Senior Director of AI

Voyager is an innovative defense, national security and space technology company committed to advancing and delivering transformative, mission-critical solutions. We tackle the most complex challenges to unlock new frontiers for human progress, fortify national security, and protect critical assets to lead in the race for technological and operational superiority from ground to space.

Forge the Future: Join Voyager Technologies

The future belongs to those who build it. At Voyager Technologies, we’re building technologies that protect lives, expand frontiers and prepare us for what’s next. And we’re doing that with people who are wired to solve, build, adapt and lead. These roles are not for the faint of heart. 

You’ll help lay the foundation for humanity's future. Join a culture where innovation thrives, curiosity is rewarded, and impact is real. We’re a company of doers, thinkers and builders, united by purpose and grounded in reality.

If you want to put your skills to work where the stakes are real and the mission is bigger than any one person, forge the future with Voyager.

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Job Summary:

We are seeking a Senior Director of AI to lead the development and deployment of AI capabilities that fundamentally change how Voyager operates. In this role, you will own the vision and execution for our Internal AI Tools Team and act as a senior technical leader across other AI initiatives in engineering, operations, and mission systems.

You will be responsible for leading a team to rapidly develop and deploy high-leverage capabilities embedded in Voyager’s day-to-day operations. You will lead a small, high-performing team of engineers focused on internal tools and AI automation, while also contributing directly as a senior architect and hands-on technical leader on cross-company AI projects.

This role is ideal for a deeply technical AI practitioner able to articulate a clear vision, who still loves to build, but who also thrives on leading highly driven teams. You are motivated by speed, impact, and quality in equal measure—and you measure your success by how quickly AI capabilities translate into real-world improvements in how we design, decide, manufacture, and operate.

You will be leading the Internal Tools Team, an agile, high-leverage engineering group focused on building AI-powered systems that orchestrate Voyager operations. This team designs and delivers internal platforms, automations, and copilots that turn slow, manual workflows into streamlined, integrated systems.

We work across the entire business—Finance & Accounting, Internal Communications, Performance Management, Human Resources, IT & Infrastructure, Cyber Security & Systems Assurance, Mergers & Acquisitions, R&D and Technology Roadmapping, Strategic Planning, Enterprise Risk Management, Quality Assurance, Supply Chain & Procurement, Manufacturing & Assembly, and Sales / New Business Capture. If you ever wanted to understand exactly how a business works from the inside-out, this role is for you.

Our goal is simple: multiply the effectiveness of every team at Voyager by replacing spreadsheet-driven, email-based processes with secure, AI-driven workflows, decision-support tools, and intelligent assistants that dramatically reduce cycle times and improve execution quality.

Additionally, the Senior Director of AI will oversee customer-focused visionary AI programs across the broader organization. This provides an opportunity to dream up new capabilities, capture business (to be clear, this is NOT a business development role—we seek a technical expert who is articulate and who can confidently engage with customers, when appropriate), and lead the technical execution of these efforts.

Responsibilities:

• Own the Enterprise AI vision for internal operations: define and drive the strategy for how AI, agents, and automation are used to run Voyager more efficiently and intelligently across all major business functions.
• Lead and grow the Internal Tools Team: provide technical and people leadership for the Internal AI Tools Lead and AI Automation Engineers, setting the bar for engineering quality, velocity, and impact.
• Act as senior architect and hands-on contributor: design and (when appropriate) implement core patterns for agentic and LLM-based systems, retrieval, evaluation, and orchestration that can be reused across internal tools and other AI efforts (e.g., engineering, operations, mission platforms).
• Partner with business leaders: work closely with leaders in Finance, HR, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, BD/Capture, IT, Cyber, and others to identify high-value workflows, prioritize automation opportunities, and translate them into well-defined AI projects with clear success metrics.
• Create reusable AI building blocks: champion the development of shared AI services (RAG infrastructure, evaluation frameworks, prompt libraries, agent orchestration patterns, governance controls) that serve both the Internal Tools Team and other AI teams (e.g., engineering/ACE, product, etc.).
• Drive rapid, rigorous experimentation and then translate into production: establish processes that allow the team to ship fast while maintaining rigor—A/B tests, shadow deployment, human-in-the-loop reviews, and evaluation suites tailored to business processes.
• Measure and communicate impact: define and track key metrics (cycle time reduction, error reduction, automation coverage, user adoption) and regularly communicate progress, learnings, and roadmap to executive leadership.
• Ensure security, compliance, and reliability: partner with IT, Legal, and others to ensure all AI systems adhere to Voyager’s security posture, data governance policies, and applicable regulatory requirements.
• Mentor AI talent across Voyager: serve as a technical mentor and thought partner for other AI-focused teams, helping to align approaches, reduce duplication, and raise the overall level of AI literacy and capability across the company.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree + 10 years, Master’s degree + 8 years, or PhD + 6 years in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Applied Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a related technical field; or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience building and shipping AI-powered systems or products, including at least one of: LLM-based applications, ML-driven automation, recommendation/decision systems, or agentic workflows.
• Demonstrated depth in modern AI / ML techniques, including practical experience with large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and evaluation of generative systems.
• Proven experience leading small, high-performing engineering teams or AI initiatives—setting technical direction, mentoring engineers, and delivering measurable outcomes under time pressure.
• Strong software engineering background with experience in production systems using languages such as Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar, and familiarity with modern cloud and application architectures.
• Demonstrated “AI-first” personal workflow: you routinely use LLMs and automation tools to accelerate your own work, and you can articulate where this has materially increased your output and impact.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate between executive, business, and technical audiences and to drive alignment across diverse stakeholders.
• Most importantly: high motivation, a love of learning, and integrity.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience building internal tools, platforms, or automation teams in a high-complexity environment (e.g., aerospace, defense, manufacturing, logistics, or large-scale tech).
• Experience integrating AI systems with enterprise software stacks (e.g., ERP, CRM, HRIS, ticketing, collaboration tools) and working with APIs, event-driven architectures, and data platforms.
• Hands-on experience with one or more AI tooling stacks (e.g., LangChain/LangGraph, LlamaIndex, semantic search/vector databases, orchestration frameworks, or agent platforms).
• Familiarity with MLOps and AI platform practices (model deployment, monitoring, evaluation, data/feature management) and how they apply to LLM-based systems.
• Experience operating in security- and compliance-sensitive environments (e.g., ITAR/EAR-adjacent, SOC 2, FedRAMP, or similar frameworks).
• Track record of driving organizational change—successfully introducing new tools or ways of working, and achieving adoption across non-technical teams.
• A visible portfolio of work (open-source contributions, talks, writings, internal platform designs) that demonstrates both technical depth in AI and a bias toward building systems that unlock leverage for others.

Please click “Apply” to submit your application.

The salary range represents the base salary range for this position. Actual compensation will vary and may be above or below the range based on various factors. Those include but are not limited to location, experience, and performance.

Voyager offers a comprehensive, total compensation package, which includes competitive salary, a discretionary annual bonus plan, paid time off (PTO), a comprehensive health benefit package, retirement savings, wellness program, and various other benefits. When you join our team, you’re not just an employee; you become part of a dynamic community dedicated to innovation and excellence.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Voyager is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by law. 

Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran

The statements contained in this job description are intended to describe the general content and requirements for performance of this job. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all job duties, responsibilities, and requirements. This job description is not an employment agreement or contract. Management has the exclusive right to alter the scope of work within the framework of this job description at any time without prior notice.