Senior AI/ML Engineer, Audio & NLP

About BluJuniper BluJuniper is an AI and optimization company building advanced software systems for complex operational environments. Our work spans cloud-native platforms, computer vision, natural language processing, data infrastructure, secure collaboration, and mission-focused AI/ML applications. We are looking for a Senior AI/ML Engineer to develop audio, speech, transcription, and natural language processing capabilities for advanced AI-enabled applications. This role will focus on model development, fine-tuning, evaluation, and production inference workflows. Compensation $125,000 - $225,000 per year Compensation will be based on experience, location, and qualifications. BluJuniper offers competitive compensation and benefits for eligible employees. About The Role As a Senior AI/ML Engineer, you will work on audio event detection, speech recognition, transcription, NLP models, and related production pipelines. You should be comfortable taking a capability from data preparation through training, testing, evaluation, deployment support, and performance monitoring. This role is ideal for an engineer with strong Python experience who understands applied machine learning, model evaluation, and production inference. Experience with lower-level or object-oriented languages such as C++ or Go is a plus. Responsibilities · Develop, fine-tune, test, and evaluate audio, speech, transcription, and NLP models. · Work with Whisper or comparable speech models, as well as broader NLP model families. · Build and maintain data pipelines and inference pipelines for model-driven capabilities. · Define metrics and evaluation methods for each model, algorithm, or pipeline delivered. · Support audio event detection, speech detection, transcription, parsing, and related workflows. · Analyze model quality, latency, robustness, failure modes, and operational limitations. · Collaborate with backend, data, product, and AI/ML teams to integrate capabilities into the broader platform. · Document model behavior, evaluation results, limitations, and operational considerations. Required Qualifications · 5+ years of professional software engineering, machine learning, data science, or applied AI experience. · Strong proficiency in Python and modern machine learning frameworks. · Experience with ASR, audio ML, speech processing, NLP, transcription systems, or related applied ML domains. · Experience training, fine-tuning, testing, and evaluating machine learning models. · Experience building data pipelines, inference pipelines, or model-serving workflows. · Ability to define meaningful metrics and evaluation approaches for model performance and system behavior. · Strong understanding of data quality, model performance tradeoffs, and production ML practices. Preferred Qualifications · Experience with Whisper, speech detection, audio event detection, signal processing, speaker or audio parsing, or related technologies. · Experience with transformers, LLMs, embeddings, NLP model adaptation, or model fine-tuning. · Experience with lower-level or object-oriented languages such as C++, Go, Rust, or Java. · Experience optimizing inference latency, throughput, robustness, or deployment cost. · Experience working in regulated, government, defense, or enterprise security environments. What Success Looks Like In this role, success means you can deliver practical model capabilities with clear evaluation results. You can explain what a model does well, where it fails, how it was measured, and how it should be integrated into production systems. What We Are Looking For We are looking for someone who is analytical, hands-on, and comfortable moving between research, engineering, and production implementation. The ideal candidate values measurement, repeatability, and clear communication about model performance. Location This is a hybrid role based in Washington, DC. Work Authorization And Clearance Eligibility Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. An active U.S. government security clearance is not required for this role. Candidates who currently hold, have previously held, or may be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance are preferred. Certain customer, contract, or regulatory requirements may require additional eligibility verification. Benefits · Health, dental, and vision benefits for eligible employees. · Flexible work environment. · Opportunity to work on advanced computer vision, natural language processing, AI, optimization, and backend infrastructure problems. · High-impact role with meaningful ownership over technical direction. · Collaborative team environment with direct visibility into product and company strategy. Equal Opportunity Statement BluJuniper is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protec