Staff AI/ML Engineer (Large Language Model) (TS/SCI) {S}

Job Description

Staff AI/ML Engineer (Large Language Model) (TS/SCI) {S}

ARKA Group L.P. is looking for a Staff AI/ML Engineer to lead the development of Agentic AI capabilities and other LLM-based capabilities for mission management applications.

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary team delivering advanced AI/ML solutions.
• Apply LLMs to complex domain-specific problems and operational workflows.
• Adapt and fine-tune foundation models for specialized use cases.
• Design and implement retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and semantic search architectures.
• Build production-grade LLM applications and agentic systems.
• Deploy scalable AI solutions across cloud, on-prem, and hybrid environments.
• Analyze large, multi-modal datasets to extract meaningful features and actionable insights.
• Translate emerging research into applied, mission-relevant capabilities.
• Communicate technical strategy, status, and risks to internal and external leadership.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in machine learning, computer science, mathematics, or related fields
• 8+ years of experience, preferably in software development or as a data scientist with 2+ years of building LLM applications using some of the following:
• Fine-tuning foundational models
• Steering Techniques (e.g Sparse auto encoders, representation tuning)
• Building adapters to use foundational models (e.g. PEFT, llama factory)
• Prompt engineering techniques / Inference time techniques (e.g. chain of thought, tree of thoughts, etc.)
• Using Retrieval Augmented Generation techniques to populate and query vector databases (e.g. Weaviate, pinecone, pgvector)
• Using LLM Frameworks (e.g. LangChain, DSPy, Microsoft Agent Framework)
• Using AI APIs (e.g AWS Bedrock, OpenAI)
• Using LLM deployment frameworks (eg llama.cpp, vllm, tgi)
• Developing UIs with ReAct
• Experience leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers and software developers and working with a program manager to define project scope and schedule.
• Experience with Python and data science / machine learning libraries (e.g. NumPy, Pandas, Polars, scikit-learn, etc.).
• Experience contributing on a team using version control (e.g. git, GitLab, Bitbucket).
• Active TS/SCI U.S. Government Security Clearance
  

Preferred Qualifications

• M.S. or PhD in machine learning, computer science, mathematics, or related fields
• Experience leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers and software developers
• Experience with Large Language Models, Transformer-based architectures, Natural Language Processing algorithms, Reinforcement learning, clustering algorithms, tracking algorithms, GenAI Ops techniques, Machine Learning libraries, Linux, CUDA, AWS cloud computing resources, Java, C++, Rust, Go, C#, application deployment, virtualization, and containerization
• Experience shaping and writing proposals
• Adjudicated Counter Intelligence or Full Scope Polygraph

Location: King of Prussia, PA

Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

What We Offer

• Comprehensive medical/vision/dental insurance packages
• Company contributions to qualified HSA accounts
• 401k retirement plan with industry-leading company contributions
• 3 weeks of vacation accrual per year plus time off for sick leave and unscheduled life events
• 13 paid holidays
• Upfront tuition assistance for approved degree programs
• Annual bonus program based on company and employee performance
• Company paid life insurance, AD&D, Short-Term and Long-Term disability insurance
• 4 weeks paid Parental Leave
• Employee assistance program (EAP)

Security Clearance: Active TS/SCI U.S. Government Security Clearance.

Visa Restrictions: No visa sponsorship is available for this position.

Science