AI/ML Platform Architect — Mission Systems (Remote)

Raft Company Website; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

401(k) and match

PTO + holidays

Education & training benefits

Referral bonuses

Job summary

Raft is hiring a Lead AI/ML Software Engineer to shape the next phase of [R]AIMS. You will lead architecture, drive major epics, and be hands-on in the codebase while guiding technical direction for the platform.

You will work with platform leadership, product, and delivery teams, balancing rapid mission delivery with long-term platform integrity. Expect collaboration across DoD environments and a Top Secret/SCI pathway.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of hands-on software engineering across frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ML.
• Strong fundamentals in designing and evolving complex, scalable systems.
• Excellent technical communication; influence without authority.
• Experience designing distributed systems, including service decomposition and observability.
• Hands-on with Kubernetes and cloud-native architecture in production.
• Experience building data-intensive or AI-enabled production systems.

Responsibilities

• Drive architectural decisions across the [R]AIMS platform, balancing performance, security, and maintainability.
• Lead major technical epics from conception through delivery with clear plans.
• Simplify distributed system architecture as the platform scales and remains reliable.
• Optimize platform performance across edge and cloud deployment targets.
• Establish reusable patterns to improve developer productivity and code quality.
• Mentor engineers and provide substantive code feedback across the team.
• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers on model integration and deployment of workflows in [R]AIMS.
• Engage with customers and program stakeholders across demanding environments.

Skills

Kubernetes

Distributed systems

AI/ML platform

Technical leadership

System design

Cloud architectures

Strong communication

Security readiness

Tools

Docker

Job description

Raft is hiring a Lead AI/ML Software Engineer to shape the next phase of [R]AIMS. You will lead architecture, drive major epics, and be hands-on in the codebase while guiding technical direction for the platform.

You will work with platform leadership, product, and delivery teams, balancing rapid mission delivery with long-term platform integrity. Expect collaboration across DoD environments and a Top Secret/SCI pathway.