Staff Platform Engineer, AI

True Anomaly•Long Beach, CA

16h•Hybrid

About The Position

A new space race has begun. True Anomaly seeks those with the talent and ambition to build innovative technology that solves the next generation of engineering, manufacturing, and operational challenges for space security and sustainability. OUR MISSION The peaceful use of space is essential for continued prosperity on Earth—from communications and finance to navigation and logistics. True Anomaly builds innovative technology at the intersection of spacecraft, software, and AI to enhance the capabilities of the U.S., its allies, and commercial partners. We safeguard global security by ensuring space access and sustainability for all. OUR VALUES Be the offset. We create asymmetric advantages with creativity and ingenuity What would it take? We challenge assumptions to deliver ambitious results It’s the people. Our team is our competitive advantage and we are better together YOUR MISSION AI-assisted work is the biggest force multiplier available to a company at True Anomaly's stage. It accelerates how we build, how we deliver, and how we scale. We are investing in AI as a core operating capability, not a side experiment, and this role exists to make that investment real. As a Staff AI Platform Engineer, you will be one of the first hires to build the infrastructure, tooling, and integrations that put AI directly into the hands and workflows of every team across the company. This is not a research role. It is a building role. You will ship capabilities that engineers, program managers, operators, and business teams use every day to move faster and produce better work. The scope is broad by design. You may be standing up on-premises GPU infrastructure one week, building connectors between AI models and internal systems the next, and developing a custom application for a specific business workflow after that. You will make platform-level technical decisions about which AI providers, tools, and architectures to adopt. You will also own AI training and enablement for the company, running office hours, brown bags, and building the resources that help people get real value from these tools. This role reports to the Chief Security Officer and works across every function. You will have significant autonomy, direct access to executive leadership, and the opportunity to define how a fast-growing defense technology company operates with AI.

Requirements

Strong software engineering background with experience building and shipping production systems, ideally in Python, TypeScript, or similar languages common in AI/ML tooling
Hands-on experience with large language model APIs, including prompt engineering, tool use, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agent frameworks
Experience building integrations between AI systems and enterprise platforms (APIs, webhooks, data pipelines, authentication flows)
Demonstrated ability to work across a broad technical surface area, context-switching between infrastructure, application development, and platform architecture
Strong communication skills and ability to translate technical AI concepts for non-technical audiences through training, documentation, and direct support
Self-directed and comfortable operating with high autonomy in a fast-paced environment where priorities shift and the playbook is being written in real time
Ability to maintain or obtain TS//SCI clearance

Nice To Haves

Experience deploying AI or ML systems in government, defense, or regulated environments with security and compliance constraints
Familiarity with government cloud environments (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) and authorization frameworks (FedRAMP, IL4/IL5)
Experience with on-premises GPU infrastructure (NVIDIA, CUDA) for model hosting or fine-tuning
Background in developer tooling, platform engineering, or internal tools teams at high-growth technology companies
Experience building knowledge retrieval systems, embedding pipelines, or enterprise search infrastructure
Currently hold or have previously held a U.S. security clearance at any level

Responsibilities

Build and maintain AI platform infrastructure: API integrations, model access pipelines, system connectors (MCP, tool use), and on-premises compute environments as needed
Develop custom AI-powered applications, workflows, and integrations that connect frontier models to internal systems such as project management, documentation, communications, and operational tools
Own technical evaluation and selection of AI providers, tools, and platforms, making build-vs-buy decisions based on capability, compliance requirements, and speed to value
Design and deliver AI training and enablement programs for the company, including hands-on workshops, office hours, documentation, and shared resources that help teams build real fluency
Partner with engineering, security, and IT teams to ensure AI deployments meet government security and compliance requirements across data classification levels
Stay current with the rapidly evolving AI landscape and bring informed recommendations on new models, tools, and capabilities that could accelerate the company