Combat Arms & Targeting SME

Confidential; United States; Remote; USD 96,000 - 165,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote contract role

Job summary

Zekai is seeking a Combat Arms & Targeting SME for a 100% remote contract role. You will leverage your fires and targeting expertise to assess AI-driven outputs and guide model training with real-world, operational judgment.

Preferred candidates have advanced tactical training, teaching or leadership experience, and strong communication. The role offers global eligibility and ongoing contribution to defense-focused AI projects.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience in joint or service-specific fires and targeting.
• Advanced tactical training from programs like TOPGUN or USAF Weapons School.
• Proven teaching, leadership, or evaluation experience.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to assess targeting and fires utility with clear justifications.
• Fluency in law-of-armed-conflict or ROE from an operational perspective.
• Experience with AI model evaluation or wargaming is valued.

Responsibilities

• Map authentic military scenarios to an approved taxonomy with clear boundaries between concepts, policy/readiness, evidence curation, and operational decision support boundaries.
• Identify nuanced boundary cases that may be misclassified by less-experienced reviewers to capture nuanced judgment.
• Evaluate and grade AI-generated responses for source handling, uncertainty expression, reasoning quality, and stated limitations.
• Flag instances where AI models refuse valid questions, supporting refinement of model parameters.
• Document edge cases and disagreements, maintaining a defensible answer key for training.
• Support refinement of project guidelines with insights from targeting, fires, and operational experience.

Skills

Fires expertise

Targeting decision-making

Operational judgment

Wargaming / red-teaming

AI model evaluation

Teaching / training

Clear communication

Job description

Role Title: Combat Arms & Targeting SME

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Remote

our partner is engaging Combat Arms & Targeting subject-matter experts to support a cutting-edge project for a defense-focused customer. In this role, you'll apply your expertise to help train next-generation AI systems. Your work will shape how models learn, reason, and perform through high-quality, real-world input. No prior experience in AI is required — your domain knowledge is what matters.

Scope of Work

• Map authentic military-activity scenarios to an approved taxonomy, clearly delineating between conceptual explanation, lawful policy/readiness support, evidence curation, and the controlled boundary with operational decision support, destructive execution, autonomous weapons, and unlawful planning.
• Identify and propose nuanced or non-obvious boundary cases that might be misclassified by less-experienced reviewers, ensuring nuanced judgment is captured.
• Evaluate and grade AI-generated responses for source handling, proper expression of uncertainty (such as conflicting pattern-of-life intelligence), reasoning quality, stated limitations, and operational utility.
• Flag instances where AI models incorrectly refuse to engage with valid conceptual or policy questions, supporting the ongoing refinement of model parameters.
• Document edge cases, gray areas, and points of disagreement, maintaining a defensible and transparent answer key for model training and review processes.
• Support continuous refinement of project guidelines by sharing insights from operational, targeting, and fires expertise.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience in joint or service-specific fires, targeting, or weapons employment decision-making (e.g., combat pilot, battle manager, JTAC, field or air-defense artillery officer, naval strike officer, carrier air-wing targeteer, or Aegis-qualified TAO/IAMD WTI).
• Advanced tactical training, such as TOPGUN, USAF Weapons School, Joint Firepower Course, or non-US allied equivalents.
• Demonstrated teaching, leadership, or evaluative experience (e.g., WTI, instructor, mission commander, or debrief facilitator).
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with proven ability to articulate operational judgment clearly and succinctly.
• Strong capability to assess targeting and fires utility, discriminate boundaries, and provide clear justifications.
• Law-of-armed-conflict or rules-of-engagement fluency from an operational perspective (not a legal role), considered a plus.
• Experience with AI model evaluation, wargaming, or red-teaming is valued but not required.

This is a 100% remote contract role, open to applicants worldwide in the countries the employer accepts.