Senior AI Platform Engineer — Bare-Metal to IaC Expert

Peraton; Fort Meade (MD); Hybrid; USD 146,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Peraton seeks a Senior AI Platform Engineer to stand up and operate a bare-metal container platform, drive IaC-based provisioning, and reduce manual installs over time. The role focuses on deploying AI models, optimizing performance, and maintaining compliant OpenShift environments on bare metal.

You will work in a hybrid setup with possible telework within a 50-mile radius of multiple U.S. locations, including Ft. Meade, MD. Strong Linux, Kubernetes, and security credentials are required.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 12 years with BS/BA; Minimum of 10 years with MS/MA; Minimum of 7 years with Ph.D.
• Experience with platform/systems/integration engineering
• Hands-on Kubernetes-based container platform experience
• US Citizenship
• Active DoD Secret clearance
• DoD 8570/8140 compliant certification
• Practical experience deploying and operating AI models with performance tuning
• Hands-on experience deploying and administering OpenShift on bare metal
• IaC proficiency with Terraform and Ansible
• Knowledge of virtualization/cloud orchestration platforms (Spectro Cloud, VMware)
• Understanding of container platform architecture: networking, storage, security, lifecycle management
• Ability to document platform architecture and licensing tradeoffs
• Strong Linux administration skills (RHEL)
• Regular/recurring physical access to a DISA SIPR-accredited facility
• Working understanding of agentic platform modeling/hosting/services

Responsibilities

• Deploy, configure, and operate LLMs and integrate approved frontier AI models into enterprise environments
• Optimize model inference and deployment configurations for latency, throughput, and resource utilization
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and maintain model-serving environments and API connectivity
• Transition provisioning from manual to IaC-managed processes
• Install, configure, and operate bare-metal OpenShift or similar Kubernetes clusters
• Design and implement IaC provisioning using Terraform and Ansible
• Evaluate OpenShift vs Spectro Cloud including licensing tradeoffs and operability
• Deploy core platform services including DNS (PowerDNS)
• Enforce cybersecurity requirements and STIGs on platform infrastructure
• Monitor platform health, performance, and capacity via observability tools
• Support OCONUS hardware bootstrap activities and configuration
• Document architecture, decisions, and procedures

Skills

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Terraform

Ansible

Linux (RHEL)

Spectro Cloud

Infrastructure as Code

GitOps

Documentation

Education

BS/BA in a technical field

MS/MA in a technical field

Ph.D.

Tools

OpenShift

Terraform

Ansible

Spectro Cloud

VMware

Kubernetes

Job description

Peraton seeks a Senior AI Platform Engineer to stand up and operate a bare-metal container platform, drive IaC-based provisioning, and reduce manual installs over time. The role focuses on deploying AI models, optimizing performance, and maintaining compliant OpenShift environments on bare metal.

You will work in a hybrid setup with possible telework within a 50-mile radius of multiple U.S. locations, including Ft. Meade, MD. Strong Linux, Kubernetes, and security credentials are required.