Senior Remote Forward-Deployed AI Engineer

Defense Unicorns; Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 148,750 - 201,250; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Company Stock Options

Home Office Budget

Flexible Time Off

Parental Leave

Conferences (travel, lodging, fees)

Job summary

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineer to embed with defense and national security customers, owning solutions from discovery to production deployment. You will build backend systems, data pipelines, and retrieval capabilities atop the Unified Defense Stack, deployed across cloud, on-prem, and air-gapped environments.

This is a customer-facing, delivery-focused role requiring strong communication and the ability to translate complex technical work for stakeholders,

Qualifications

• 4+ years backend or full-stack engineering with production-grade Python.
• Experience designing/operating data pipelines, APIs, integration layers.
• Hands-on with information retrieval systems and RAG patterns.
• Experience deploying software in government/defense or high-assurance contexts.
• Eligibility to obtain U.S. security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Embed with strategic customers as a technical partner and deliver solutions end-to-end.
• Architect, build, and deploy backend systems powering generative AI capabilities.
• Deploy and operate systems across cloud, on-prem, and air-gapped environments.
• Define roadmaps, set priorities, and remove blockers across teams and stakeholders.
• Codify patterns and playbooks to speed future deployments.
• Translate technical work for non-technical leadership and drive adoption.
• Incorporate field insights to improve the platform.

Skills

Backend engineering

Python

Data pipelines

APIs

Retrieval augmented generation

Communication

Problem discovery

Tools

Kubernetes

Elasticsearch/OpenSearch

Job description

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineer to embed with defense and national security customers, owning solutions from discovery to production deployment. You will build backend systems, data pipelines, and retrieval capabilities atop the Unified Defense Stack, deployed across cloud, on-prem, and air-gapped environments.

This is a customer-facing, delivery-focused role requiring strong communication and the ability to translate complex technical work for stakeholders,