Software/AI developer

Software/AI developer. R&D 

Location: United States
Work Model: Remote
Travel: Approximately 15% for R&D events, technical demos, and collaboration sessions
Clearance: U.S. citizenship required. Active Secret clearance preferred; candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.

Build Mission-Focused Software and AI Capabilities

Rackner is seeking a Software/AI Developer. R&D to design, build, test, and demonstrate software and AI-enabled capabilities supporting government and defense missions.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who enjoys turning ideas and mission needs into working software. You will work alongside R&D engineers, technical leaders, and mission stakeholders to rapidly develop prototypes, backend services, APIs, data workflows, and AI-enabled applications that can be tested with real users and matured into operational capabilities.

The right person is a strong software developer who is comfortable working in an R&D environment where requirements may evolve as we learn. You should be able to take ownership of technical problems, write quality code, experiment with new approaches, and move from an early concept to a working demonstration.

The work may involve AI/ML applications, large language models (LLMs), agentic AI, backend development, APIs, data pipelines, analytics, automation, mission systems, and cloud-native software.

What You’ll Build

• Design, develop, test, and maintain software for mission-focused R&D projects.
• Build backend services, APIs, integrations, and data-processing workflows.
• Develop AI-enabled applications using LLMs, machine learning models, and other modern AI technologies.
• Build and evaluate AI agents, retrieval workflows, automation tools, and other AI-assisted capabilities.
• Integrate AI models and services into usable software applications rather than treating AI as a standalone experiment.
• Develop prototypes and proofs of concept that can be demonstrated to government customers and mission users.
• Work with structured and unstructured data, including data ingestion, transformation, validation, and retrieval.
• Write clean, maintainable, testable code and participate in code reviews and technical design discussions.
• Debug software, integration, data, and model-related issues across development and testing environments.
• Collaborate with DevSecOps engineers to containerize, deploy, monitor, and improve applications in cloud and secure environments.
• Evaluate new AI models, frameworks, libraries, and development approaches for potential use in R&D projects.
• Participate in technical demos, field events, experiments, and customer feedback sessions.
• Turn feedback from technical teams and mission users into software improvements and new capabilities.
• Document technical decisions, APIs, system behavior, and development approaches so solutions can be maintained and extended.

What You’ll Bring

• U.S. citizenship due to federal contract requirements.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
• Strong hands-on software development experience, particularly with Python.
• Experience developing backend applications, services, APIs, or data-driven software.
• Experience building, integrating, or supporting AI/ML or generative AI applications.
• Understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including application design, testing, debugging, version control, and code review.
• Experience working with APIs, JSON, databases, and structured or semi-structured data.
• Ability to take a technical problem from concept through implementation and demonstration.
• Experience working in fast-moving environments where requirements may not be fully defined at the beginning.
• Ability to independently investigate technical problems, evaluate options, and build practical solutions.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with engineers, technical leaders, and non-engineering stakeholders.