Staff AI Systems Engineer

Archer is an aerospace and defense company headquartered in San Jose, California, building the aircraft and technology that will define the next era of flight. The company works across air taxis, UAS, AI and powertrain development — building real-world systems that combine software intelligence with physical hardware. That includes Midnight, Archer's all-electric air taxi; Halo, an autonomous vertical takeoff and landing aircraft built for both commercial and defense use; and ZEE, Archer's AI foundation model built specifically for aviation. We’re seeking exceptional engineers, operators and builders to join us on our mission to build the future of aerospace and defense.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

What You’ll Do

As a Staff AI Systems Engineer, you will architect, deploy, and manage the critical infrastructure services required for large-scale AI model training and inference. You will ensure our machine learning platforms are robust and efficient, bridging the gap between raw data and high-performance AI models.

• Infrastructure & Orchestration: Deploy, scale, and manage resilient infrastructure services tailored for distributed AI model training and low-latency inference.
• Maturity & MLOps: Utilize and maintain end-to-end tooling—including MLflow for experiment tracking and model registry—to streamline and optimize the AI development lifecycle.
• Compute & Inference Optimization: Leverage specialized frameworks to maximize hardware utilization, managing multi-cloud compute scheduling alongside advanced LLM serving engines.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with AI researchers and Software Engineers to productionize cutting-edge models, establish monitoring systems, and debug complex performance bottlenecks at the hardware-software interface.
  
  
  

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What You Need

• Education: BS/MS/PhD degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience: 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with a dedicated focus on AI/ML systems, high-performance computing (HPC), or ML infrastructure.
• Multi-Cloud & Compute Management: Familiarity with hyper-scaler infrastructure (AWS) alongside specialized AI-centric bare-metal and GPU clouds (Nebius AI Cloud).
• Cloud-Native Orchestration & Abstraction: Hands-on experience with containerization (Docker) and production-grade orchestration (Kubernetes), paired with cloud-agnostic cluster abstractors like SkyPilot to manage multi-region GPU availability.
• LLM Serving Optimization: Deep architectural understanding of large language models and the system infrastructure required to serve them at scale using frameworks like vLLM and SGLang.
• Data Engineering for AI: Experience building high-throughput data pipelines to support large-scale training, including proficiency in SQL, NoSQL, and columnar storage formats optimized for ML (e.g., Parquet).
  
  

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Bonus Qualifications

• Familiarity with audio processing, speech-to-text frameworks, or Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) pipelines.
• Prior experience or a deep technical interest in aerospace, aviation, or autonomous systems (e.g., safety-critical software, edge-AI deployments).
  
  
  

Please note that this job description is intended to provide a general overview of the position and does not include an exhaustive list of responsibilities and qualifications

At Archer we aim to attract, retain, and motivate talent that possess the skills and leadership necessary to grow our business. We drive a pay-for-performance culture and reward performance that supports the Company’s business strategy. For this position we are targeting a base pay between $190,000 - $237,000. Actual compensation offered will be determined by factors such as job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at people@archer.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at people@archer.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's Candidate Privacy Policy.

Certain positions may be eligible for visa sponsorship.

Archer is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the basis of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to People@archer.com. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.