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Defense Unicorns · 1 day ago

Forward Deployed AI Engineer

United States

Full-time

Remote

Mid Level

$123K/yr - $201K/yr

3+ years exp

Defense Unicorns is a veteran-founded company that focuses on transforming how the U.S. Department of War builds and delivers software. In this role, you will work closely with strategic customers to architect and deploy Generative AI systems, ensuring rapid and secure software delivery for defense capabilities.

AppsArtificial Intelligence (AI)National SecuritySoftwareSoftware Engineering

No H1B

Security Clearance Required

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Embed with strategic customers as a technical partner, working from problem discovery to solution implementation and customer adoption

Architect, build, deploy, and operate agentic Generative AI systems: APIs, data processing ETL pipelines, integration layers, Retrieval Augmented Generation, and context engineering

Work in cloud, on-prem, and edge/air-gapped environments to ensure software can run where the mission demands

Prototype and deploy systems leveraging the core products and design patterns of the Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS); bring back insights from the field for continuous product improvement

Scope, sequence, and lead delivery of solutions: define living roadmaps, set priorities, trade off speed vs quality vs scope, work across internal teams and customer stakeholders to drive clarity and remove blockers early

Codify reusable patterns for mission environments: build tools, internal frameworks, playbooks so future deployments are faster, safer, and repeatable

Act as the technical face to customer leadership: communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, build trust, manage expectations, and ensure successful scale and mission adoption. This is a customer-facing role

Ability and interest to travel up to 25%, as needed to client sites, but flexible based on personal preferences

Qualification

Backend engineeringGenerative AI systemsCloud environmentsKubernetesInformation RetrievalMission-oriented mindsetWork in ambiguityCommunication

Required

U.S. Citizenship required

3+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience (backend or full-stack), ideally in customer-facing or government environments (DoD, intelligence, public sector) or analogous high-assurance contexts

Strong backend engineering skills: production-grade code in Python or TypeScript; deep familiarity with designing services, APIs, data pipelines, integrations, and backend frameworks

Familiarity with LLMs or generative AI systems — be able to explain the fundamentals of Context Engineering and understand how model behavior connects to product/mission experience, and how AI capabilities integrate into larger system architectures

Strong ability to work in ambiguity: define scope, sequence work, make trade-offs between speed, quality, and scope; remove blockers; deliver under pressure in dynamic mission-driven settings

Excellent communication skills: able to translate complex technical details into clear messaging for non-technical stakeholders; work cross-functionally; build relationships with customers and internal teams

Mission-oriented mindset. Have an understanding that our work is supporting the defense and freedom of the nation

Active TS/SCI clearance or eligibility strongly preferred

Preferred

Experience with deploying applications on Kubernetes inside of air-gapped or secure environments

Experience with Information Retrieval fundamentals including knowledge of keyword and vector based search, document parsing and chunking, document reranking, and SQL/NoSQL search engines

Experience with developing, executing, and maintaining LLM evaluations

Experience with open source LLM or SLM models (Llama3, Mixtral, Gemma, Phi) including inference frameworks, structured output, fine-tuning, and model architecture reconfiguration

Benefits

Medical/Dental/Vision

Premiums are 100% Company Paid

Health Reimbursement Account

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

401k Retirement Plan

Company Stock Options

Home Office Budget

Unlimited paid time off, with a mandatory 10 days off on top of 11 federal government holidays, week of Thanksgiving, last two weeks of December (including New Year’s Day)

Paid Parental Leave

Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions

Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)