Software Engineer, AI Platform
About the role
Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. The platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development.
We're looking for an experienced software engineer to join our Hardware Intelligence team. This is a highly ambiguous, zero-to-one engineering role. You'll build the infrastructure, data systems, and AI capabilities that power the next generation of intelligent engineering tools. Rather than implementing predefined product requirements, you'll work alongside customers and product leaders to discover what should exist, and then build it. Success comes from being comfortable making technical bets, rapidly prototyping new ideas, and turning uncertainty into working software.
Responsibilities
- Build the systems that power Hardware Intelligence, including agent infrastructure, evaluation pipelines, retrieval systems, and tooling for reasoning over engineering data
- Design and ship AI-powered workflows that help engineers investigate anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and understand complex hardware behavior
- Work across large-scale time series, telemetry, logs, and other engineering datasets to build robust, production-ready systems
- Prototype new approaches quickly, evaluate them with customers, and iterate based on real-world feedback
- Partner closely with engineers and product leaders to determine where the team should invest next
- Help establish engineering patterns, infrastructure, and best practices as Hardware Intelligence scales
- Engage directly with customers to understand how complex engineering problems are solved today and translate those workflows into product capabilities
Requirements
- 5+ years of experience building AI or machine learning products that shipped to production
- Experience working with large datasets, time series data, observability platforms, data infrastructure, or machine learning systems
- A background in ML, data science, applied AI, or adjacent fields that gives you strong intuition for working with data-intensive systems
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, with experience designing scalable backend or distributed systems
- Experience taking products from zero-to-one, whether at a startup or inside an entrepreneurial team within a larger company
- Strong product instincts and curiosity about customer problems
Qualifications
- Experience working with telemetry, sensors, robotics, aerospace, industrial systems, autonomous systems, or other hardware domains
- Experience building agentic systems, LLM applications, retrieval pipelines, or evaluation infrastructure
- Familiarity with time series databases, observability tooling, or data platforms
- Experience supporting engineers or scientists working with large-scale operational data
- Prior startup founding experience or experience on an incubation/new products team
Benefits
- 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- Professional Development Stipend
- Annual company retreat
ITAR Requirements: To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.