Senior Applied AI​/ML Engineer; TS​/SCI

Vantor is forging the new frontier of spatial intelligence, helping decision makers and operators navigate what’s happening now and shape what’s coming next. Vantor is a place for problem solvers, changemakers, and go-getters—where people are working together to help our customers see the world differently, and in doing so, be seen differently. Come be part of a mission, not just a job, where you can:
Shape your own future, build the next big thing, and change the world.

To be eligible for this position, you must be a U.S. Citizen. This position requires an active U.S. Government security clearance, applicants who do not currently hold the required clearance will not be eligible for consideration. Employment for cleared roles is contingent upon verification of clearance status. Export Control/ITAR:
Certain roles may be subject to U.S. export control laws, requiring U.S. person status as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

Vantor is seeking a Senior Applied AI/ML Engineer to work in an agile and fast-paced customer environment supporting users whose mission is to solve unique and challenging problems for Special Operations. The selected candidate will be part of a small, multi-disciplinary team responsible for building end‑to‑end data and machine learning capabilities. This includes developing scalable data pipelines, applying advanced analytics and machine learning, deploying models and services into production, and delivering analyst‑facing applications and tools.

The ideal candidate combines strong data engineering fundamentals with applied data science and software development experience. This role requires someone who can work across the full lifecycle of a solution—from ingesting and transforming large datasets to developing models, exposing capabilities through APIs, and delivering reliable tools directly to mission users.

• Must have a current/active TS/SCI and a CI polygraph.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Information Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 8 years of related experience in data engineering, data science, machine learning engineering, software engineering, or a combination thereof.
• Strong programming experience with Python, PySpark, and SQL.
• Experience designing, developing, and optimizing production data pipelines that process large-scale or complex datasets.
• Experience developing and deploying analytics, machine learning, or data‑intensive applications and services.
• Experience with data modeling, ETL/ELT, data quality, transformation logic, and analytical or search‑oriented data stores.
• Ability to translate ambiguous mission or customer problems into practical data, analytics, and software solutions.
• Must be a highly motivated, self‑driven team player who can collaborate effectively with customers, analysts, software engineers, and technical leadership.
• Must be willing to work at a customer site in Northern VA.

• Experience with distributed data engineering using Apache Spark/PySpark, HDFS, Delta Lake, Elasticsearch, or similar technologies across large-scale datasets.
• Experience deploying and operating machine learning models and inference services at scale across GPU/CPU clusters or containerized environments.
• Experience applying advanced analytics, including geospatial analysis, H3 indexing, graph analytics, computer vision, OCR, natural language processing, or large language models.
• Experience developing analyst‑facing data and machine learning applications using FastAPI, Django, React, Type Script, or similar technologies.
• Experience with cloud, Dev Ops, and orchestration tools such as AWS, Azure, Open Stack, Docker, Nomad, Kubernetes, Git Lab, CI/CD, or Ansible.
• Experience building…