Sr AI/ML Engineer at Sierra Nevada Company, LLC
Lone Tree, CO
$143,487–$197,295from the description
Jul 6, 2026
Lone Tree, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior individual contributor and technical lead role focused on designing, building, and deploying AI/ML systems for aerospace and defense applications. Day-to-day work spans prototyping retrieval-augmented generation architectures, developing model predictive control pipelines, and training advanced models such as transformers and reinforcement learning agents. The role also involves mentoring engineers and ensuring AI/ML systems meet safety, regulatory, and cybersecurity standards.
Senior level · 10+ years · National · Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $122,874 (middle half $87,544–$162,374). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
No work location is specified in the posting; SNC is headquartered in Sparks, NV, but the role is described as hybrid with travel to customer sites — metro and state have been left blank.
The degree requirement is effectively None: the JD explicitly accepts 12 years of experience in lieu of a degree, and a higher-level degree may substitute for experience, making no formal degree a hard gate.
TensorFlow and PyTorch are listed together as a single requirement ('machine learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch)') — both are captured as must-have with each as the other's alternative, since the JD treats them as a paired expectation rather than a strict either/or.
Python, C++, C#, and Java are listed as a group ('such as Python, C++, C# or Java'); Python is named first and is the dominant ML language in context, with the others as alternatives.
Explainable AI (XAI) is listed under required qualifications ('Familiarity with explainable AI (XAI) techniques for safety-critical environments') despite the softer 'familiarity with' phrasing — it sits in the hard-requirements block and is treated accordingly.
CUDA and TensorRT appear in both the preferred qualifications and the 'Working knowledge' bullet under preferred — kept as preferred.
The SOC is Medium confidence: the role spans advanced ML modeling (15-2051) and substantial software engineering/systems deployment (15-1252); the primary day-to-day emphasis on model architecture, training, and optimization tips toward Data Scientists, but the production deployment and systems-engineering scope makes Software Developers a credible runner-up.
Requires a Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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