Principal AI​/ML Engineer; Language Model; TS​/SCI; S} Security Clearance

Position: Principal AI/ML Engineer (Large Language Model) (TS/SCI) {S} with Security Clearance
Location: Aurora

ARKA Group L.P. ("ARKA") is an advanced technologies company serving the U.S. military, intelligence community, and commercial space industry delivering next-generation solutions to support the national security space enterprise. Built on more than six decades of excellence, ARKA brings modern approaches and a culture of innovation to the challenges of today. Join the ARKA team to learn how Beyond Begins Here.

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Position Overview:

The Principal AI/ML Engineer will support the development of AI/ML algorithms in a multitude of disciplines from object detection/classification, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and large language models. We offer generous relocation benefits for eligible candidates. In support of work/life balance, many positions are available for a flexible schedule within the pay period. Ask us about the opportunity for flex scheduling if that's of interest to you.

Responsibilities:
Lead and mentor a multidisciplined team consisting of developers and researchers to implement machine learning algorithms to solve a broad set of challenges for our various customers
* Apply Large Language Models (LLMs) to a variety of applications within remote sensing such as tasking collections, identifying gaps in collection plans, analyzing patterns of life, and more.

* Fine tune foundation models and building adaptors for new applications (llama factory, PEFT)

* Apply retrieval augmented generation (RAG) techniques to data to populate and query vector databases (e.g. Weaviate)

* Build custom applications with LLM frameworks such as Lang Chain, DSPy

* Deploy LLM solutions across cloud-based and local resources using kubernetes (llama.ccp, vllm etc)

* Analyze large multi-domain datasets such as images, text and/or graph data, to identify statistically relevant features to build models that provide analysts with actionable data

* Review relevant publications to understand and apply cutting edge concepts to defense and commercial applications

* Interface with both internal and external leadership to communicate technical status

Required Qualifications:

* BS in machine learning, computer science, mathematics, or related fields.

* 10+ years of experience, preferably in software development or as a data scientist with 2+ years of building LLM applications using some of the following:

* Fine-tuning foundational models

* Steering Techniques (e.g Sparse auto encoders, representation tuning)

* Building adapters to use foundational models (e.g. PEFT, llama factory)

* Prompt engineering techniques / Inference time techniques (e.g. chain of thought, tree of thoughts, etc.)

* Using Retrieval Augmented Generation techniques to populate and query vector databases (e.g. Weaviate, pinecone)

* Using LLM Frameworks (e.g. Lang Chain, DSPy)

* Using AI APIs ( e.g AWS Bedrock, OpenAI)

* Using LLM deployment frameworks (eg llama.cpp, vllm, tgi)

* Developing UIs with Re Act

* Experience leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers and software developers and working with a program manager to define project scope and schedule to ensure we meet project milestones as defined by our customers

* Experience with Python and data science / machine learning libraries (e.g. PyTorch, Tensor Flow, Keras, OpenCV, Num Py, Pandas, Polars, scikit-learn, etc.)

* Active TS/SCI U.S. Government Security Clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

* MS or PhD in machine learning, computer science, mathematics, or related fields.

* Experience leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers and software developers

* Experience with any of the following Computer Vision domains:

* Large Language Models and experience identifying ways to incorporate them into new areas and applications

* Applying Transformer-based architectures to domains in other areas outside of Natural Language Processing (NLP) such as computer vision

* Object detection algorithms such as YOLO and Faster-RCNN

* Natural Language Processing algorithms such as BERT

* Generative Adversarial Networks and Variational Autoencoders

* Reinforcement learning and familiarity with Gymnasium Gym, RLlib, and Stable Baselines

* Applying clustering algorithms and/or deep neural networks to real life problems

* Implementing tracking and pattern-of-life algorithms

* Experience with Machine Learning libraries and frameworks such as Hugging Face and Lang Chain

* Experience with Computer Vision libraries such as OpenCV, Nerfstudio, Fifty One, etc.

* Experience with Linux

* Familiarity with using AWS cloud computing resources such as EC2, S3, Lambda, etc.

* Experience with any of the following additional languages:
Java, C++, Rust, Go, and/or C#

* Experience implementing algorithms on the GPU in Python or C++ using CUDA and other CUDA libraries

* Experience with implementing tracking and pattern-of-life algorithms

* Experience in application deployment, virtualization, and containerization (e.g. Podman, Docker, Kubernetes, Rancher)

* Experience working with various Remote Sensing datasets (e.g.…