Senior AI Systems Engineer

Overview

Systems Planning and Analysis, Inc. (SPA) delivers high‑impact, technical solutions to complex national security issues. With over 50 years of business expertise and consistent growth, we are known for continuous innovation for our government customers, in both the US and abroad. Our exceptionally talented team is highly collaborative in spirit and practice, producing results that matter. Come work with the best!

We offer opportunity, unique challenges, and a clear‑sighted commitment to the mission. SPA:
Objective. Responsive. Trusted.

The Space and Intelligence Division provides professional services to the US Space Force, Combatant Commands, Intelligence Community, and NASA. Our work includes enterprise architectural assessments, systems engineering and integration, test, planning and execution, cost estimating and analysis, acquisition support, and cybersecurity. We are trusted partners developing approaches and concepts to meet emerging high‑priority needs, assessing cutting‑edge technologies, and supporting capabilities for our National Defense.

The Space Systems Group (SSG), part of SPA’s Space and Intelligence Division, provides timely and objective assessments and recommendations integrating technical, operational, programmatic, policy and business analysis. We focus on our key clients in the Space community, including the US Space Force’s Space Systems Command (USSF/SSC), one of the three designated Field Commands under USSF. We work tirelessly to provide integrated solutions based on information and communications throughout the chain of command.

We provide clear and consistent analysis and recommendations aligned to strategic and leadership goals while balancing the ability to execute on time and on budget within the technical communities.

SPA has an immediate need for a Senior AI Systems Engineer
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Senior AI Systems Engineer to design, build, and operationalize AI capabilities across secure, mission‑critical systems and platforms. This role is execution‑heavy and hands‑on, focused on transforming frontier AI capabilities into reliable, auditable, production‑grade solutions that scale across teams and environments. Please note this is not an AI research role. You will not be training foundation models or pushing theoretical boundaries. Instead, you will act as a senior engineer who understands how to apply modern AI technologies responsibly and effectively by building agents, services, and platform capabilities that measurably improve system performance, operational awareness, automation, and developer productivity.

You will work under the direction of senior engineering leadership (Chief Engineer, Chief Architect, Integration Lead) and collaborate closely with platform engineers, software teams, security stakeholders, and operators. Success will be measured by working software in production, adoption by teams, and the establishment of repeatable, secure AI patterns.

• Applied AI Systems Engineering
  • Design and implement production AI‑enabled services using modern foundation models via secure APIs.
  • Build AI agents and agent‑orchestrated workflows that support decision‑making, automation, and system intelligence.
  • Develop reference implementations (code, patterns, architectures) that other teams can adopt and extend.
  • Integrate AI with structured and unstructured data sources, including knowledge graphs, embeddings, retrieval pipelines, and system telemetry.
  • Implement human‑in‑the‑loop mechanisms for oversight, escalation, and trust in high‑consequence workflows.
• Platform AI Enablement
  • Expand AI usage beyond chat interfaces into platform capabilities, such as:
    • Log and telemetry analysis
    • Operational anomaly detection
    • Self‑healing and automated remediation
    • Runbook generation and improvement
    • Documentation synthesis and maintenance
  • Enable downstream development teams to safely consume AI capabilities within their own applications through shared services, APIs, and patterns.
  • Establish reusable approaches for AI integration across environments, rather than one‑off implementations.
• Security, Responsibility, and Reliability
  • Design AI solutions that operate in secure and controlled…