Senior AI Engineer

Thales Defense & Security, Inc.; Clarksburg (MD); Hybrid; USD 111,000 - 142,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive Salary

Yearly Incentive Plan

Medical insurance for self and family

401(k) with company match

Tuition Reimbursement

Paid wellness, vacation, and holidays

Parental leave

Job summary

Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is seeking a Senior AI Engineer in Clarksburg, MD to design, develop and deploy advanced AI/ML systems. You will own end-to-end MLOps, model training, evaluation, and integration across on‑prem, cloud, and hybrid environments.

Applicants should have 8+ years in software/DevOps/data platforms with 4+ years in AI/ML and MLOps; strong Python and ML frameworks are essential. Hybrid work arrangement available with a competitive benefits package.

Qualifications

• U.S. Citizenship required; government security investigation may be required.
• Bachelor's degree in CS/AI/Engineering or related field; advanced degree a plus.
• 8+ years in software eng/DevOps/data/infra with 4+ years hands-on AI/ML and MLOps.
• Strong Python skills and major ML frameworks (PyTorch/TF/scikit-learn/Hugging Face).
• Hands-on experience with MLOps pipelines (MLflow, DVC, Kubeflow, Airflow, Azure ML, SageMaker).
• Proficiency deploying AI models with Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm, incl. GPU workloads.
• Knowledge of AI security, explainability, responsible AI; data security in controlled environments.
• Git, CI/CD, IaC, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; leadership capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, development, training, and deployment of AI/ML models including CV, NLP, and generative AI.
• Design and manage end-to-end MLOps pipelines for data prep, training, versioning, deployment, monitoring, retraining.
• Define MLOps standards, governance, and responsible AI practices across the enterprise.
• Integrate AI solutions in on-prem, cloud, and hybrid environments with a security focus.
• Implement secure AI controls like model hardening, privacy protections, fairness testing per DoD/NIST.
• Optimize model performance for GPUs and edge deployments; manage scalability.
• Collaborate with security, cloud, DevOps, and app teams to productionize AI systems.
• Ensure compliant handling of sensitive/classified data per DoD/NIST/CMMC; FedRAMP.
• Develop Python tooling, CI/CD integrations to support automation and maturity; mentor teams.
• Lead PoCs, maintain docs, monitor, and drive incident response.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

ML Ops

Docker

Kubernetes

Helm

Git

CI/CD

IaC

Jira

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Data Science/AI/Engineering

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

MLflow

DVC

Kubeflow

Airflow

Azure ML

SageMaker

Job description

Senior AI Engineer

Thales Defense & Security, Inc. (TDSI) headquartered in Clarksburg, MD is a U.S. company that has been serving domestic and international defense Air, Land and Sea domains for 60+ years. With over 1,000 employees, TDSI and its four subsidiaries (Advanced Acoustic Concepts, Digital Receiver Technology, Tampa Microwave, and Trusted Cyber Technologies), supports U.S. Joint Services, special operations forces and multi-national partners with a variety of communication, visualization, signal intelligence/electronic warfare, and sensor/sonar capabilities. TDSI's key technologies include tactical handheld radios, expeditionary satellite terminals, helmet-mounted displays, optics and target recognition capability, advanced radars, undersea sensing and missile systems. Lives depend on what we do!

Top Benefits (Subject to terms of applicable policies/plans)

• Competitive Salary
• Yearly Incentive Compensation Plan
• Medical insurance for self and eligible family members
• Generous 401(k) program- up to 7% company contribution and 100% immediate vesting
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Paid wellness, vacation, and holiday leave
• Paid maternity, paternity, and parental leave
• 9/80 Work Schedule (every other Friday off)
• Hybrid working environment

We are seeking a Senior AI Engineer located in our Clarksburg, MD Campus. The Senior AI Engineer will report to the IT DevOps Manager.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, development, training, and deployment of AI/ML models, including traditional ML, deep learning, computer vision, NLP, and generative AI.
• Design and manage end-to-end MLOps pipelines for data prep, training, model versioning, deployment, monitoring, and continuous retraining.
• Define and enforce MLOps standards, governance, and responsible AI best practices across the enterprise.
• Integrate AI solutions into on-prem, cloud (Azure/AWS), and hybrid environments with strong focus on security and scalability.
• Implement secure and responsible AI controls such as model hardening, privacy protections, explainability, and bias/fairness testing aligned with DoD/NIST frameworks.
• Optimize model and inference performance for GPUs, on-prem clusters, and edge environments.
• Collaborate with security, cloud, DevOps, and application teams to productionize AI systems and resolve complex technical issues.
• Ensure compliant handling of sensitive/classified data according to CMMC, NIST, DoD, and FedRAMP requirements.
• Build Python tooling, reusable components, and CI/CD integrations to support automation and platform maturity.
• Lead proof of concept, maintain documentation, guide monitoring and incident response, and mentor engineering teams.

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• U.S. Citizenship required. Applicants selected may be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information.
• Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, Engineering, Mathematics, or related field (or equivalent professional experience). Advanced degree a plus.
• Experience: Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in software engineering, DevOps, platform engineering, data engineering, or infrastructure, including at least 4 years hands‑on AI/ML engineering and MLOps (designing, deploying, monitoring, and operating production AI/ML systems). Strong transferable experience from software, DevOps, SRE, or data platform roles is highly valued given the relative newness of pure AI careers.
• Strong Python skills and experience with major ML frameworks (PyTorch/TensorFlow, scikit‑learn, Hugging Face).
• Hands‑on experience building and maintaining MLOps pipelines (MLflow, DVC, Kubeflow, Airflow, Azure ML, SageMaker).
• Proficiency deploying AI models using Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm, including GPU workloads.
• Knowledge of AI security, adversarial ML, explainability, and responsible AI principles.
• Experience working with secure data handling and controlled environments.
• Proficiency with Git, CI/CD, IaC, and collaborative development practices.
• Experience with ticketing/ITSM tools (e.g., Jira Service Management).
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and organizational skills.
• Ability to lead, mentor, and work independently across cross‑functional teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non‑technical audiences.

Preferred but not required

• Advanced degree in CS, AI, ML, or related fields.
• Experience with generative AI, LLMs, RAG, vector databases, and LLMOps.
• Experience with on‑prem GPU clusters, HPC environments, or schedulers (Slurm, Run:ai).
• Model optimization and edge deployment experience (quantization, pruning, TensorRT, ONNX).
• Experience in defense or other highly regulated environments with DoD/NIST/CMMC frameworks.

The annualized pay range for this role is $111,476.70 to $142,442.45 USD along with a target incentive compensation plan (ICP) of 5% The pay range provided is a good faith estimate representative of the experience level for the role described above. TDSI considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.

For specific questions about this job posting, candidates may contact talent acquisition at [e-mail].

Thales Defense & Security, Inc. is committed to non-discrimination as applicable under federal, state and local laws. We are an E-Verify Employer.

If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales Defense & Security, Inc., please call Human Resources at 240-864-7000.