AI/ML Engineer - Mission

Tyto Athene, LLC • Reston, VA

1d

About The Position

Tyto Athene is searching for a mission oriented AI/ML Engineer to join our CTO shop. This role is multi-faceted. The successful candidate is a highly skilled and innovative AI/ML Engineer to pioneer the design, development, and deployment of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions at the DoD's tactical mission edge. This role is critical to achieving mission advantage by fusing diverse, real-time sensor data streams in resource-constrained, denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments. You will empower warfighters and intelligence analysts with immediate, actionable insights, enabling rapid decision-making and enhancing situational awareness in critical operational scenarios. Your deep experience in supporting the mission of the US warfighter enables you to easily translate complex military mission requirements and operational challenges into actionable AI/ML problems and innovative solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related field; equivalent, relevant experience will be considered
• Proficiency in PyTorch, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript
• Open-source LLMs (e.g., Llama, Gemma, Qwen) and VLMs (e.g., Phi4, Qwen-VL) using Huggingface
• Expertise in prompt engineering
• Building RAG pipelines using tools like LangChain or LlamaIndex.
• MLOps & Deployment:
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Helm; model serving frameworks like vLLM or Triton
• Observability tools such as Weights & Biases
• Vector databases like Qdrant or Milvus.
• Edge & On-Device AI:
• Experience deploying models on edge devices
• Experience utilizing hardware acceleration tools like CUDA, ONNX, TensorRT
• Proven track record of designing, training, and deploying lightweight and efficient machine learning models for real-time inference on resource-constrained devices
• Experience with MLOps tools and practices for deploying and managing models in production, especially at the edge
• Integration & Protocols:
• Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for connecting AI models to external tools and data sources
• Understanding of secure, real-time data access methodologies.
• Sensor Data Fusion:
• Extensive hands-on experience with multi-modal sensor data fusion techniques and algorithms.
• Demonstrated ability to work with and process diverse sensor data types (e.g., imagery, video, audio, RF, network logs, structured data).
• Experience with signal processing, computer vision, natural language processing (NLP), or other relevant domains for sensor data interpretation.
• DDIL & Tactical Edge Operations:
• Direct experience designing and implementing solutions DDIL communication environments.
• Familiarity with tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) related to military operations at the tactical edge.
• Understanding of the challenges of data collection, storage, and processing in austere and contested operational environments.
• Deep understanding of unique DoD reference architectures such as CJADC2 and MPEs
• Significant experience as an agile and CI/CD practitioner
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively across functional groups to optimize product & service offerings.
• Understands the many aspects of United States Government/Department of Defense programs, including but not limited to program and project management, staffing, engineering, Operations and Maintenance (O&M), quality, logistics, technology, and regulations.
• Demonstrated ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity of NIST security guidelines, such as 800-53 and 800-63, and good understanding of security fundamentals, as well as authentication with OAuth, SAML etc.
• Knowledge of Go, Rust, or C++ for edge optimization
• Experience integrating GenAI into full-stack applications
• Handling large, multimodal datasets
• Fine-tuning with LoRA.
• Associate level certification with Google, Azure or AWS cloud platforms
• Active SECRET security clearance preferred or be able to secure DoD Security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Edge AI/ML Model Design:
• Design, develop, and optimize efficient and lightweight AI/ML models specifically for edge devices with limited computational power, memory, and energy.
• Implement techniques to ensure real-time performance at the tactical edge.
• Develop and integrate on-device learning and adaptive models that can continuously improve and adapt to changing mission environments without constant cloud connectivity.
• Engineer AI/ML solutions for disconnected or intermittently connected operations, ensuring robustness and functionality even when central network access is unavailable.
• Multi-Modal Sensor Data Fusion & Perception:
• Architect and implement advanced sensor fusion to integrate and make sense of disparate and sensor data streams from various modalities.
• Develop multi-sensor perception systems for object detection, tracking, classification, anomaly detection, and situation awareness in complex, dynamic, and potentially contested environments.
• Apply expertise in processing and fusing data from diverse sensor types including
• Address challenges of data synchronization, misalignment, and conflicting information from multiple sensors to generate a coherent and accurate operational picture.
• Mission-Centric AI/ML Application:
• Develop AI/ML algorithms that enhance decision-making speed and accuracy for warfighters and commanders.
• Focus on applications that provide a direct mission advantage, such as predictive intelligence, threat detection and identification, autonomous navigation, target recognition, battle damage assessment, and enhanced situational awareness.
• Collaborate directly with mission experts and end-users to iteratively design, test, and refine AI/ML capabilities, ensuring operational relevance and usability.
• Robustness, Resiliency, & Adversarial AI:
• Design AI/ML systems that are robust to adversarial attacks and can accommodate the realities of mission sensor data quality and noise, environmental noise, ensuring reliable performance in contested and unpredictable operational settings.
• Implement techniques for explainable AI (XAI) to provide warfighters with transparency and confidence in model predictions, especially for critical decisions.
• Develop methods for model monitoring and health checks at the edge, ensuring sustained performance and alerting to degradation or compromise.
• Ensure AI/ML solutions comply with responsible AI principles and ethical guidelines for military applications.
• Secure MLOps at the Edge & DoD Compliance:
• Design and implement secure MLOps pipelines for continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD), and lifecycle management of AI/ML models from development to deployment at the mission edge.
• Automate model testing, validation, and deployment processes in highly constrained and secure environments.
• Ensure all AI/ML development and deployment adheres to stringent DoD cybersecurity frameworks and secure coding practices.
• Support the integration of FISMA compliance controls into coding practices incorporating unique edge security considerations.
• Implement Zero Trust architectures for AI/ML solution access and data handling at the edge.
• Interoperability & Data Ecosystem Integration:
• Integrate AI/ML solutions with existing and legacy DoD tactical systems, command and control (C2) platforms, and communications networks.
• Work to ensure seamless data flow and interoperability with various DoD data sources and fusion centers.
• Contribute to the establishment of tactical data lakes or similar constructs at the edge for local data ingestion and AI/ML processing.

Benefits

• Highlights of our benefits include Health/Dental/Vision, 401(k) match, Paid Time Off, STD/LTD/Life Insurance, Referral Bonuses, professional development reimbursement, and parental leave.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level