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About This Role
About DAT
DAT Freight & Analytics is an award-winning employer of choice and a next-generation SaaS technology company that has been at the leading edge of freight and logistics innovation for nearly five decades. Founded in 1978, DAT operates the largest freight marketplace in North America — processing 250 million+ load posts annually and maintaining one of the largest repositories of freight market transaction data in the world. On a defined path to $1 billion in revenue, DAT deploys a suite of software solutions, machine learning models, and intelligent automation tools that help brokers, carriers, and shippers price freight accurately, source capacity, reduce risk, and operate more efficiently. With nearly 700 teammates across offices in Denver, CO; Portland, OR; Seattle, WA; Springfield, MO; Toronto, ON; and Bangalore, India, DAT combines the credibility of a multi-decade market leader with the drive of a company that is not done disrupting the industry it helped build. For more information, visit www.DAT.com
Job Application Deadline: 11/30/2026
The Opportunity
As a Sr AI Engineer, you'll build and own the platform that power our agentic solutions at DAT. Freight is an uncertain business, and the models we ship reduce that uncertainty: rate forecasts, load-to-truck matching, document extraction, fraud signals, and the agentic workflows our brokers and carriers use to move freight faster. None of that reaches a customer without a platform that makes training, serving, evaluating, and monitoring models routine instead of heroic.
You'll help build the platform, from the model gateway and inference layer through feature and vector storage, evaluation harnesses, production observability, agentic framework (A2A) all on a spine based on secure access and utilization. This is a highly visible role for an engineer who wants their work multiplied across every AI team in the company.
What You'll Do
- Platform Ownership: Design, build, and operate the shared services that engineers and business users use to ship models: a model gateway for LLM access, inference endpoints for real-time and batch scoring, feature storage, vector search, and a common SDK.
- Technical Leadership: Lead architecture for large-scale AI systems, write the design documents, and drive alignment across Product, and Engineering and Business users on how models get built and shipped at DAT.
- Cloud Architecture: Architect and run scalable, reliable AI infrastructure on AWS, including Bedrock, SageMaker, EKS, Redpanda, MSK (Kafka), Lambda, and S3, all defined in Pulumi..
- Evaluation and Quality: Build the offline and online evaluation systems that tell us whether a model or prompt change is an improvement, including regression suites, LLM-as-judge pipelines, A/B and shadow testing, and drift detection.
- Cost and Performance: Own inference cost and latency as first-class metrics. Right-size GPU and serverless capacity, tune batching, caching, and quantization, and give teams clear visibility into what their workloads cost.
- Safety and Governance: Implement guardrails, prompt and output logging, PII handling, access controls, and model and dataset lineage so AI systems meet our security and customer data commitments.
- Best Practices: Drive the adoption of modern software development practices across AI work, including automated testing, code reviews, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code.
- Mentorship: Mentor engineers and data scientists on production ML and distributed systems, and raise the operational bar of every team that builds on the platform.
- Incident Management: Lead the response and resolution for complex production incidents involving AI services, perform root cause analysis, and implement preventative measures.
The Skills and Experience You'll Bring
- 10+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant time as a senior or staff engineer owning production infrastructure that other engineering teams depend on.
- 4+ years building and operating machine learning or AI platforms, with models you've taken from notebook to production traffic and then kept healthy.
- Strong development language skills ideally using TypeScript/js, Java, or Go, with the software engineering discipline to build libraries other teams adopt willingly.
- Extensive AWS experience with production systems, ideally including EKS/Kubernetes, Lambda, Redpanda, MSK/Kafka, S3, and Secrets Manager, plus infrastructure-as-code with Pulumi, Terraform or similar.
- Hands-on experience serving models at scale: containerized inference, GPU scheduling, autoscaling, batching, and the tradeoffs between real-time, streaming, and batch scoring.
- Practical experience with LLM systems in production, including retrieval-augmented generation, vector databases, prompt and context management, tool-calling or agent frameworks, and managed model APIs such as Amazon Bedrock.
