Sovereign AI Model Engineer

NestAI; Jyväskylä; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Occupational healthcare

Epassi Flex benefit

Lunch benefit

Regular team lunches and all-hands

Mac or PC choice

Holiday allowance

Phone benefit

Job summary

NestAI seeks a senior Model Engineer to join a European defence AI initiative. You will build models for battlefield autonomy and orchestration, training and evaluating multimodal systems, and shaping data-driven evaluation baselines.

You’ll operate in a still-forming environment, with evolving tooling and data, and collaborate across teams to deliver robust, adaptable AI for critical decision-making under sovereign constraints.

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, and evaluating ML models, including multimodal or large-scale work.
• Ability to assess trade-offs between single-task vs large models in production.
• Interest in geospatial/spatial reasoning and simulation challenges.

Responsibilities

• Build and iterate on model prototypes across tracks from proof-of-life to benchmarking against a real baseline.
• Work hands-on with multimodal and geospatial reasoning problems and represent maps/terrain for model reasoning.
• Help stand up early evaluation harnesses and benchmarks with measurable progress against a real baseline.
• Coordinate with data owners for data availability and required buildouts; contribute technical judgment and fail-fast when needed.

Skills

ML model training

Fine-tuning models

Multimodal models

Geospatial reasoning

Education

PhD in quantitative field

Job description

About NestAI

NestAI is a European AI lab for defence delivering the adaptive operating system for modern battlefield operations. We develop adaptive intelligence for unmanned and command systems: AI that continuously learns from operational data and adapts to changing conditions. NestOS is our open, modular and interoperable platform that enables this at scale and keeps capability evolution under sovereign European control. Founded in 2025 by Peter Sarlin, whose previous company Silo AI became Europe's largest AI acquisition, NestAI brings together over 200 engineers and scientists and partners with leading European defence forces and industry.

Role Description

Europe builds the unmanned vehicles and the platforms. It does not build the models that fly and command them. The intelligence inside Europe’s defences runs on models trained elsewhere, and access to the best models can be cut off overnight. NestAI is building sovereign AI models for defence to change this. We are initially focusing on models for battlefield autonomy and orchestration, bringing together real operational data, simulation and synthetic data to build models that can continuously adapt as the battlefield changes. We’re hiring a Model Engineer to join the initiative. This is a senior developer role where you’ll join the team developing models for battlefield autonomy and orchestration.

What You'll Do

• Build and iterate on model prototypes across both tracks: from early proof-of-life experiments to benchmarking against existing C2/Edge functionality.
• Work hands-on with multimodal and geospatial reasoning problems: LLMs currently fall short on spatial/geospatial reasoning, and closing that gap is core to the effort (e.g. representing maps and terrain as something a model can actually reason over, not just look at).
• Help stand up early evaluation harnesses and benchmarks so progress is measurable against a real baseline, not just a demo.
• Work against simulated/synthetic data in the near term, coordinating with whoever owns the data owners on what's usable and what needs to be built.
• Contribute technical judgment upward: flag when a direction isn't working rather than quietly grinding on it, making sure we fail fast.

What We're Looking For

• Solid hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, and evaluating ML models - ideally including multimodal or large-scale model work. You understand trade-offs in where to use single-task models and where large models.
• Comfort working in a still-forming, under-specified environment: this project doesn't have settled tooling, data, or team structure yet, and the ability to make progress without waiting for all of that to exist is more valuable than following an established playbook.
• Genuine curiosity about geospatial/spatial reasoning, simulation, or embodied AI problems - these show up constantly in this domain and current foundation models handle them poorly.

Nice to have: a PhD in a relevant quantitative field; prior exposure to autonomous systems, simulation, or edge-constrained systems; experience or interest in defence, dual-use, or other regulated/sovereign-technology environments.

Why join NestAI

At NestAI, you’ll build meaningful, real-world technology as part of a world-class team of engineers, scientists, and experienced professionals. You’ll work on systems where reliability genuinely matters, contribute to Europe’s security and resilience, and solve problems that demand depth, trust, and craftsmanship. If you want to build with purpose - and with leading experts in the field - you’ve come to the right place.

Perks & Benefits

• Occupational healthcare (currently provided by Mehiläinen)
• Epassi Flex benefit (sports, culture, commuting, wellbeing)
• Lunch benefit (25% tax-free coverage)
• Regular team lunches and all-hands events
• Your choice of Mac or PC
• Holiday allowance (50% of holiday salary)
• Phone benefit according to company policy (subscription and device)

We are continuously developing and expanding our benefits as we grow.

Practicalities

Employment is subject to applicable security screening (including SUPO, where required). NestAI is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants based on their skills, experience, and potential. The preferred location for this position is Finland, but Sweden, Estonia or other EU countries are possible as well.