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Machine Learning Engineer

Sterling, Virginia

Title:  Machine Learning Engineer
Company: Heven AeroTech
Location: Sterling, Virginia  
FLSA: Exempt

About Our Company:
At Heven AeroTech (Heven), we don’t just believe in the power of people—we build our success on it. As a recognized leader in hydrogen powered drones, we’ve earned recognition for creating a workplace where innovation thrives, collaboration is second nature, and every employee feels valued. Our culture is anchored in trust, and a shared commitment to excellence. We know that great organizations are built by extraordinary teams. That’s why we invest in your professional growth, offering robust training programs, leadership development opportunities, and a clear pathway for advancement. At Heven, your voice matters, your ideas are heard, and your contributions make a tangible impact.

Role Summary: 
The Machine Learning Engineer will architect and deploy production AI/ML systems that power autonomous aerospace operations from edge to cloud. This role involves building and maintaining the complete ML lifecycle—spanning from data pipelines to deployed models—with a focus on computer vision for autonomous navigation, LLMs for mission planning, and agentic AI for enterprise optimization. The position requires taking full ownership of system reliability, performance, and the operational excellence necessary to enable next-generation autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). 

Essential Responsibilities:  

  • Build data processing and training pipelines using Google Cloud
  • Develop computer vision models for obstacle detection, target recognition, and sensor fusion
  • Implement automated retraining workflows and experiment tracking systems
  • Create CI/CD pipelines for model deployment
  • Optimize models for edge devices through quantization, pruning, and compression
  • Deploy inference pipelines on UAS hardware with power and memory constraints
  • Implement visual-inertial odometry for GPS-denied navigation
  • Develop over-the-air updates and offline-capable systems with network fallback
  • Integrate sensor fusion algorithms (camera, LiDAR, radar, IMU)
  • Monitor model performance, latency, and availability against SLAs
  • Build drift detection, A/B testing, and alerting systems
  • Troubleshoot production issues and maintain audit trails
  • Deploy and fine-tune LLMs for mission planning
  • Build RAG systems and agentic AI workflows for enterprise operations 

Qualifications & Experience: 
Required:

  •  Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or related technical field
  • 5+ years building production ML systems; 3+ years with Google Cloud Platform 
  • Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer Certification (current or obtainable within 1 month)
  • Expert Python; production experience with TensorFlow or PyTorch
  • Computer vision systems: object detection, segmentation, tracking
  • Edge deployment with TensorFlow Lite, TensorRT, or ONNX; model optimization experience
  • MLOps: CI/CD, monitoring, experiment tracking
  • Experience deploying LLMs and RAG systems
  • U.S. Person status; ability to obtain DoD Secret clearance within 6 months 

Strongly Preferred: 

  • Edge hardware deployment (NVIDIA Jetson, Google Coral TPU)
  • Embedded Linux and ROS experience
  • Defense/aerospace industry background
  • Additional Google Cloud certifications
  • Domain expertise: GPS-denied navigation, sensor fusion, UAV/drone systems, or adversarial ML 

Physical Requirements: 

  • The ability to maintain a stable, upright seated or standing position for extended periods (typically 6–10 hours per day) without significant physical fatigue.
  • High-frequency use of fingers and wrists for data entry, complex coding, and navigating digital interfaces using keyboards and mice.
  • The capacity for "near-point" visual tasking, involving the ability to focus on high-resolution displays for long durations and process dense information without excessive eye strain. 

Benefits Overview: 
Heven AeroTech offers a competitive benefits package designed to support the health, financial security, and overall well-being of our employees and their families. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision coverage, retirement plans, paid time off/sick, and additional protections such as critical illness, hospital indemnity, accident coverage, and short- and long-term disability.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement: 
Heven AeroTech is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.

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