The world’s most consequential systems need the world’s best builders.
A new era is taking shape. AI is no longer confined to models or interfaces. It is becoming the foundation of how decisions are made across governments, industries, and real-world environments. What matters now is not just access to capability, but how it is applied, controlled, and sustained over time.
Torch.AI builds a government-owned reasoning infrastructure which creates a Reasoning Layer to enable machine reasoning at scale, in environments where it is hardest to achieve and least tolerant of failure. This is not incremental software. It is long-term infrastructure designed to endure, integrate, and evolve alongside the systems it supports.
Not another dashboard. Not another workflow app. Not another black-box model glued to a PowerPoint.
The Reasoning Layer is a modular architecture where data is connected, governed, transformed, represented, fused, reasoned over, and delivered into mission applications and operational workflows. It does not replace systems of record. It enables them to function better together.
The Reasoning Layer is comprised of: ORCUS (ingestion, orchestration, governance), NEXUS (semantic representation, vectorization), HALO (graph-based fusion and reasoning) and various product and capability components deployed for specific customer use cases.
We are seeking candidates who approach problems creatively, are comfortable operating without full clarity, and take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation.
If you’re driven to strengthen U.S. defense readiness and protect national interests, Torch.AI offers meaningful impact at national scale.
Responsibilities
This role focuses on building production-grade software systems that ingest, process, and enrich large volumes of real-world data to support mission-critical decision making. You will develop scalable data pipelines and backend services that transform diverse, multi-source information into structured, actionable insights.
The work emphasizes reliability, adaptability, and operational security. Systems are designed to run continuously, handle evolving data sources, and operate within controlled environments that require careful handling of access patterns, attribution, and compliance constraints.
What You’ll Do
• Design, build, and maintain backend services and pipelines that acquire and process data from diverse data sources.
• Develop automated data access workflows using APIs, web interfaces, and distributed systems while adhering to controlled access and usage constraints.
• Implement data transformation, enrichment, and normalization processes to support downstream analytics and mission applications.
• Build systems that monitor and respond to real-world events by collecting, correlating, and updating relevant data streams.
• Develop data fusion capabilities that combine multiple sources to improve data completeness, context, and usability.
• Apply operational security practices to data acquisition and processing workflows, including controlled access patterns, traffic shaping, and protection of system and infrastructure.
• Implement safeguards that reduce attribution risk and ensure responsible interaction with external data sources.
• Collaborate with platform, data, and security teams to ensure systems meet compliance, auditability, and mission requirements.
• Optimize performance, scalability, and resilience of data acquisition and processing systems.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, containerized deployments, and automated testing workflows.
• Troubleshoot production issues and perform root-cause analysis across distributed systems.
• Document system behavior, data flows, and integration patterns to support maintainability and operational use.
• Participate in code reviews and contribute to engineering standards and best practices.
Core Skills & Qualifications
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 3–6 years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong proficiency in Python (preferred) or similar backend programming languages.
• Experience building production systems for data ingestion, integration, or processing.
• Experience working with APIs, automated data access techniques, and distributed systems.
• Strong understanding of data pipeline patterns, including ETL/ELT workflows.
• Experience working with structured and semi-structured data formats (JSON, CSV, Parquet).
• Familiarity with SQL and NoSQL databases and query optimization.
• Experience designing systems that operate reliably under variable data availability and latency conditions.
• Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS preferred) and containerization (Docker).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and modern software development practices.
• Understanding of secure software development practices and controlled data access patterns.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to operate in fast-paced, mission-driven environments.
Additional Valuable Experience
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools (Airflow, NiFi) or similar systems.
• Experience with streaming or event-driven architectures (Kafka or equivalent).
• Familiarity with large-scale data ingestion, indexing, or search systems.
• Experience working with geospatial, temporal, or multi-source datasets.
• Exposure to data enrichment, entity resolution, or relationship mapping techniques.
• Experience implementing controlled or privacy-aware data acquisition techniques.
• Familiarity with infrastructure patterns that support identity protection, request management, or traffic routing in distributed systems.
• Experience supporting defense, intelligence, or other regulated environments.
• Familiarity with distributed systems and microservices architectures.
• Exposure to observability tooling (logging, monitoring, metrics).
Compensation, Benefits, Incentives
We offer competitive, performance-aligned compensation tied to technical depth, clearance level, and mission impact.
Total Rewards Include:
• Competitive base salary
• Quarterly performance bonuses
• Equity participation within the first 12 months
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid company holidays
• Professional development in a high-growth, mission-driven environment
• Weekly in-office catering at HQ
Benefits:
• 401(k) plan (no current employer match, but under consideration)
• PPO, HSA, and TRICARE Supplement medical options
• Above-market HSA contributions
• HSA, FSA, and Dependent Care FSA options
• Dental and vision plans above national averages
• Employer-paid life insurance (1× salary)
• Employer-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity coverage
• Up to $300/month in tax-advantaged commuter benefits
Torch.AI is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer committed to building a team that reflects the mission we serve.
What Makes Torch.AI Different
Torch.AI was founded on a simple operational insight: better use of data leads to better decisions. As data volumes increased across commercial, enterprise, and national security environments, the limiting factor was not collection, storage, or user interface design. The missing layer was machine understanding. And an infrastructure that could operate and reason between layers, preserve context, reconcile meaning, and make data useful for decisions in real time.
We believe the government must own its data and decision environment. In mission and operational environments, the layer where data becomes context, context informs models, models support decisions, and decisions shape action cannot be controlled entirely by private technology vendors.
Ownership does not mean the government must build every component itself. It means the government maintains stewardship and authority over the mission and operational layer. Commercial software, models, and services can contribute to the environment, but they should not capture the mission.
We are craftsmen.
We build with intention.
We ship with discipline.
You’ll collaborate with engineers, data experts, veterans, and mission practitioners. You’ll own meaningful work, move quickly, and see your systems deployed in production, often within weeks.
We are fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven. Every day is a new puzzle.
The Type of Candidates Who Thrive
People who do well here tend to approach problems similarly.
• They are comfortable operating without full clarity.
• They pay attention to what actually happens, not just what was intended.
• They are willing to be wrong, adjust quickly, and improve based on real feedback.
• They take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation.
This is not a good fit for someone who needs tightly defined problems or prefers distance from how their work is used.
Security Clearance
Some roles require an active Secret, Top Secret, or Top Secret/SCI clearance. Where required, candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain the appropriate clearance level.
U.S. citizenship is required for all positions. Torch.AI does not sponsor employment visas.
If you do not currently hold a clearance but are eligible, sponsorship may be available depending on role and mission requirements.
Work Location
Most roles are based at our headquarters in Leawood, KS. Some hybrid/remote positions across the Arlington, VA, Washington, DC, and Maryland (DMV) region are available. Limited travel (<10%) may be required for some roles.