Senior AI Infrastructure Engineer, Inference at Scale

Bigbear.ai; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

BigBear.ai is seeking a Software Engineer to support our AI infrastructure team, focusing on inference services and scalable AI platform components. You will help design, implement, and operate critical infrastructure and production systems across the AI stack.

8+ years of experience or a technical degree with 4+ years, plus TS/SCI w/Poly clearance, are valued. You will collaborate with multiple teams, improve observability, and guide junior engineers in a fast-evolving environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience or a technical Bachelor's with 4+ years experience.
• Clearance: TS/SCI w/Poly
• Proven experience building and maintaining production systems at scale.
• Experience with high-volume web application architecture and performance optimization.
• Strong background in systems integration across diverse technologies and platforms.
• Hands-on experience with cloud engineering in AWS.
• Proficiency with Kubernetes administration and deployment patterns.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Experience implementing observability solutions (APM, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Prometheus).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Strong change management and organizational influence skills.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments and create structure where needed.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and optimize infrastructure for AI model inference at scale.
• Support the development and maintenance of production AI services and applications, including retrieval augmented generation (RAG), autonomous agents, and emerging technologies.
• Navigate ambiguity and define solutions for underspecified systems and requirements.
• Drive adoption of new technologies and practices across engineering teams.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and observability solutions for AI services.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration using Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) principles.
• Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of AI platform components.
• Contribute to security best practices for AI systems and data.
• Provide technical guidance and informal mentorship to junior engineers.

Skills

Python

Kubernetes

AWS

Observability

CI/CD

IaC

Security best practices

Systems integration

Production systems

Mentorship

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline

Tools

LangChain

OpenTelemetry

Grafana

Prometheus

vLLM/LiteLLM

Job description

BigBear.ai is seeking a Software Engineer to support our AI infrastructure team, focusing on inference services and scalable AI platform components. You will help design, implement, and operate critical infrastructure and production systems across the AI stack.

8+ years of experience or a technical degree with 4+ years, plus TS/SCI w/Poly clearance, are valued. You will collaborate with multiple teams, improve observability, and guide junior engineers in a fast-evolving environment.