Lead Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Colorado, +5 more states.

📋 Description

• Lead architectural decisions for the [R]AIMS platform, assessing trade-offs related to performance, scalability, security, and maintainability.

• Oversee significant technical epics from idea generation to implementation.

• Streamline and clarify the distributed system architecture as the platform expands.

• Enhance platform performance for both edge and cloud deployment targets.

• Develop reusable engineering patterns that boost developer productivity and improve code quality.

• Guide engineers, perform design evaluations, and offer substantial feedback on code.

• Collaborate with AI/ML engineers on model integration, inference optimization, and the operational deployment of agentic workflows.

• Interact directly with Department of Defense clients and program stakeholders.

• Advance the architecture, execution, and engineering standards of Raft’s [R]AIMS AI Mission System.

• Provide clear, documented architecture; timely and high-quality platform initiatives; enhanced engineering performance; and reduced platform complexity.

⛳️ Requirements

• Over 6 years of practical experience in developing and delivering production software systems across the entire stack (frontend, backend, infrastructure, and ML).

• Strong foundation in software engineering with the capacity to design, build, and enhance complex systems that operate reliably at scale.

• Outstanding technical communication abilities and the capability to lead by influence among engineering, product, and leadership stakeholders.

• Proven track record in designing and evolving distributed systems, including service decomposition, inter-service communication patterns, fault tolerance, and observability.

• Significant hands-on experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native platform architecture in production settings.

• Experience in creating data-intensive or AI-enabled production systems with actual operational users and real performance constraints.

• Demonstrated technical leadership over large, cross-functional engineering projects with clear ownership and accountability for results.

• Strong capability in system design and architectural decision-making.

• Some background or exposure to training, fine-tuning, or deploying machine learning models in production settings.

• Ability to obtain Security+ certification within the first 90 days of employment.

• U.S. citizenship is mandatory.

• Must be eligible for and willing to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/SCI clearance; no clearance is required to start.

• Highly preferred: experience with AI/ML infrastructure or agentic systems; streaming and event-driven architectures; platform engineering and internal developer tools; real-time inference or operational AI systems; secure and compliant systems; experience in defense, national security, or classified programs; active clearance.

🏝️ Benefits

• Comprehensive healthcare, dental, and vision coverage fully paid.

• 401(k) plan with company matching.

• Flexible PTO policy with 11 paid holidays.

• Education and training benefits offered.

• Generous referral bonuses available.

• Potential for up to 25% travel.