Head of AI

Critical Materials Group•Austin, TX

18h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Head of AI will establish Critical Materials Group’s artificial intelligence and machine learning capability for advanced manufacturing and operations. Initially, this is a hands-on individual-contributor role focused on architecting and building the enterprise AI technology foundation and working with departments across operations, production, development, growth, and people to translate their needs into secure, integrated AI capabilities that improve decision-making and automate workflows. As the capability matures, the role will build a small team and expand the platform toward physical automation and agentic systems that support rapid, reliable production scale-up. The Head of AI will set security standards, governance, and performance measures to scale AI adoption across energetics manufacturing and business operations. The preferred home base is Austin, Texas, with hybrid work based on project requirements and approximately 40% travel, primarily to production and pilot-plant locations in Texas and Indiana. Work may take place in offices, laboratories, pilot plants, manufacturing facilities, and active industrial environments. The role requires compliance with safety, security, data-handling, and site-specific requirements. U.S. citizenship, a successful background check and drug screening, and the ability to satisfy applicable export-control, security, and site-access requirements are required. The position is exempt, full-time, and initially has no direct reports; the AI and data team is expected to grow to approximately three to five people. Base salary is to be determined, and the role is eligible for CMG’s full benefits package.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, data science, engineering, or a closely related quantitative field, or equivalent demonstrated experience.
At least 5 years of relevant experience in machine learning, applied AI, data engineering, industrial analytics, or intelligent automation.
Experience architecting and building enterprise AI capabilities, from strategy development and infrastructure stand-up to building agentic tools and capabilities.
Hands-on experience selecting, adapting, training, evaluating, and deploying machine learning or foundation models for real-world applications.
Strong understanding of open-source model ecosystems and the tradeoffs among open, proprietary, and custom model approaches.
Experience designing data pipelines, schemas, ontologies, or comparable structures that convert unstructured, raw data into reliable, model-ready data.
Demonstrated experience applying AI, machine learning, or advanced analytics in manufacturing, industrial operations, or another physical production environment.
Working knowledge of sensors, instrumentation, industrial control systems, or manufacturing automation sufficient to collaborate effectively with controls and equipment specialists.
Ability to move between strategy and implementation, including writing code, evaluating data, prototyping solutions, and testing them against physical processes.
Ability to communicate clearly and work effectively with engineers, scientists, operators, executives, and external partners.
U.S. citizenship.
Successful completion of a background check and drug screening.
Ability to satisfy applicable export-control (ITAR/EAR), security, and site-access requirements.
Ability to comply with all safety, security, data-handling, and site-specific requirements.

Nice To Haves

Experience with continuous-flow chemistry, pharmaceutical manufacturing, specialty chemicals, materials processing, or another liquid-to-solid production environment.
Experience with physical AI, robotics, machine vision, automated material handling, pick-and-place systems, or automated assembly.
Experience applying AI or automation in automotive, aerospace, space, semiconductor, cementitious-material, or other advanced manufacturing environments.
Experience with process optimization, anomaly detection, predictive quality, computer vision, reinforcement learning, or agentic workflows.
Experience working with sensitive, proprietary, export-controlled, or classified data and computing environments.
Experience establishing a new technical capability, moving from prototype to production, and building a small, high-performing team.
Advanced degree in a relevant technical field.

Responsibilities

Define and execute CMG’s AI/ML strategy, technical foundation, investment priorities, and phased implementation roadmap.
Communicate technical decisions, risks, progress, and resource requirements to executives and technical stakeholders outside the AI function.
Partner with operations, production, programs, growth, safety, and external partners to translate business needs and critical process parameters into technical requirements and implementation plans.
Evaluate sensors, instrumentation, and data acquisition approaches, and establish reliable, traceable methods for measuring, collecting, storing, structuring, and accessing data.
Develop practical tools that use manufacturing data to improve process safety, product quality, operational visibility, and production efficiency.
Evaluate open and closed AI models for chemistry, synthesis, formulation, industrial processes, and manufacturing automation, selecting approaches suitable for proprietary, export-controlled, and security-sensitive information.
Build, adapt, and validate models using CMG data, with clear performance metrics, evaluation methods, and controls for safe deployment.
Establish secure development practices, technical documentation, model governance, and enterprise data-handling standards for ITAR-controlled and proprietary manufacturing environments.
Develop a phased path from monitoring and decision support to closed-loop optimization, AI-enabled process control, and agentic systems.
Advance physical AI and automation applications across continuous-flow synthesis, energetic material formulation, material handling, automated assembly, load-assemble-pack operations, inspection, and quality verification.
Support rapid iteration between software and equipment at CMG production and pilot-plant facilities and with university and technical partners.
Initially serve as a hands-on builder and individual contributor.
Identify capability gaps, recruit complementary talent, and lead an AI and data team expected to grow to approximately three to five people.
Establish CMG’s data strategy and AI-ready data foundation, lead development of an enterprise ontology across departments, and prioritize AI use cases with measurable business outcomes.
Produce an enterprise AI and data strategy with a phased implementation roadmap.
Begin capturing available equipment, process, and visual workflow data that is not yet collected consistently.
Create a usable data architecture with common definitions, metadata, and relationships among process information.
Establish baseline measures for safety, quality, cycle time, throughput, and process efficiency.
Deliver initial analytical or machine learning tools that demonstrate measurable operational value.
Recommend the model stack and secure computing approach for proprietary and controlled information.