Software Developer Specialist

Benefits:

• Competitive salary

Location

Hybrid in Austin, TX

Experience Level

Senior (8+ years relevant experience)

Role Overview

The Software Developer Specialist will support the development and productionization of advanced AI-driven applications for transportation engineering workflows. This role focuses on transforming proof-of-concept machine learning models into scalable, secure, and user-friendly web applications. The position operates within a cloud-first environment and emphasizes MLOps, automation, and integration of AI solutions into enterprise systems.

Key Responsibilities

AI/ML Application Development

• Convert prototype AI/ML models into production-ready web applications
• Develop solutions supporting engineering workflows such as plan review automation, asset detection, and digital delivery
• Implement NLP, computer vision, and recommendation system capabilities into real-world applications
• Optimize and maintain deployed machine learning models for performance and scalability

Data Engineering & Model Operations

• Build and manage data pipelines, feature engineering workflows, and feature stores
• Support distributed model training and large-scale data processing
• Implement model optimization techniques such as quantization, pruning, and distillation
• Develop time series models for forecasting, anomaly detection, and monitoring systems

DevOps & CI/CD Automation

• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines for application and model deployment
• Utilize containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes) for scalable deployments
• Automate infrastructure and workflows using tools such as Ansible and scripting (Bash/PowerShell)
• Manage model lifecycle and experiment tracking using MLOps platforms

Cloud Platform Delivery

• Deploy and manage AI/ML workloads across cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI)
• Leverage cloud-native AI services (e.g., SageMaker, Vertex AI, Azure AI)
• Ensure high availability, scalability, and security of deployed solutions

Collaboration & Stakeholder Alignment

• Partner with engineering, data, and business teams to define requirements and deliver solutions
• Translate technical AI/ML capabilities into practical applications for end users
• Support compliance with regulatory and security requirements in a public sector environment

Required Qualifications

Technical Skills

• 8+ years of experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI) for ML workloads
• 8+ years of DevOps experience, including CI/CD pipelines, Docker, Kubernetes, and automation tools
• 8+ years working with databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, NoSQL, and vector databases)
• Advanced scripting experience with Bash and PowerShell
• Strong experience with CI/CD tools (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar)
• 3+ years of production-level Python development (primary language)

AI/ML Expertise

• Hands-on experience with NLP/LLMs (BERT, GPT, T5, transformers, RAG systems, prompt engineering, fine-tuning)
• Experience building and deploying production ML models used by real users
• Background in computer vision (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenCV, object detection, segmentation)
• Experience with recommender systems and personalization models
• Experience with time series modeling (forecasting, anomaly detection)
• Familiarity with distributed training (multi-GPU/multi-node setups)

MLOps & Data Engineering

• Experience with MLOps tools (MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, Airflow, etc.)
• Experience with feature stores (Feast, Tecton) or advanced feature engineering
• Knowledge of model optimization techniques (quantization, pruning, distillation)
• Experience working with open-source or non-frontier LLMs (Hugging Face, Ollama, etc.)

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with GIS and spatial data analysis
• Background in transportation, logistics, or smart city domains
• Experience applying computer vision to infrastructure or vehicular datasets
• Familiarity with public sector compliance, data governance, and security standards
• Experience with Unreal Engine or digital twin technologies
• Experience with mapping/visualization tools such as Cesium or related APIs
• Exposure to Polygonflow Dash or similar visualization platforms

Core Skills & Attributes

• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities
• Ability to work across AI/ML, software engineering, and infrastructure domains
• Effective communicat…