Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Raft is a customer-obsessed non-traditional defense tech company dedicated to empowering U.S. military and government agencies with cutting-edge AI/ML and data solutions. As a Lead AI/ML Software Engineer, you will be responsible for evolving the architecture and engineering rigor of Raft’s AI Mission System, driving architectural decisions, and leading major technical initiatives while mentoring engineers and collaborating with cross-functional teams.
Responsibilities
- Drive architectural decisions across the [R]AIMS platform, evaluating tradeoffs across performance, scalability, security, and maintainability and building alignment across engineering and product stakeholders
- Lead major technical epics from conception through delivery, decomposing ambiguous problems into executable plans and keeping cross-functional teams moving with clarity and momentum
- Simplify and rationalize distributed system architecture as the platform scales, reducing incidental complexity and improving operational reliability without sacrificing capability
- Optimize platform performance across both edge and cloud deployment targets, identifying and resolving bottlenecks in data-intensive, latency-sensitive operational environments
- Establish strong engineering foundations and reusable technical patterns that improve developer productivity and code quality across the team
- Mentor engineers at multiple levels, conducting design reviews, providing substantive code feedback, and actively elevating technical execution across the platform
- Partner with AI/ML engineers on model integration, inference optimization, and the operational deployment of agentic workflows within [R]AIMS
- Engage directly with customers and program stakeholders at operationally demanding environments across the Department of Defense, representing Raft’s technical capabilities with credibility and clarity
Skills
- 6+ years of hands-on experience building and shipping production software systems across the full stack (frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ML)
- Deep software engineering fundamentals with demonstrated ability to design, build, and evolve complex systems that perform reliably at scale
- Exceptional technical communication skills; able to lead through influence across engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders without requiring direct authority
- Proven experience designing and evolving distributed systems, including service decomposition, inter-service communication patterns, fault tolerance, and observability
- Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native platform architecture in production environments
- Experience building data-intensive or AI-enabled production systems with real operational users and real performance constraints
- Demonstrated technical leadership over large, cross-functional engineering initiatives with clear ownership and accountability for outcomes
- Strong system design and architecture decision-making ability, with a track record of making the right call under incomplete information
- Some experience or exposure to training, fine-tuning, or deploying machine learning models in production contexts
- Ability to obtain Security+ certification within the first 90 days of employment
- US citizenship required; ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI clearance
- Experience building AI/ML infrastructure or agentic systems, including orchestration frameworks, tool-use patterns, and LLM integration in production
- Experience with streaming and event-driven architectures, particularly Kafka, Kafka Streams, or Apache Flink
- Experience with platform engineering and internal developer tooling, including golden-path frameworks, shared libraries, and developer experience improvements
- Experience with real-time inference or operational AI systems in latency-sensitive environments
- Experience building secure, compliant systems for regulated or mission-critical environments, including familiarity with IL4/IL5/IL6 requirements or RMF processes
- Prior work in defense, national security, or classified program environments
- Active clearance preferred
Benefits
- Highly competitive salary
- Fully covered healthcare, dental, and vision coverage
- 401(k) and company match
- Take as you need PTO + 11 paid holidays
- Education & training benefits
- Generous Referral Bonuses
Company Overview
A niche consulting organization focused on Cloud Native, DevSecOps, and Modern Application Development for mission focused enterprises It was founded in 2018, and is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, USA, with a workforce of 201-500 employees. Its website is https://teamraft.com.