Senior ML Engineer (LLMs) / Frontier Tech / Seattle, WA / $350k+

Open Talent
Seattle; Washington, US
On-site

Job Description

Senior ML/AI Engineer / Frontier Tech / Seattle, WA / $350k

IMPORTANT: Due to the nature of the company’s work, only U.S. citizens can be considered for this position.

We’re hiring for a frontier aerospace company in Seattle that’s redefining how AI powers real-world missions. Backed by top-tier investors, they build mission-critical GenAI systems used in environments where accuracy, reliability & latency literally matter.

This isn’t a big corporate lab. It’s a tight, elite engineering team where you’ll have ownership, equity & autonomy to build from the ground up - and see your work directly influence live aerospace operations.

They’re seeking a Senior or Lead AI Engineer to take full ownership of a retrieval and evaluation pipeline already powering production systems. You’ll fine-tune, optimise, and scale LLM-driven intelligence that sits at the core of aerospace decision-making.

What You’ll Do

  • Own and evolve a production-grade GenAI retrieval & evaluation pipeline — hybrid vector + keyword retrieval (FAISS/BM25) tuned for precision, recall, and sub-100ms latency
  • Optimise RAG performance across the stack — prompt routing, context compression, reranking, and answer grounding under strict reliability thresholds
  • Design & implement scalable architectures for inference, caching, and continuous evaluation – your decisions will directly shape live aerospace intelligence systems
  • Debug & deploy in high-stakes production – profiling token usage, batching inference, automating evals with LangSmith or custom metrics suites
  • Collaborate directly with technical founders & aerospace engineers to align LLM performance with real-world mission data

You’re a Fit If You Have

  • Proven experience deploying LLM or RAG-based systems into production
  • Strong grasp of retrieval, ranking, and evaluation under real constraints
  • Hands-on with Python, PyTorch, LangChain, Hugging Face, vector DBs
  • You’ve shipped systems that work in production, not research demos
  • Background in high-performance or regulated environments (defence, aerospace, fintech, etc.)
  • Ownership mindset - fast, curious & comfortable building 0→1 systems

Tech Stack

Python, PyTorch, FastAPI, Hugging Face, Postgres, Redis, Docker, Kubernetes, Vector Databases

Offer

  • Up to $350,000+ base plus meaningful equity (already doing exceptionally)
  • Medical & dental (full coverage)
  • Backed by top-tier investors with serious long-term conviction
  • Onsite in downtown Seattle - relo offered
  • Join a small, elite team tackling problems few can even attempt
  • 0 bureaucracy, 0 noise - just hard problems, fast decisions, real impact

Interview Process

  • Technical Deep Dive
  • Assessment or Live Pair
  • Team Fit & Mindset Panel

Fast: 2 weeks total

TL;DR

  • Join a frontier tech company with real customers and real systems in production
  • Work onsite in Seattle, directly with senior engineers & technical founders
  • Own performance-critical ML pipelines where speed and precision matter
  • This is real product work, not research or prototypes
  • Up to $350K+ base salary with meaningful equity
  • U.S. Citizenship required due to the nature of the work

Must be onsite in Seattle. Relocation support available for exceptional candidates.

Our client is an Equal Opportunity employer.

If you're a Senior ML engineer ready to build systems that matter, apply now.

Our new NYC roles here 1st:

linkedin.com/in/sufyanbashir

Skills & Requirements

Technical Skills

PythonPytorchFastapiHugging facePostgresRedisDockerKubernetesVector databasesLeadershipOwnership mindsetAerospaceDefenseFintech

Salary

$350,000+

year

Employment Type

FULL TIME

Level

senior

Posted

4/22/2026

Apply Now

You will be redirected to Open Talent's application portal.