Artificial Intelligence/Reinforcement Learning Engineer

Torch Technologies; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Torch Technologies in Huntsville, AL is seeking an Artificial Intelligence / Reinforcement Learning Engineer to research, develop, implement, and evaluate advanced reinforcement learning and machine learning solutions supporting defense modeling, simulation, and decision-support applications.

Ideal candidates have strong programming experience in Python and MATLAB, along with practical experience using Ray RLlib to develop, train, and evaluate reinforcement learning algorithms, and to design

Qualifications

• US Citizenship.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Software Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Research, develop, and evaluate reinforcement learning algorithms for defense modeling and decision-support problems.
• Implement and train reinforcement learning agents using Python and Ray RLlib.
• Collaborate with software engineers and subject matter experts to integrate AI/ML solutions into simulation environments.

Skills

Python

Ray RLlib

Reinforcement Learning

MATLAB

Software Engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science

Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering

Tools

Gymnasium

Job description

Torch Technologies Thank you for your interest in employment with Torch Technologies. We are a 100% employee-owned, Certified Great Place To Work and named Best Places to Work in Huntsville/Madison County, headquartered in Huntsville, AL. Our team provides superior research, development, and engineering services to the Federal Government and Department of War. As one of the nation's top 100 defense companies, the services we provide directly support the men and women who serve our country. Our corporate mission sums up the pride our employee-owners take in the work we do: "Lighting the Pathway of Freedom". And, as a Certified Evergreen ESOP, we have made the commitment to grow and sustain our company for the next 100 years! Come grow with us!

Torch Technologies Inc., is seeking an Artificial Intelligence / Reinforcement Learning (AI/RL) Engineer to research, develop, implement, and evaluate advanced reinforcement learning and machine learning solutions supporting defense modeling, simulation, and decision-support applications. The ideal candidate will have strong programming experience in Python and MATLAB, along with practical experience using Ray RLlib to develop, train, and evaluate reinforcement learning algorithms.

This position focuses on applying reinforcement learning techniques to complex decision-making problems, developing simulation-based training environments, designing reward functions and observation/action representations, and evaluating algorithm performance.

The selected candidate will work with software engineers, simulation developers, and subject matter experts to research and implement AI/ML solutions for military applications.

Key Responsibilities:

Reinforcement Learning Research and Development

• Research, develop, and evaluate reinforcement learning algorithms for complex decision-making and optimization problems.
• Implement and train reinforcement learning agents using Python and Ray RLlib.
• Develop and evaluate algorithms such as Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO), Soft Actor-Critic (SAC), and other applicable reinforcement learning approaches.
• Design observation spaces, action spaces, reward functions, and episode termination conditions.
• Evaluate training stability, convergence, generalization, and algorithm performance under varying environmental conditions.
• Perform hyperparameter tuning, comparative algorithm evaluations, and controlled experimentation.
• Analyze experimental results and recommend improvements to model architectures, training configurations, and reward strategies.

Python and MATLAB Development

• Develop and maintain Python-based reinforcement learning software, numerical algorithms, and experimentation utilities.
• Use MATLAB to conduct mathematical analysis, algorithm prototyping, performance evaluation, and visualization of experimental results.
• Translate research concepts, mathematical models, and analytical prototypes into maintainable software implementations.
• Develop scripts and utilities for processing simulation data, analyzing performance metrics, and visualizing results.
• Apply software engineering best practices, including code reviews, testing, version control, and technical documentation.

Modeling & Simulation Integration

• Develop and integrate reinforcement learning environments using Gymnasium or comparable frameworks.
• Connect reinforcement learning agents with modeling and simulation systems for training and evaluation.
• Support integration between Python-based AI/ML applications and simulation software developed in C++ or other programming languages.
• Develop reproducible training and evaluation workflows for simulation-based experiments.
• Collaborate with simulation engineers and domain experts to ensure that environment models accurately represent the intended research objectives.

AI/ML Experimentation

• Develop configurable training pipelines supporting repeatable experiments.
• Use distributed computing and GPU resources to improve training efficiency.
• Collect and analyze performance metrics from training and evaluation experiments.
• Document experimental methods, results, limitations, and technical findings.
• Support the transition of successful research concepts into operationally relevant software prototypes.

Key Technical Priorities:

• Python: Strong software development experience implementing AI/ML algorithms, data processing, and experimental workflows.
• Ray RLlib: Hands-on experience configuring, training, evaluating, and tuning reinforcement learning algorithms.
• MATLAB: Experience with numerical analysis, algorithm development, modeling, data processing, and research prototyping.
• Reinforcement Learning: Understanding of RL algorithms, policy optimization, exploration strategies, reward design, and agent-environment interactions.
• Modeling & Simulation: Experience developing or integrating AI algorithms with simulation environments.

Minimum Qualifications:

• US Citizenship.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineeri