Staff Applied ML Engineer, Federal/National Security
About this role
Red Cell Partners is building technology-led companies and developing tools to address national security challenges through its Red Cell Federal practice. This team focuses on operationalizing artificial intelligence for real missions by designing platforms that support interchangeable models, smaller edge-focused solutions, and deployment across cloud, on-premise, and edge environments.
As a Staff Applied ML Engineer, the selected individual will build production AI applications, develop evaluation and fine-tuning pipelines, and create retrieval systems for structured and unstructured data. Responsibilities include optimizing inference, establishing guardrails for reliability, and turning custom deployments into reusable platform capabilities alongside forward-deployed engineers.
Candidates who thrive in this position possess extensive production machine learning experience, deep expertise in large language models, and the ability to navigate ambiguous technical problems independently. Applicants must hold an active Secret or Top-Secret security clearance and U.S. citizenship due to the nature of the federal and national-security customer base.
What you will do
- Build production-ready applications powered by large language models, artificial intelligence agents, and agentic workflows.
- Develop and own pipelines for model evaluation, fine-tuning, adaptation, and experimentation.
- Determine the appropriate use of prompting, retrieval-augmented generation, fine-tuning, or specialized models for specific operational needs.
- Construct rigorous evaluation systems to measure model and agent quality, reliability, tool use, and task completion.
- Implement retrieval and context systems that handle both structured and unstructured mission data.
- Optimize models and inference processes specifically for production environments.
- Deploy models and refine them continuously based on real-world performance metrics and direct user feedback.
- Collaborate with forward-deployed engineers and customers to translate mission requirements into functional artificial intelligence capabilities.
What you need
- Significant prior experience building machine learning or artificial intelligence systems and deploying them into production environments.
- Hands-on practical experience working with modern large language models and foundation models.
- Deep expertise across several areas such as fine-tuning, evaluation, retrieval-augmented generation, agentic systems, model serving, and embeddings.
- Ability to transition smoothly between machine learning experimentation and production software engineering tasks.
- Capacity to operate independently when facing ambiguous technical problems.
- Strong interest in working closely with end users to evaluate how artificial intelligence performs within actual operational workflows.
- U.S. citizenship and an active Secret or Top-Secret security clearance.
Benefits
- 100% employer paid comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for employees and their families
- Paid maternity and paternity leave for 14 weeks at normal pay
- Unlimited paid time off with management approval
- Opportunities for professional development and continued learning
- Optional 401K, flexible spending account, and equity incentives
- Mental health benefits and cost-effective GLP-1 solutions
Skills and tech stack
Questions candidates ask
What is the remote work policy for this role?
The position is remote within the USA, though the Washington D.C. area is preferred. It may require regular customer-facing work, including onsite meetings, secure-facility work, or travel depending on program needs.
What is the salary range for the position?
The typical salary range is $180,000 to $240,000, plus bonus and equity, based on experience, skills, and other factors.
What clearance is required to apply?
Because this role supports federal and national-security customers, U.S. citizenship is required along with an active Secret or Top-Secret Security Clearance.
Who should I contact regarding my application status?
If you have questions about the status of your application or the evaluation process, please contact talent at redcellpartners.com.
The application is on the official Red Cell Partners careers page.
Apply on company site