AI & Data Platform Engineering Manager

Sierra Nevada Corporation; Englewood (CO); Hybrid; USD 190,000 - 261,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision plans

401(k) with 150% match up to 6%

Life insurance

Paid time off - 3 weeks

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Sierra Nevada Corporation is seeking an AI/ML Engineering Manager II to lead multiple AI/ML teams and oversee enterprise‑wide ML initiatives in a hybrid environment. The role focuses on scalable ML systems, platform governance, and aligning engineering with mission-critical programs.

Qualified candidates have 6–8+ years in AI/ML or software engineering with at least 2 years in management, plus expertise in generative AI, LLMs, and compliant data practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, or related STEM field.
• 6–8+ years of experience in AI/ML or software engineering, including 2+ years in a management role.
• Experience leading engineering teams on complex technical programs.
• Higher level degree may substitute for experience.
• CMMC/NIST SP 800-171 awareness or equivalent compliance training.

Responsibilities

• Lead the AI/LLM Platform and MLOps engineering team delivering the enterprise AI platform.
• Provide deep technical guidance on LLM and generative AI architectures, including the LLM gateway and agent/workflow orchestration.
• Oversee integration of ML models and AI capability into enterprise systems and business platforms.
• Establish strong validation, verification, and compliance processes.
• Manage resourcing, budgeting, schedules, and risk mitigation.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads.
• Drive AI/LLM platform capability development and own the long-term technical roadmap for the platform.

Skills

AI/ML

Leadership

MLOps

Compliance

Cloud AI

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Math/Engineering

Tools

AWS ML

Google Cloud ML

Azure AI

Job description

The AI/ML Engineering Manager II leads multiple AI/ML teams or a larger engineering organization. This role provides strategic technical oversight, ensures scalable development of complex ML systems, and drives alignment between engineering efforts and mission-critical program requirements. As SNC's corporate team, we provide the company and its business areas with strategic direction and business support spanning executive management, finance and accounting, operations, human resources, legal, IT, information security, facilities, marketing, and communications.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the AI/LLM Platform and MLOps engineering team delivering the enterprise AI platform.
• Provide deep technical guidance on LLM and generative AI architectures, including the LLM gateway, model routing, and agent/workflow orchestration.
• Oversee integration of ML models and AI capability into enterprise systems and business platforms.
• Establish strong validation, verification, and compliance processes.
• Manage resourcing, budgeting, schedules, and risk mitigation.
• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads.
• Drive AI/LLM platform capability development and own the long-term technical roadmap for the platform.

Qualifications You Must Have:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, or related STEM field.
• 6-8+ years of experience in AI/ML or software engineering, including 2+ years in a management role.
• Relevant experience can be considered as a substitute for the required educational qualifications.
• In the absence of a degree, a minimum of 13 years of related experience is required.
• Higher level relevant degree may substitute for experience.
• Demonstrated success leading engineering teams and delivering complex technical programs.
• Expertise in generative AI/LLM techniques; familiarity with supervised and unsupervised ML for data platform use cases.
• Experience architecting and optimizing ML pipelines and high-performance systems.
• Strong understanding of security, compliance, and data governance requirements (CMMC, data classification)
• Ability to drive cross-functional execution across software, data, and business platform teams.
• AWS Machine Learning Specialty, Google Professional ML Engineer, or Azure AI Engineer Associate, or equivalent hands‑on experience with a major cloud AI/ML platform.
• CMMC/NIST SP 800-171 awareness or equivalent compliance training.

Qualifications We Prefer:

• Degree in AI/ML, data science, engineering, or related discipline.
• AWS Solutions Architect (Associate or Professional) or Azure Solutions Architect Expert.
• Databricks ML Professional, Snowflake SnowPro, or comparable data engineering certifications.
• Advanced Generative AI or MLOps certifications (DeepLearning.AI, NVIDIA DLI)
• Experience with LLM gateways, vector databases, agent orchestration frameworks, or prompt evaluation tooling.
• Experience building or operating an internal LLM gateway, model routing layer, or enterprise AI API platform

Essential Functions:

• Lead multi-team engineering operations in a hybrid environment.
• Participate in integration events, customer reviews, and working groups.
• Travel up to 20% for program execution and external coordination.
• Provide technical escalation support for complex ML challenges.

Estimated Starting Salary Range: $189,761.74 - $260,922.39.

SNC offers a generous benefit package, including medical, dental, and vision plans, 401(k) with 150% match up to 6%, life insurance, 3 weeks paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and more.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: To conform to U.S. Government international trade regulations, applicant must be a U.S. Citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State or U.S. Department of Commerce. Learn more about the background check process for Security Clearances.

SNC is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an environment free of discrimination. Employment decisions are made based on merit without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran or other characteristics protected by law.

SNC is a global leader in aerospace and national security committed to moving the American Dream forward. We're known and respected for our mission and execution focus, agility, and disruptive and rapid innovation. We provide leading edge technologies and transformative solutions that support our nation’s most critical security needs.

If you are mission-focused, thrive in collaborative environments, and want to make our country stronger with state-of-the-art technologies that safeguard freedom, join our team!

SNC is a trusted global leader in aerospace and national security. Our innovative solutions enable connected protection through command, control and communications systems, as well as ISR, cyber, electromagnetic spectrum management, and other high capabilities for systems across all domains – sea, land, air, space and cyber. As a longstanding leader in defense technology, SNC is the optimum intersection of commercial, defense and non-traditional contractors. We are one of the only privately owned mid-tier A&D contractors and we pride ourselves on our ability to invest early and often to ensure mission success on or ahead of schedule. It's part of our mission to always stay one step ahead; working on solutions today to solve the problems of tomorrow. Founded in 1963, SNC is owned by Chairwoman Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen.