Staff Applied AI Engineer

About the role

Vantor is seeking a Staff-level Applied AI Engineer to build the next generation of decision intelligence within our mission planning systems. This role focuses on learning from historical mission data, quantifying economic outcomes, and improving planning decisions through optimization and machine learning.

Responsibilities

• Develop models to attribute revenue to individual collection plans
• Build counterfactual and simulation frameworks to evaluate alternative strategies
• Design decision-support systems used daily by mission planners
• Apply optimization, reinforcement learning, and heuristic approaches
• Map system complexity and identify efficiency improvements
• Rapidly prototype solutions using AI-assisted development tools
• Collaborate across engineering, data, and product teams
• Engineer AI-driven capabilities that enable MPS to act as an autonomous or semi-autonomous operator, balancing automation with human-in-the-loop control
• Design and build systems aligned to zero trust and DevSecOps principles, ensuring security is foundational—not an afterthought
• Contribute to open architecture and integrated data layer strategies that enable secure collaboration with partners and allied systems
• Build and deploy cloud-native solutions that enable remote mission operations and dramatically reduce planning cycle times

Requirements

• 5+ years building data-driven or ML-powered systems
• Strong Python or similar programming skills
• Experience with optimization, simulation, or decision systems
• Ability to work in complex problem spaces
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Operations Research, Engineering, or a related field

Qualifications

• Experience with operations research or reinforcement learning
• Background in decision science or economics
• Familiarity with geospatial or satellite systems
• Experience in mission-critical or ITAR environments

Skills

• Experience with optimization, simulation, or decision systems
• Strong Python or similar programming skills
• Experience with operations research or reinforcement learning
• Background in decision science or economics
• Familiarity with geospatial or satellite systems
• Experience in mission-critical or ITAR environments

Benefits

• Robust 401(k) with company match
• Mental health resources
• Student loan repayment assistance
• Affordable pet insurance
• Adoption reimbursement

Pay

• $124,000.00 - $206,000.00 annually

Schedule

• Full-time