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Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Defense Unicorns, Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Remote

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Join Defenseunicorns as a Forward Deployed AI Engineer and sit at the intersection of cutting-edge artificial intelligence and mission-critical national security. You will embed directly with defense and intelligence customers, translating real-world battlefield and enterprise challenges into production-grade AI solutions that protect lives and give the United States a decisive technological edge.
• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of AI deployments in classified and unclassified environments—from rapid prototyping on a forward operating base to hardened, accredited systems running at the tactical edge. Your code will power everything from predictive logistics and autonomous ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance) to real-time threat detection and decision-support dashboards used by warfighters and senior leaders.
• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with operators, analysts, and senior military officers to discover high-impact use cases. You will run design sprints in SCIFs, whiteboard architectures on cargo boxes, and iterate nightly in austere locations, ensuring every model and microservice solves a genuine mission pain point.
• Architect and implement secure MLOps pipelines that satisfy the strictest DoD cybersecurity controls (STIG, RMF, CNSSI 1253). You will containerize models with distroless images, automate continuous ATO (Authority to Operate) evidence collection, and deploy to disconnected, low-bandwidth, or intermittent networks using GitOps and Zarf—Defenseunicorns’ own open-source air-gap tool.
• Optimize AI workloads for constrained compute at the edge: ARM-based rugged tablets, GPU-deprived drones, or classified cloud regions with 200 ms latency. You will quantize LLMs, distill vision transformers, and leverage ONNX, TensorRT, and custom CUDA kernels to squeeze every ounce of performance.
• Champion responsible and ethical AI by integrating bias detection, explainability, and red-team evaluation into every release. You will brief four-star generals on model limitations, author TTPs (Tactics, Techniques & Procedures) for safe AI employment, and mentor junior engineers on adversarial robustness.
• Contribute back to the open-source community. Roughly 30 % of your time is reserved for upstream contributions—whether enhancing Kubernetes AI operator patterns, hardening Kubeflow for classified networks, or publishing declassified research that raises the bar for defense AI engineering worldwide.
• Travel up to 40 %, often on short notice, to CONUS and OCONUS locations. You might spend two weeks in Tampa integrating a CV model into CENTCOM’s data lake, then fly to a Pacific ally for a joint AI exercise. Defenseunicorns provides expeditionary kits and ensures you have the gear and clearances to operate anywhere.
• Collaborate with a cross-functional team of DevSecOps engineers, data scientists, product managers, and former special operators who share a bias for action and a passion for national service. Daily stand-ups span time zones, and every engineer is empowered to question requirements, propose better solutions, and ship code that matters.
• Measure success through mission outcomes: reduced targeting timelines, increased ISR coverage, or lives saved. You will brief measurable results to program managers, iterate relentlessly, and celebrate victories that never make headlines but shape the future of warfare.

🎯 Requirements

• Active U.S. security clearance (Secret minimum; TS/SCI preferred) or the ability to obtain one
• 3+ years production experience deploying AI/ML models in regulated or resource-constrained environments (defense, healthcare, finance, or edge IoT)
• Expert-level Python and at least one systems language (Go, Rust, or C++); proficiency with Kubernetes, Docker, and GitOps workflows
• Demonstrated success securing ML pipelines under frameworks such as RMF, STIG, or FedRAMP High
• Nice-to-have: CUDA/GPU optimization, experience with Zarf or other air-gap deployment tools, and familiarity with open-source defense communities like Platform One

🏖️ Benefits

• Fully remote-first culture with quarterly in-person summits in destinations chosen by the team
• Compensation benchmarked against top-tier national data and adjusted for experience, plus annual performance bonuses and equity in a fast-growing defense-tech startup
• Platinum-tier health, dental, and vision insurance with 100 % employer-paid premiums for employees and 75 % for dependents
• 20 days PTO, 11 federal holidays, and a “mission-flex” policy that lets you take additional leave after high-tempo deployments
• $3,000 annual professional-development stipend, paid conference travel, and dedicated 10 % time for open-source contributions

Skills & Technologies

Data Science

Remote

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Defense Unicorns, Inc.

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About Defense Unicorns, Inc.

Defense Unicorns builds open-source software and secure delivery pipelines for U.S. national security systems. The company packages, deploys, and sustains mission-critical applications in disconnected, high-side environments using Kubernetes, Zarf, and other DevSecOps tools. It focuses on continuous authority to operate, zero-trust architectures, and rapid iteration for defense, intelligence, and federal civilian agencies.

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