Lead Machine Learning Engineer

People In AI; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Equity

Job summary

People In AI, based in the United States, is seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to provide hands-on technical leadership for an expanding agent team. You will drive the evolution of our AI product from retrieval-based Q&A to proactive, tool-using automation for government workflows.

This on-site, high-ownership role requires shipping production AI systems, guiding engineering decisions, and collaborating with a skilled team in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on software or ML engineering experience.
• Experience leading technical projects without formal people management.
• Track record of shipping production AI or LLM-powered systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical execution for a team building agentic AI capabilities.
• Develop proactive, reactive, and tool-using agent workflows.
• Translate complex customer needs into production AI systems.
• Own zero-to-one initiatives from design through deployment.
• Support agile ceremonies and coordinate day-to-day delivery.
• Work closely with onsite engineers to iterate quickly and solve problems.
• Evaluate and apply modern LLM, agent, and coding-assistant tooling.

Skills

Hands-on software engineering

Machine learning engineering

Technical project leadership

Production AI systems

Agent frameworks / tool-using AI

Ownership / delivery focus

Python

Backend services / APIs

Code-generation tools

Tools

Anthropic Claude

OpenAI models

Agent SDKs

Structured tool calls

Retrieval-augmented generation

Job description

Compensation: $200,000 - $250,000 + equity (relocation assistance provided)

Travel: Occasional travel to Washington, D.C.

MUST BE A US CITIZEN

Join a rapidly scaling national security technology company building AI-powered software for mission-critical government workflows.

The company’s core platform combines curated defense acquisition data with a large-scale knowledge graph, helping customers improve operational readiness across complex supply chain, systems, and equipment workflows.

As Lead AI/ML Engineer, you will provide hands-on technical leadership for a growing AI agent team. You will help evolve the company’s AI product from retrieval and Q&A into a proactive, tool-using system that can automate real customer workflows.

This is an individual contributor role with significant ownership. You will lead day-to-day technical execution, guide engineering decisions, and ship production systems—not just prototypes.

What You’ll Do

• Lead technical execution for a team building agentic AI capabilities
• Develop proactive, reactive, and tool-using agent workflows
• Translate complex customer needs into production AI systems
• Own zero-to-one initiatives from design through deployment
• Support agile ceremonies and help coordinate day-to-day delivery
• Work closely with engineers onsite to iterate quickly and solve problems
• Evaluate and apply modern LLM, agent, and coding-assistant tooling

What You’ll Bring

• Strong hands-on software or machine learning engineering experience
• Experience leading technical projects without formal people management
• A track record of shipping production AI or LLM-powered systems
• Recent experience with agent frameworks, coding agents, or tool-using AI
• Strong ownership, curiosity, and comfort operating with ambiguity
• A practical, delivery-focused approach to zero-to-one development
• Ability to work onsite full-time in Pittsburgh
• Python
• Anthropic Claude and OpenAI models
• Agent SDKs and custom orchestration frameworks
• Tool calling and structured outputs
• Retrieval-augmented generation
• Coding agents and code-generation tools
• Backend services, APIs, and production AI infrastructure

Nice to Have

• Experience in defense, government, supply chain, logistics, or national security
• Experience building workflow automation or enterprise AI products
• Background in a startup or other high-ownership environment

Why Join?

You will take technical ownership of a high-priority AI product used in real national security workflows. The role offers meaningful customer impact, close collaboration with a highly engaged engineering team, and the opportunity to shape how agentic AI moves from retrieval into production workflow automation.