Principal Software Engineer, Applied AI

CHAOS Inc. is a global technology company delivering next-generation capabilities to the defense and critical industrial sectors. Founded in 2022 by a seasoned leadership team, CHAOS has quickly become the place where world-class multi-disciplinary engineers come to build mission-critical technologies. CHAOS has a mission-focused culture, dedicated to solving the toughest technical challenges. Its unique agile engineering approach enables rapid prototyping, while deep partnerships with defense and industry ensure real-world solutions.

Role Overview:

Build AI for systems that detect and protect against next-generation arial threats in near real-time. Your models ship to the field in weeks not months, protecting critical infrastructure and assets while others are still tuning hyperparameters or reading papers. Join our team of world-class engineers at CHAOS Inc. who move fast in a high-trust environment where independence and impact aren't buzzwords.

• We are seeking a highly motivated and mission-oriented Principal Software Engineer , Applied AI to drive the development, integration, and deployment of AI/ML-powered capabilities across CHAOS’ product lines.


• This individual will work in a high velocity environment with a very high-caliber team of researchers and engineers to ensure advanced AI research translates into tangible, real-world testable shippable software especially in defense applications.


• You must bring a strong record of past successes of delivering AI powered solutions including but not limited to creative use of AI and Machine Learning technologies in solving actual business problems .


• Any exposure to digital signal processing in a highly regulated or mission-driven sector like aerospace, defense, or critical infrastructure is a big plus.


• Must have excellent communication and be comfortable in presenting your ideas to various stakeholders including customers .


• The candidate should be comfortable working with distributed teams, partners, customers and other stakeholders to learn the requirements, come up with a proposal for a solution , rapidly develop prototypes and finally perhaps implement and roll them out eventually to production with low oversight . People who n ever say , “not my problem ”.

Responsibilities:

• Learn : Quickly come up to speed browsing existing code and documentation. Be motivated to learn unfamiliar subjects and drive your own learning needs. Continuously keep up with industry trends.


• Productization : Ensure our AI models are robust, interpretable, testable, and performant under real-world conditions—especially in adversarial, low-power, GPS - D enied and/or edge-deployed environments. You must have an incredible eye to detail and be able to make tradeoffs keeping business interests in mind.


• On-site 2-3 days a week in San Francisco, CA

Minimum Requirements:

• BS or MS or PhD in Comp Sc/ Electrical/ Electronic Engineering or equivalent professional experience


• 8 - 15+ years of hands-on experience covering Data Science, data engineering, setting up model building and inferencing pipelines and using data science to solve real business and other problems.


• Experience leading small teams of junior engineers or mentoring them is required

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience building agents using contemporary frameworks (e.g. Langchain etc.)


• Experience with libraries like PyTorch, TensorFlow/TensorRT, streaming image classification or arbitrary or targeted shape detection in point clouds (Radar / Lidar) are going to be highly valuable


• Any experience with Analog or Digital RF signal processing will make you standout (although not required)


• Committer to one or more open-source projects (not a requirement)

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Your medical, dental and vision benefits will be 100% paid for by the company


• Additional benefits : life, FSA, HSA, 401k (+ Company match), and more


• Our Perks: free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code


• Compensation Components: competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance + (coming soon!) annual bonuses


• Company Size: 150 employees and counting!


• More About Us: We're building the next generation of aerospace, defense and critical industry technologies with a seasoned team of mission-focused individuals. We were founded in June 2022 and our goal is to become the platform where world-class engineers come to solve critical, real-world problems. We use agile engineering approaches which enable rapid prototyping, deep partnerships with the defense industry ensuring real-world application, and our newly-invented Coherence platform (through which we’ve made a fundamental breakthrough) improves sensor performance and decision-making in real-time. As of April 2025 we have raised $490M (including a $275M Series C at a $2B valuation) from some of the most prominent VC funds and investors including Accel, NEA, 8VC, and Valar. With a managing team that includes Epirus’ founding members (responsible for building a $1.5B company from scratch) + key drivers from Palantir (instrumental in Palantir’s growth to $1B in revenue), we are well-positioned to become one of the fastest growing companies to date!

Salary Range: $200,000 - $270,000

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

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