- Proven experience building evaluation and monitoring for models, not just services: offline eval sets, online metrics, drift and data quality checks, and a clear definition of what "regression" means for a model.
- Strong background in event-driven and distributed systems using Redpanda, AWS MSK or Kafka
- Fluency with observability and on-call health, designing dashboards, APM traces, logs, and alerts, defining SLOs, and using these tools to drive down incident frequency and MTTR.
- Experience establishing and raising engineering standards for a team: PR and testing guidelines, deployment validation checklists, model release criteria, and post-incident review practices.
- Demonstrated technical leadership: leading cross-team designs in ambiguous problem spaces, writing clear system design documents and operations runbooks, and driving alignment across Engineering, Product, and Operations.
- Proven mentoring track record, especially helping engineers and data scientists grow in system design, observability, and operational excellence.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain trade-offs and system behavior clearly to engineers, product managers, and non-technical stakeholders.
Bonus Skills
- Experience with model fine-tuning, distillation, or parameter-efficient training, and a clear point of view on when it beats prompting.
- Background in marketplace, pricing, forecasting, or document extraction problems.
- Freight, logistics, or supply chain domain experience.
Why DAT?
DAT is an award winning employer of choice.
For starters, we have a hybrid work environment, but we also know what makes a great workplace. We have a time-tested and resolute set of operating values predicated on integrity, mutual respect, open communication, and executing with excellence. These values inform our strategic vision as much as any one of our products does. We've been an employer of choice in the Portland metropolitan area for four decades, and within one year of opening our Denver office, DAT was #26 on Built In Colorado's 100 Best Places to Work In Colorado.
- Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, and AD&D insurance
- Parental Leave
- Flexible Vacation Time (FVT)
- An additional 10 holidays of paid time off per calendar year
- 401k matching (immediately vested)
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Short- and Long-term disability sick leave
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Health Savings Accounts
- Employee Assistance Program
- Additional programs - Employee Referral, Internal Recognition, and Wellness
- Free TriMet transit pass (Beaverton Office)
- Competitive salary and benefits package
- Work on impactful projects in a cutting-edge environment
- Collaborative and supportive team culture
- Opportunity to make a real difference in the trucking industry
- Employee Resource Groups
This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship*
For Washington-based candidates, in compliance with the Washington State Pay Transparency Law, the salary range for this role is $162,000.00 - $207,000.00 + target bonus. DAT considers factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education and training, core skills, internal equity, and market and business elements when extending an offer.
DAT embraces the value of a diverse workforce, and believes it is a core strength of our company that we encourage those values in every DAT employee, at every level of our organization, regardless of tenure or rank. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities
The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)
#LI-RF1
#LI-hybrid
Salary Context
This $162K-$207K range is above the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $178K across 1623 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 76% of the market. At DAT Solutions, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $211,950 based on 13,048 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $229,300. This role's midpoint ($184K) sits 13% below the category median. Disclosed range: $162K to $207K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($256,000) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
DAT Solutions AI Hiring
DAT Solutions has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Based in Seattle, WA, US. Compensation range: $207K - $207K.
Location Context
AI roles in Seattle pay a median of $226,100 across 1,045 tracked positions. That's 6% above the national median.
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,079 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 106 entry-level, 4,384 mid-level, 3,343 senior, and 1,246 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (531 positions). The remaining 8,478 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($256,000 median, 66 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 457 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 55 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,079 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (6,862), AI Product Manager (453), AI Software Engineer (451). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (106) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,384) and senior (3,343) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,246 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (531 positions), with 8,478 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,000. Top-quartile roles start at $263,911, and the 90th percentile reaches $318,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $256,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (1,649 postings), Aws (898 postings), Azure (723 postings), Rag (671 postings), Gcp (536 postings), Pytorch (434 postings), Claude (410 postings), Kubernetes (406 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
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