Forward Deployed AI Engineer

EMPLOYER IS A CONTRACTOR FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. THIS POSITION REQUIRES U.S. CITIZENSHIP. An active security clearance is preferred. Clearance eligibility is required.

About Defense Unicorns:

Defense Unicorns is veteran-founded and mission-driven. The company's vision is to advance freedom and independence globally by transforming how the U.S. Department of War builds, buys, delivers, and sustains software. We deliver secure, scalable software and AI solutions that function in cloud, on-prem, and tactical edge / air-gapped environments.

In this role you will join a team building the backbone of modern defense software delivery, helping ensure warfighters can deploy the latest capabilities rapidly, securely, and reliably.

What You'll Do:

• Embed with strategic customers as a technical partner, working from problem discovery to solution implementation and customer adoption
• Architect, build, deploy, and operate agentic Generative AI systems: APIs, data processing ETL pipelines, integration layers, Retrieval Augmented Generation, and context engineering
• Work in cloud, on-prem, and edge/air-gapped environments to ensure software can run where the mission demands
• Prototype and deploy systems leveraging the core products and design patterns of the Unicorn Delivery Service (UDS); bring back insights from the field for continuous product improvement
• Scope, sequence, and lead delivery of solutions: define living roadmaps, set priorities, trade off speed vs quality vs scope
• Codify reusable patterns for mission environments: build tools, internal frameworks, playbooks so future deployments are faster, safer, and repeatable
• Act as the technical face to customer leadership

What You'll Bring:

• 3+ years of engineering or technical deployment experience (backend or full-stack), ideally in customer-facing or government environments (DoD, intelligence, public sector)
• Strong backend engineering skills: production-grade code in Python or TypeScript
• Deep familiarity with designing services, APIs, data pipelines, integrations, and backend frameworks
• Familiarity with LLMs or generative AI systems, particularly context engineering
• Strong ability to work in ambiguity
• Excellent communication skills
• Mission-oriented mindset

Nice to Have:

• Experience with deploying applications on Kubernetes inside of air-gapped or secure environments
• Information retrieval, RAG, keyword/vector search, document processing
• Experience developing, executing, and maintaining LLM evaluations
• Open source LLM/SLM model experience (Llama3, Mixtral, Gemma, Phi)

Salary Range: $148,750 - $201,250 USD.
Benefits: Medical/dental/vision (company-paid), 401k, stock options, flexible PTO, parental leave, training reimbursement, home office budget.