Systems Engineer - Natural Language Processing

TOFFLER ASSOCIATES, Inc.; Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Toffler Associates is seeking an experienced professional to lead complex client engagements from Bethesda, MD. You will be accountable for the quality of the work, health of the engagement, delivery performance, and client relationships, with an emphasis on rigorous systems engineering and AI/ML capabilities.

All candidates will be required to work onsite in Bethesda, MD and require a TS//SCI with a CI Poly.

Qualifications

• Requires active TS/SCI with polygraph and a maintained clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in physics, math, CS, or engineering.
• 8+ years in physics, math, CS, or engineering fields.
• Experience in systems engineering in data-intensive environments.
• Knowledge of AI/ML and NLP methods.
• Experience with NLP pipelines and model training for mission environments.
• Understanding data architectures and large-scale analytics pipelines.
• Familiarity with AI governance, data quality, bias mitigation, and mission assurance.

Skills

TS/SCI with poly

AI/ML knowledge

NLP methodologies

Text classification

Named entity recognition

Topic modeling

Information extraction

Transformer architectures

Model training & fine-tuning

Data pipelines

Governance & bias mitigation

Program planning & scheduling

Education

Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, CS, or relevant engineering fields

Master's degree or PhD in related fields

Tools

Hugging Face

PyTorch

TensorFlow

spaCy

Job description

Toffler Associates

At Toffler Associates, our consultant's own the delivery of complex client work. You are accountable for the quality of the work, the health of the engagement, the performance of the team, and the strength of the client relationship.

All candidates will be required to work onsite in Bethesda, MD and require a TS//SCI with a CI Poly

How We Expect You To Show Up

Team Before Self -

Put team success ahead of individual recognition. Share knowledge, relationships, credit, and opportunities freely. Ask for help, offer it freely, and make the people around you better. Make choices that strengthen the team.

Quiet Professional

Lead through sound judgment, preparation, and performance. Earn credibility through the quality, not title, résumé, or personal visibility.

Humility

Remain curious and teachable regardless of experience. Seek and apply feedback, recognize blind spots and missteps, and adapt with openness and self-awareness.

Reliability

Consistently earn the trust of clients and teammates. Do what you say you will do. Communicate early, surface risks before they become problems, and make sure clients and teammates are never surprised.

Stewardship

Take responsibility for leaving the client, team, and firm stronger than you found them. Build relationships, capacity, and knowledge that last beyond the engagement.

What You'll Bring

• An ACTIVE and MAINTAINED TS/SCI Federal or DoD security clearance with a polygraph
• Bachelor's degree in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software)
• 8 or more years of work experience in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software)
• Experiences should include, but not be limited to:
  • Systems engineering and integration experience in complex, data-intensive environments
  • Knowledge of AI/ML (computer vision, NLP, predictive analytics, LLMs)
  • Demonstrated experience with NLP methodologies such as text classification, named entity recognition, topic modeling, information extraction, or transformer-based architectures
  • Experience developing or evaluating NLP pipelines, including text preprocessing, tokenization strategies, model training, fine-tuning, and optimization for mission environments
  • Understanding of data architectures and pipelines for large-scale analytics/intelligence production
  • Familiarity with AI governance, data quality, bias mitigation, and mission assurance in operational NLP/LLM deployments
  • Experience creating program plans, work breakdown structures, and milestone schedules

What Would Be Nice To Have

• Master's degree or PhD in physics, mathematics, computer science, or relevant engineering fields (electrical, computer, systems, software) with FOUR (4) or more years of work experience
• Experience in the Intelligence Community (IC), including requirements, CONOPS, and transition
• Experience managing a multi-disciplinary R&D or T&E team
• Experience as a Project Manager or Deputy Project Manager
• Experience with NLP development tools or frameworks such as Hugging Face, PyTorch, TensorFlow, spaCy, or similar libraries
• Ability to proactively manage multiple, concurrent tasks
• Excellent writing, slide development, and editing skills, including the ability to develop succinct, comprehensive, and understandable documents using complex data from multiple sources for technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and time-management skills; detail oriented

Why Toffler

We are thinkers and doers.

For more than 30 years, Toffler Associates has helped leaders navigate consequential moments when the path forward is not obvious. Drawing from the legacy of Alvin and Heidi Toffler, we help clients see what is changing, understand what it means, and decide what to do about it.

Our work begins where the answer is not already known. We take on complex problems such as cross strategy, technology, organizations, operations, and people. We ask hard questions, challenge assumptions, bring different perspectives together, and work alongside our clients to turn ideas into action.

How we work matters. Toffler is collaborative, candid, and low-ego. We share what we know, remain open to being wrong, and take responsibility for the success of the whole team. We expect people to contribute beyond their individual role and to leave their clients, teammates, and the firm stronger because they were here.

We are looking for people who think deeply, act decisively, and make the people around them better. They are comfortable when the answer is not obvious, generous with what they know, and confident without needing recognition. Most importantly, they want to do meaningful work and leave something stronger behind.

Toffler Associates, Inc. complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws regarding recruitment and hiring. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.