Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. IT Avalon is a company seeking a Principal AI/ML Engineer to shape the long-term AI/ML technical vision for the organization. The role involves guiding R&D initiatives, leading the development of advanced capabilities, and ensuring innovation in AI/ML solutions across multiple programs.
Responsibilities
- Translate broad mission objectives into program-level AI/ML architectures, strategies, staffing needs, data plans, and technical frameworks
- Drive system-level AI/ML decision-making, establishing technical standards and guiding engineering trade studies that shape platform-level autonomy and perception capabilities
- Identify and champion high-value R&D opportunities, emerging technologies, and cross-organizational partnerships that accelerate SNC’s AI/ML advancements
- Provide deep technical consultation across JTF Sierra and adjacent Business Units product lines, ensuring architectural coherence and technical excellence
- Ensure AI/ML solutions are architected for scalability and integration with enterprise-wide platforms, collaborating with IT and infrastructure teams to define and implement the necessary tools, data pipeline, and computing resources for sustainable AI/ML operations across the organization
- Balance program-specific AI/ML solution development with strategic focus on establishing reusable frameworks, common data assets, and infrastructure that support cross-program and enterprise-wide AI/ML adoption
- Lead design and technical direction for next-generation architectures spanning deep learning, reinforcement learning, multimodal generative AI, and advanced perception/decision systems
- Architect and oversee end-to-end multi-program AI/ML systems across platforms and embedded systems
- Assist with development of long-term technical strategies, roadmaps, and requirements for emerging AI/ML initiatives
- Identify, define, and advocate for the foundational data, compute, MLOps, and cloud/on-prem infrastructure necessary to support sustainable and secure AI/ML development and deployment across JTF Sierra and related business units
- Establish and promote best practices for the full AI/ML lifecycle—including data management, model versioning, CI/CD for ML, monitoring, and continuous improvement—to ensure reliable deployment and operation of AI/ML models in production
- Oversee multiple development streams, providing technical reviews, risk assessments, and mitigations plans
- Shape system-level behavior and engineering tradeoffs when requirements are ambiguous
- Lead development of simulations, sensor fusion models, vision models, and planning/decision algorithms
- Represent JTF Sierra to leadership, customers, and partners (assist in developing and presenting briefings, demos, high-level technical presentations, etc)
- Establish adaptive, agile AI/ML validation, verification, and safety frameworks for proof-of-concept level mission-critical systems
- Evaluate and introduce emerging technologies (examples: transformers, RLHF, edge AI, XAI, GPU acceleration)
- Partner with Program Manager and Project Engineer to define staffing, data, schedules, and resources required to execute JTF Sierra technical initiatives
- Coach and develop engineering talent, raising JTF Sierra’s overall AI/ML capabilities
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Statistics, or related STEM field
- 14+ years of experience in AI/ML or related fields, or 16+ years without a degree
- Demonstrated mastery of deep learning, reinforcement learning, generative models, and large-scale AI/ML system architecture
- Proven experience architecting and deploying mission-critical and/or large-scale AI/ML systems
- Strong proficiency in Python, C++, C#, and/or Java with experience building scalable Machine Learning systems
- Experience providing technical leadership across teams, projects, or programs
- Ability to define technical strategies, influence senior stakeholders, and make organization-level architecture decisions
- In-depth experience with aerospace/defense-relevant regulatory and cybersecurity considerations
- Demonstrated ability to mentor and grow engineering talent within an organization
- Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in AI/ML or related field
- Experience applying AI/ML to autonomy, multimodal sensor fusion, or embedded/real-time platforms
- Experience establishing or scaling ML engineering standard (MLOps, validation frameworks, data management)
- Expertise with GPU acceleration, CUDA/TensorRT, or parallel computing
- Publications, patents, or thought leadership in AI/ML
- Familiarity with edge AI, explainable AI (XAI), or emerging/advanced ML topics
- Experience translating high-level mission objectives into complex AI/ML system architectures (HMI scenarios, autonomy stacks)
Company Overview