AI Platform Engineer Sr (API expert)

Job Description

The Lockheed Martin Artificial Intelligence Center (LAIC) is seeking a Platform-focused AI Engineer to drive the development of our internal AI Factory. As an AI Platform Engineer, your primary product is the platform itself. You will be responsible for building the robust back-end services, intuitive front-end interfaces, and seamless API contracts that enable AI/ML practitioners to deploy GenAI and MLOps workloads at scale.

We are looking for a "Force Multiplier"-an engineer who not only builds AI platforms but effectively leverages AI tools and autonomous agents to accelerate their own development lifecycle and improve code quality.

Key Responsibilities
- API-First Development: Design, implement, and maintain high-performance RESTful APIs that serve as the backbone for AI model orchestration and resource management.
- Full-Stack Ownership: Develop end-to-end features, from building responsive React/Next.js front-ends to engineering scalable Python/Go back-end services.
- Platform Design & Governance: Collaborate on the design of AI Platform components, ensuring that internal services are modular, discoverable, and capable of supporting LLM, RAG, and Agentic workflows.
- AI-Augmented Engineering: Proactively integrate AI coding assistants (e.g., Open Code, Cline, Roo, Cursor) and custom LLM agents into your daily workflow to automate boilerplate, generate tests, and conduct initial code reviews.
- Service Integration: Bridge the gap between low-level Kubernetes infrastructure and high-level user interfaces by creating middleware that abstracts complexity for the end user.
- System Architecture: Optimize the data flow between front-end dashboards, back-end metadata stores (PostgreSQL/Redis), and the underlying GPU-accelerated compute clusters.

What's In It For You
From onsite to remote, we offer flexible work schedules to comprehensive benefits investing in your future and security, Learn more about Lockheed Martin's comprehensive benefits package here.
Do you want to be part of a company culture that empowers employees to think big, lead with a growth mindset, and make the impossible a reality? We provide the resources and give you the flexibility to enable inspiration and focus -if you have the passion and courage to dream big, work hard, and have fun doing what you love then we want to build a better tomorrow with you.

#LMLAIC

Basic Qualifications

- Education: Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical discipline.
- Full-Stack Development: Proven experience with both Back-End frameworks (FastAPI, Flask, Gin, or Spring Boot) and Front-End frameworks (React, Angular, or Next.js).
- API Mastery: Advanced knowledge of RESTful API design principles, including versioning, authentication (OAuth2/OIDC), and documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger).
- AI Tooling Proficiency: Demonstrated ability to use AI-assisted development tools and agents to increase engineering velocity and maintain high-quality codebases.
- Cloud-Native Foundation: Hands-on experience deploying and managing containerized services within Kubernetes.

Desired skills

- Architectural Strategic Thinking: A growing ability to apply strategic thinking to complex platform problems, focusing on long-term scalability and Cloud Native software development practices.
- High-Throughput Distributed Systems: Experience building and optimizing large-scale distributed systems and Platform services that support intensive compute workloads.
- Infrastructure-Intensive Execution: Proven results in executing on infrastructure-intensive programs, specifically within Kubernetes and public cloud environments (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure).
- Configuration & Package Management: Expert-level familiarity with Helm or Kustomize to manage complex service deployments.
- Creative and Resourceful Problem-Solving: A passionate, can-do attitude with the resourcefulness to navigate an industry that constantly changes.
- Empathetic DevEx Design: Deep empathy for teammates and users, with a desire to make their workflows frictionless, efficient, and useful.
- Virtual Collaboration: Proven experience collaborating with virtual, cross-functional teams to deliver mission-critical software.
- Advanced MLOps Maturity: Proven experience in operationalizing the ML lifecycle, specifically in building and maintaining automated training and inference pipelines. Knowledge of Model Registry management, lineage tracking, and the integration of MLOps tools like MLflow, Kubeflow, or Flyte into a unified platform.
- Strategic AI/ML Lifecycle Expertise: Understanding of the end-to-end AI/ML lifecycle, with experience optimizing inference services, vector database integration (Pinecone, Milvus, or Weaviate), and RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures.
- Agentic System Design: Familiarity with designing or deploying agentic workflows and orchestration frameworks (such as LangChain, CrewAI, or AutoGen) to solve non-linear engineering or business problems.

EEO

Lockheed Martin is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified candidates will be considered without regard to legally protected characteristics.
The application window will close in 90 days; applicants are encouraged to apply within 5 - 30 days of the requisition posting date in order to receive optimal consideration.

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At Lockheed Martin, we use our passion for purposeful innovation to help keep people safe and solve the world's most complex challenges. Our people are some of the greatest minds in the industry and truly make Lockheed Martin a great place to work.

With our employees as our priority, we provide diverse career opportunities designed to propel, develop, and boost agility. Our flexible schedules, competitive pay, and comprehensive benefits enable our employees to live a healthy, fulfilling life at and outside of work. We place an emphasis on empowering our employees by fostering an inclusive environment built upon integrity and corporate responsibility.

If this sounds like a culture you connect with, you're invited to apply for this role. Or, if you are unsure whether your experience aligns with the requirements of this position, we encourage you to search on Lockheed Martin Jobs, and apply for roles that align with your qualifications.

Other Important Information

By applying to this job, you are expressing interest in this position and could be considered for other career opportunities where similar skills and requirements have been identified as a match. Should this match be identified you may be contacted for this and future openings.

Ability to work remotely

Full-time Remote Telework: The employee selected for this position will work remotely full time at a location other than a Lockheed Martin designated office/job site. Employees may travel to a Lockheed Martin office for periodic meetings.

Work Schedule Information

Lockheed Martin supports a variety of alternate work schedules that provide additional flexibility to our employees. Schedules range from standard 40 hours over a five day work week while others may be condensed. These condensed schedules provide employees with additional time away from the office and are in addition to our Paid Time off benefits.

National Pay Statement

Pay Rate: The annual base salary range for this position in California, Massachusetts, and New York (excluding most major metropolitan areas), Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, Vermont, Washington or Washington DC is $108,800 - $191,820. For states not referenced above, the salary range for this position will reflect the candidate's final work location. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market and business considerations when extending an offer.
Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.
(Washington state applicants only) Non-represented full-time employees: accrue at least 10 hours per month of Paid Time Off (PTO) to be used for incidental absences and other reasons; receive at least 90 hours for holidays. Represented full time employees accrue 6.67 hours of Vacation per month; accrue up to 52 hours of sick leave annually; receive at least 96 hours for holidays. PTO, Vacation, sick leave, and holiday hours are prorated based on start date during the calendar year.
This position is incentive plan eligible.

Premium Pay Statement

Pay Rate: The annual base salary range for this position in most major metropolitan areas in California, Massachusetts, and New York is $125,100 - $216,890. For states not referenced above, the salary range for this position will reflect the candidate's final work location. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. Lockheed Martin considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/ training, key skills as well as market and business considerations when extending an offer.
Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays.
This position is incentive plan eligible.