Senior AI Systems Architect — Space & Defense (Remote)

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc.; El Segundo (CA); Hybrid; USD 175,000 - 255,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Flexible spending accounts

Health savings accounts

Retirement savings plans

Life and disability insurance

Paid time away

Job summary

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) seeks a Principal Solutions Architect - AI Systems to lead the architecture of an AI‑enabled decision‑support system within a secure, production environment. This role requires deep AI systems literacy and strong experience with end‑to‑end architecture.

The position is remote/hybrid with on‑site work at least 2 days weekly in Colorado Springs, CO or El Segundo, CA, and requires DoD clearance and extensive distributed systems expertise.

Qualifications

• US Citizen and current active DoD Secret clearance
• Minimum 8 years of experience designing complex distributed systems
• Demonstrated experience architecting production AI‑enabled systems
• Experience integrating AI into existing enterprise or mission platforms
• Strong understanding of AI failure modes, uncertainty, and validation at the system level
• Experience designing systems with human‑in‑the‑loop authority

Responsibilities

• Own end‑to‑end architecture for an AI‑augmented operational system.
• Define how AI inference is bounded by constraints, validated, and surfaced for human decision‑making.
• Design agent‑based and workflow‑driven architectures that combine probabilistic and deterministic reasoning.
• Lead integration into existing platforms using API‑first, zero‑trust, container‑native patterns.
• Establish architectural patterns for traceability, auditability, and responsible AI.
• Serve as the senior technical authority across delivery increments.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS

Azure

GCP

APIs

Observability

Job description

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) seeks a Principal Solutions Architect - AI Systems to lead the architecture of an AI‑enabled decision‑support system within a secure, production environment. This role requires deep AI systems literacy and strong experience with end‑to‑end architecture.

The position is remote/hybrid with on‑site work at least 2 days weekly in Colorado Springs, CO or El Segundo, CA, and requires DoD clearance and extensive distributed systems expertise.