever, but that's not the case. There's always a balance between gunning for money and analysis based on a finite resource - time and manpower.
An analyst making $60,000 has the right to call the shots on approving costs to sales. Of course, there's possibility a higher level manager or director will overrule him and do it anyway "for the sake of strategy and keeping in good terms with Walmart!!!", but just about everyone has enough pull to give direction. A Marketing Assistant out of school can call the shots to teams to do this or that regarding marketing process or marketing assets.
I approve and disapprove shit all the time. Could be worth millions or $10,000. If someone wants to go to the VP whining for an overruling, go ahead, but typically people respect the answer given by anyone. And nobody wastes time on $100 parts. I even made a company policy approved by execs that for certain costs under $1000, you dont even need out departments approval. Just process the invoice and keep the back up files just in case. Nobody wants to be hit with sifting through 1000s of emails worth $40 or $400. There were times people ask for approval of like $12. No joke. Good on them for following old protocols long time ago, but it gets to a point we'll absorb low level costs as is. Were not spending manpower to analyze a $12 claim.
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