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About This Role
Location: Orlando, United States of America Thales people architect solutions that enable two-thirds of planes to take off and land safely. We create in-flight entertainment systems that engross 50 million fliers every year and we develop the avionics that control the world’s largest commercial aircrafts. Our simulators train the next generation of pilots for fighter jets, transporters and search and rescue helicopters. And, together, each and every member of our aerospace team makes a difference. When you rely on airlines to connect you in flight, you rely on Thales. In an increasingly fast paced world, we make the unpredictable, predictable by connecting and entertain passengers to make your life better. Combining a diversity of talents, we master the decisive moments that matter to passengers and airlines. Whatever it takes.AI Engineer - Graduate
Orlando, FL (Hybrid)
Position Summary
Thales is looking for a AI Engineer Graduate to join our engineering team and support the development of applied AI solutions that enhance the inflight passenger experience for millions of travelers worldwide, as well as support internal business and engineering initiatives. You will bring a foundational understanding of AI technologies, cloud platforms, software development practices, and Agile methodologies, along with a strong desire to expand your expertise in AI engineering and intelligent automation solutions.
In this position you will contribute to the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of AI-enabled applications across cloud and edge environments while gaining experience across the software development lifecycle and modern AI technologies. You will research, implement, test, document, deploy, and maintain new and existing solutions.
To succeed, you must demonstrate strong problem-solving skills, accountability, collaboration, and adaptability in a fast-paced engineering environment. You will have opportunities to build your technical expertise, contribute to innovative solutions, and take on increasingly complex assignments as your experience grows.
Key Areas of Responsibility
- Contribute to the design, development, testing, deployment, and support of AI-enabled applications and services; develop and maintain AI solutions, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications, intelligent automation capabilities, agent-based workflows, and orchestration solutions, under the guidance of senior engineering team members.
- Collaborate with engineering, product, platform, and business teams to understand requirements and assist in delivering AI solutions that address operational and customer needs; participate in code reviews, design discussions, sprint planning, and Agile development activities.
- Support implementation of AI security, governance, privacy, and responsible AI practices by following established standards, processes, and technical controls.
- Develop reusable components, tools, and automation capabilities that improve development efficiency, quality, and consistency across AI initiatives; stay current with emerging AI technologies and contribute ideas for continuous improvement and innovation within the engineering team.
- Assist with monitoring, troubleshooting, and performance optimization to support reliable and scalable AI solutions; perform unit, integration, and automated testing to support secure, high-quality software releases.
- Create and maintain technical documentation for AI applications, workflows, deployment processes, and operational support procedures.
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field – awarded within the 2 years preceding your application; 0-2 years’ experience in software engineering, cloud development, machine learning, AI engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Working knowledge of applied AI concepts and solution patterns, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agent-based workflows, orchestration frameworks, intelligent automation, and prompt engineering; foundational understanding of modern AI systems, including model evaluation, tool integration, guardrails, observability, and responsible AI principles.
- Proficiency in Python and experience developing modern applications using APIs and web technologies; experience working with cloud platforms, preferably AWS, including familiarity with serverless architectures and AI/ML services.
- Foundational knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and automated deployment concepts.
- Ability to analyze technical problems, evaluate options, and implement effective solutions; manage assigned work independently while seeking guidance for complex technical challenges.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment; commitment to software engineering best practices, secure coding principles, and continuous learning.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States for any employer at the time of hire. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship or for assuming sponsorship of an employment visa now or in the future.
If you’re excited about working with Thales, but not meeting the requirements for this position, we encourage you to join our Talent Community!
Special Position Requirements
- Schedule: Core business hours, Monday – Friday, 9/80 shift B.
- Physical Environment: Primarily an R&D Lab environment.
Why Join Us?
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This position will require successfully completing a post-offer background check. Qualified candidates with [a] criminal history will be considered and are not automatically disqualified, consistent with federal law, state law, and local ordinances.
Thales champions inclusion and we believe diversity strengthens the fabric of our culture. Thales is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/veterans.
If you need an accommodation or assistance in order to apply for a position with Thales, please contact us at [email protected].
The reference Total Target Compensation (TTC) market range for this position, inclusive of annual base salary and the variable compensation target, is between
Total Target Cash (TTC) 86,365.50 - 143,942.50 USD Annual This reflects how companies in a similar industry and geographic region generally pay for similar jobs. This range helps the Company make pay decisions as one data point among many. Where a position falls within this range is also dependent on other factors including – but not limited to – the employee’s career path history, competencies, skills and performance, as well as the company’s annual salary budget, the customer’s program requirements, and the company’s internal equity. Thales may offer additional benefits and other compensation, depending on circumstances not related to an applicant’s status protected by local, state, or federal law.
(For Internal candidate, if you need more information, please raise HR request through MyThales)
Thales provides an extensive benefits program for all full-time employees working 30 or more hours per week and their eligible dependents, including the following:
- Elective Health, Dental, Vision, FSA/HSA, Voluntary Life and AD&D, Whole Group Life w/LTC, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Plan, Identity Theft, and Pet Insurance
- Retirement Savings Plan after 30 days of employment with a company contribution and a match, and with no vesting period
- Company paid holidays and Paid Time Off
- Company provided Life Insurance, AD&D, Disability, Employee Assistance Plan, and Well-being Program
Salary Context
This $86K-$143K range is in the lower quartile 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 Thales, 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. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. This role's midpoint ($115K) sits 46% below the category median. Disclosed range: $86K to $143K.
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.
Thales AI Hiring
Thales has 4 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Orlando, FL, US, Clarksburg, MD, US, Austin, TX, US. Compensation range: $120K - $252K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (531 positions) offer remote work, while 8,478 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,078 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,646 roles, $261,000 median); Los Angeles (1,486 roles, $210,000 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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