Systems Engineer - Natural Language Processing

Toffler Associates • Bethesda, MD

18d • Onsite

About The Position

Toffler Associates is hiring a Systems Engineer specializing in Natural Language Processing to deliver complex client work. The consultant is accountable for work quality, engagement health, team performance, and client relationships. The role focuses on systems engineering and integration in complex, data-intensive environments, with knowledge of AI/ML and demonstrated experience developing or evaluating NLP methods and pipelines for mission environments. The position is onsite in Bethesda, Maryland, and requires an active and maintained TS/SCI clearance with a CI polygraph.

Toffler expects practitioners to put team success first, lead through preparation and sound judgment, remain curious and responsive to feedback, reliably communicate and manage risks, and strengthen client, team, and firm capabilities. The company describes its working style as collaborative, candid, and low-ego, and emphasizes meaningful work on complex problems where the answer is not already known.

Requirements

• Active and maintained TS/SCI federal or DoD security clearance with a polygraph.
• Bachelor’s degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or a relevant engineering field, including electrical, computer, systems, or software engineering.
• At least 8 years of work experience in physics, mathematics, computer science, or a relevant engineering field.
• Systems engineering and integration experience in complex, data-intensive environments.
• Knowledge of AI/ML, including computer vision, NLP, predictive analytics, and LLMs.
• Demonstrated experience with NLP methodologies such as text classification, named entity recognition, topic modeling, information extraction, or transformer-based architectures.
• Experience developing or evaluating NLP pipelines, including text preprocessing, tokenization strategies, model training, fine-tuning, and optimization for mission environments.
• Understanding of data architectures and pipelines for large-scale analytics or intelligence production.
• Familiarity with AI governance, data quality, bias mitigation, and mission assurance in operational NLP/LLM deployments.
• Experience creating program plans, work breakdown structures, and milestone schedules.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or PhD in physics, mathematics, computer science, or a relevant engineering field, with at least four years of work experience.
• Experience in the Intelligence Community, including requirements, CONOPS, and transition.
• Experience managing a multidisciplinary R&D or T&E team.
• Experience as a Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager.
• Experience with NLP development tools or frameworks such as Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow, spaCy, or similar libraries.
• Ability to proactively manage multiple concurrent tasks.
• Excellent writing, slide development, and editing skills, including developing succinct, comprehensive, understandable documents from complex data for technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills; attention to detail.

Responsibilities

• Deliver complex client work and be accountable for its quality, engagement health, team performance, and client relationships.
• Apply systems engineering and integration experience in complex, data-intensive environments.
• Develop or evaluate NLP pipelines, including preprocessing, tokenization, model training, fine-tuning, and optimization for mission environments.
• Create program plans, work breakdown structures, and milestone schedules.
• Contribute to team success through knowledge sharing, reliable communication, surfacing risks early, and strengthening client and team capabilities.

What This Job Offers

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