Sr AI/ML Engineer
Sierra Nevada Corporation · Lone Tree, CO · 1 wk ago
Engineering$143k–$197k/yrFull-time
Responsibilities
- Conduct continuous discovery and hypothesis-driven experimentation, rapidly developing prototypes to assess feasibility and potential impact.
- Partner with business stakeholders to translate non-technical requirements into actionable AI/ML exploration paths.
- Develop and prototype RAG-based architectures, including embedding pipelines, retrieval strategies, and transformer-based generative components.
- Explore and validate new approaches for retrieval, indexing, and multimodal document understanding.
- Apply validation, safety, and explainability practices in support of aerospace/defense requirements.
- Design and prototype MPC-aligned models incorporating predictive modeling, optimization, and reinforcement-learning-based control.
- Develop signal processing, perception, and planning pipelines supporting MPC control loops.
- Use GPU acceleration, simulation environments, and HPC resources to support MPC experimentation.
- Architect, train, and optimize advanced models including transformers, GANs, RL agents, and real-time systems.
- Provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, and guide cross-functional teams.
- Develop validation and testing frameworks ensuring compliance with safety and reliability standards.
- Support integration teams with prototypes, documentation, and technical insights as required.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, applied statistics, various engineering disciplines, or related STEM discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in a related field. Relevant experience can be considered as a substitute for the required educational qualifications.
- Advanced skills in machine learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and modern AI/ML techniques, including supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning (e.g., PPO, Actor/Critic).
- Demonstrated ability to design and optimize generative AI models (e.g., transformers) and neural networks for complex applications.
- Extensive experience architecting, deploying, and optimizing AI/ML systems, including ANNs, CNNs, and RNNs, in large-scale or mission-critical environments.
- Led efforts to improve model performance and reliability in production settings.
- Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Python, C++, C#, or Java, with experience in building scalable AI/ML systems.
- Demonstrated experience leading teams or projects, including mentoring junior staff.
- Proven track record of deploying AI/ML models in production environments and optimizing them for real-world use cases.
- Knowledge of regulatory and cybersecurity requirements for AI/ML systems in aerospace and defense applications.
- Experience designing and optimizing generative AI models including transformers and GANs.
- Experience building or integrating transformer-based models for retrieval-augmented or hybrid reasoning systems.
- Familiarity with explainable AI (XAI) techniques for safety-critical environments.
- Hands-on experience with reinforcement learning and real-time systems applicable to MPC.
Essential Functions
- Contribute to AI/ML innovation and prototyping projects from exploration through technical feasibility assessment.
- Support cross-functional engineering teams and integration efforts as needed.
- Occasionally travel to customer sites, test facilities, or conferences.
- Work in a hybrid office environment, balancing hands-on research with technical leadership.
- Ensure compliance with safety, regulatory, and cybersecurity standards for AI/ML systems.