Founding Applied Machine Learning Engineer

About Us

Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nation’s most pressing problems. 

About Vantive Technology 

Vantive Technology (aka “Vantive”) is a stealth incubation within the Red Cell Partners’ ecosystem. As a pre-seed start-up, we are looking for highly motivated and skilled individuals to join our team at the foundational level.  

Vantive provides users with a new vantage from which to understand their industrial capacity, founded on rigorous quantitative analysis. Our AI/ML technology enables decision-makers to integrate and assess demand signals across the global industrial base to optimize for chosen objectives and support robust capacity and capability planning.  

Founding Applied Machine Learning (ML) Engineer 

As an Applied ML Engineer at Vantive, you will be at the forefront of driving the development and optimization of our ML systems. You will play a crucial role in training ML models, building training pipelines, fine-tuning Language Models (LLMs), and designing feedback systems to continuously improve their performance. As a lean team, you will play a pivotal role in developing the first iteration of Vantive’s technology for our initial customers. Understanding of supply chain analytics and industrial base planning technologies is helpful, but not required. 

 Responsibilities 

• Lead the team in architecting, building, and optimizing ML systems to deliver high-quality, real-world results for industrial base planning.  
• Design and implement robust training pipelines for ML models, ensuring efficiency and scalability.  
• Fine-tune ML models to meet specific customer needs and optimize their performance for various applications.  
• Develop and implement feedback mechanisms to continuously improve the accuracy and effectiveness of ML in industrial base planning.  
• Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in ML, supply chain, and industrial base planning technology, implementing best practices to enhance our ML infrastructure and find ways to implement new findings into our core technologies. 

 Required Experience and Skills 

• 5+ years of experience driving ML system development and optimization, preferably in supply chain analytics or related fields.  
• Demonstrated expertise in training ML models and building robust training pipelines for real-world applications.  
• Strong understanding of machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or similar.  
• Proficient in programming languages like Python or Go, with the ability to write efficient, clean, and maintainable code.  
• Familiarity with MLOps best practices, including CI/CD, model versioning, monitoring, and retraining workflows. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.  
• Self-motivated and resourceful, with a strong sense of ownership and accountability; able to drive projects forward independently, collaborate effectively with stakeholders, and proactively tackle challenges to improve processes. 
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders. 
• Collaborative mindset with a strong focus on teamwork and the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams. 
• Exceptional problem-solving skills and a track record of delivering innovative solutions in a fast-paced, dynamic environment. 

Bonus Points 

• Previous experience in an early-stage startup. 
• Previous experience or knowledge of complex supply chain systems. 
• Expertise in NLP and document processing techniques such as OCR, entity extraction, or embedding generation. 
• Experience with algorithms for searching, sorting, and retrieval of structured and unstructured data, with familiarity in tools like vector databases, graph databases,  ElasticSearch, or similar. 
• Experience designing systems with a focus on low-latency APIs or data pipelines for high-performance environments  

General Requirements 

• Eligible to secure a U.S. Secret clearance or higher.  
• Able and willing to commute 2 days/week to our Northern Virginia offices for in-person work. 
• Ability to travel for conferences and/or to other Red Cell locations for in-person meetings.  
• Travel will be no more than 25% of your total time. 

Benefits 

• 100% employer paid, comprehensive health care including medical, dental, and vision for you and your family.  
• Early-stage equity. 
• 14 weeks of paid parental leave at employees' normal pay.   
• Unlimited PTO, with management approval. 
• Paid time off for all observed Federal holidays. 
• Opportunities for professional development and continued learning.  
• Optional 401K and FSA available. 

Vantive is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.  

We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you. 

Salary Range: $180,000 - $200,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors. 

 #LI-RCP 

We’re an Equal Opportunity Employer: You’ll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.