Senior AI/ML Engineer (Leawood, KS & Arlington, VA) - Torch AI : Job Details

Become Part of a Meaningful Mission Torch.AI is a defense-focused AI-software company on a mission to become the leading provider of critical data infrastructure for U.S. Defense and National Security. We deliver advanced AI and data software capabilities directly to customer mission owners to meet flexible, user-defined specifications and enable a decision advantage for the warfighter. We're passionate about solving complex problems that improve national security, support our warfighters, and protect our nation. Join us in our mission to help organizations Unlock Human Potential. The U.S. defense and national security industry offers an unparalleled opportunity to contribute to the safety and well-being of the nation while engaging with cutting-edge technologies. As a vital sector that shapes global stability, it offers a dynamic environment to tackle complex challenges across multidisciplinary domains. With substantial investment in innovation, the industry is at the forefront of developing AI, autonomous systems, and advanced national security solutions, each founded on the premise that information is the new battlefield. If this type of work is of interest, we'd love to hear from you. The Environment: Unlock Your Potential As a Senior AI/ML Engineer at Torch.AI, you will be at the forefront of building software that scales across Torch.AI's platform capabilities. Your software will be deployed across an array of operational and research & development efforts for mission-critical customer programs and projects. Each of our customers requires unique technical solutions to enable an asymmetric advantage on the battlefield. Torch.AI's patented software helps remove common obstacles such as manual-intensive data processing, parsing, and analysis, thereby reducing cognitive burden for the warfighter. Our end-to-end data processing, orchestration, and fusion platform supports a wide variety of military use cases, domains, operations, and echelons. Customers enjoy enterprise-grade capabilities that meet specialized needs. Torch.AI encourages company-wide collaboration to share context, skills, and expertise across a variety of tools, technologies, and development practices. You'll work autonomously while driving coordinated, collaborative decisions across cross-functional teams comprised of defense and national security experts, veterans, business leaders, and experienced software engineers. Your code will advance back-end data orchestration and graph-compute capabilities to deliver elegant data and intelligence products. You will have the opportunity to harden and scale existing platform capabilities, tools, and technologies, while also working to innovate and introduce new iterative capabilities and features which benefit our company and customers. Successful candidates thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven environment. We hire brilliant patriots. You'll be encouraged to think creatively, challenge conventional thinking, and identify alternative approaches for delivering value to customers across complex problem sets. Your day-to-day will vary, adapting to the requirements of our customers and the technical needs of respective use cases. One day, you may be supporting the development of a new proof of capability concept for a new customer program; another you may be focused on optimizing system performance to help scale a production deployment; the next you may be working directly with customers to understand their requirements with deep intellectual curiosity.

• Our flat operating model puts every employee at the forefront of our customers' missions.
• We value customer intimacy, unique perspectives, and dedication to delivering lasting impact and results. You'll have the opportunity to work on the frontlines of major customer programs and influence lasting success for Torch.AI and your teammates.
• You'll have the opportunity to gain experience across a wide range of projects and tasks, from designing and demonstrating early capabilities and prototypes to deploying large-scale mission systems.
• You'll contribute directly to Torch.AI's continued position as a market leader for data infrastructure AI and compete against multi-billion-dollar incumbents and high-tech AI companies.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement ML models and pipelines for production systems, with a focus on NLP, embeddings, and transformer-based architectures.
• Lead the development of retrieval-augmented generation and tool-using AI agents, evaluating frameworks like LangChain, Haystack, CrewAI, or comparable solutions.
• Guide and contribute to the MLOps lifecycle, including model versioning, deployment, monitoring, and observability.
• Work with software and data engineers to ensure scalable, reliable ML infrastructure and pipelines.
• Serve as a technical leader across projects: setting architectural direction, mentoring junior engineers, and driving design and review processes.
• Collaborate with technical architects and executive stakeholders to translate business goals into technical strategies.
• Lead research efforts on vector similarity search, graph-based RAG, and domain-specific model optimization.
• Contribute to cross-functional initiatives involving cloud architecture, data pipelines, and platform reliability.

What We Value

• B.S. or M.S. degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of experience in software development or machine learning, with 3+ years in applied NLP/ML systems.
• Advanced proficiency in Python and strong experience with ML libraries such as Hugging Face Transformers, spaCy, and scikit-learn.
• Deep understanding of LLMs, embeddings, and semantic search techniques.
• Proven track record of delivering ML models to production, including data preparation, evaluation, and deployment.
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and distributed data storage (e.g., S3, GCS, PostgreSQL).
• Experience with containerization, orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and CI/CD pipelines.
• Industry experience, preferably within the defense industry and/or intelligence community or related sectors, a plus.
• Ability to convey complex technical concepts to stakeholders.
• Capability to work collaboratively in interdisciplinary teams.
• Awareness of ethical considerations and responsible AI practices.
• Strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
• Experience designing or leading development of multi-agent systems or graph-based RAG approaches (not required, nice to have).
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including executives, to align AI solutions with product strategy (not required, nice to have).
• Exposure to infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform), streaming systems (e.g., Kafka), or big data technologies (not required, nice to have).
• Familiarity with MLOps tooling such as MLflow, SageMaker, or Vertex AI (not required, nice to have).

Security Clearance We are hiring for multiple positions for each role. Some roles require a Secret, Top Secret, or Top Secret/SCI Security Clearance on Day 1. If you do not currently hold a clearance but are interested in this role and believe you are eligible for a clearance, we still encourage you to submit an application. Work Location We are hiring for roles at our headquarters in Leawood, KS and remotely in the Arlington, VA region. Candidates in the Arlington, VA region may work remotely while not on customer site. Candidates in the Leawood, KS region may require some limited travel to customer sites (