Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) Engineer

About Gallatin

Gallatin is rebuilding logistics infrastructure for United States national security missions and allied partners. We build AI systems that turn logistics data into decisions, operating from factory to foxhole. Our AI/ML team works on retrieval‑grounded systems for doctrine and logistics data, document and feature extraction, military symbol recognition, optimization and movement models, and an LLM agent platform.

What You’ll Do

• Training & Serving Infrastructure: Own model training, fine‑tuning, and batch inference infrastructure across AWS (SageMaker, EKS) and on‑premises GPU hardware. Stand up and tune LLM inference serving (vLLM‑class stacks, quantization, continuous batching, KV‑cache, throughput sizing). Build configurable fallback and degraded‑mode behavior for DDIL deployments on hardware with limited choice.
• Release & Reproducibility: Build CI/CD pipelines for models and data, including versioned datasets, a model registry, promotion gates, and reliable rollback. Own infrastructure‑as‑code, containerization, and GitOps deployment across environments from dev clusters to disconnected enclaves. Ensure every customer‑facing result is reproducible from a commit and dataset version.
• Evaluation & Observability: Create and maintain evaluation harnesses (regression suites, LLM‑as‑judge pipelines, adversarial and held‑out sets). Instrument production for drift, latency, cost, retrieval quality, and silent failure modes. Produce defensible metrics for external test and evaluation reviewers.
• Data & Pipeline Ownership: Manage ingestion, versioning, and lineage for logistics and doctrinal data from heterogeneous authoritative sources. Build and operate embedding and feature pipelines, incremental indexing, and retrieval‑index freshness systems. Develop human‑in‑the‑loop infrastructure (confidence‑scored routing, review queues, feedback capture).
• Secure & Accredited Deployment: Deploy and operate ML systems in IL5 and IL6 environments, including air‑gapped or restricted‑network enclaves. Build release, observability, artifact‑management, and incident‑response workflows for these environments. Support ATO and continuous‑authorization work with evidence tied to NIST SP 800‑171, NIST SP 800‑53 Rev. 5, CMMC Level 2, FIPS 140‑3, and RMF/eMASS. Handle CUI and classified data correctly.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong Platform & Infrastructure Skills: 5+ years in MLOps, ML platform, or infrastructure engineering with real‑user systems. Proficient Python in production codebases. Deep Kubernetes and containerization expertise, plus infrastructure‑as‑code. Production experience with AWS ML/Azure (SageMaker, EKS, or equivalent). Hands‑on GPU scheduling, utilization, memory sizing, and cost management. Experience deploying and operating production software in IL5 or IL6 environments, including disconnected deployments.
• Production ML Judgment: Proven track record shipping LLM or ML systems to production and maintaining them. Built custom evaluation and monitoring rather than relying on vendor dashboards. Ability to diagnose pipeline quality issues and articulate metric relevance.
• Ownership: Comfortable with ambiguity and end‑to‑end domain ownership in a small team. Willing to learn the logistics mission domain and become genuinely interested in the problem.

Nice to Have

• Clearance: Preferred
• LLM serving and inference optimization (vLLM, TensorRT‑LLM, quantization, prefix caching)
• Production retrieval‑grounded systems (hybrid retrieval, re‑ranking, index freshness, citation quality)
• Edge, on‑premises, or disconnected deployment experience
• Support for ATO, continuous authorization, or production operations in classified environments
• Background in defense, intelligence, or other accredited/regulatory environments
• Experience with Palantir Foundry, PostgreSQL/pgvector, NATS/JetStream, or ArgoCD
• Degree in CS, engineering, or related field, or equivalent self‑taught experience

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation range: $80,000 – $210,000, commensurate with experience. In addition to base salary, Gallatin offers a generous equity grant, full healthcare coverage, 401(k) plan, unlimited PTO, and the perks of a high‑caliber, mission‑driven environment.

This position may require obtaining and maintaining a U.S. government security clearance and the ability to work in a classified environment. U.S. citizenship is required for all positions.