Software Engineer (Defense and Intelligence)

Sakana AI is seeking a Software Engineer to join our Defense and Intelligence team, building mission-critical AI systems for government and defense partners in Japan and allied nations. As AI becomes central to national security, Sakana AI is positioned uniquely: our nature-inspired approaches to model training produce systems that are more robust, adaptable, and interpretable than conventional approaches, making them particularly well-suited for high-stakes deployments.

In this role, you will develop secure deployment pipelines for air-gapped and classified environments, implement inference solutions that operate on edge hardware with constrained resources, and build comprehensive monitoring systems for safety-critical AI applications. You will work with sensitive data and mission-critical systems where reliability is not optional and failure modes must be thoroughly understood.

What sets this role apart is the combination of cutting-edge AI technology with the rigor of defense-grade engineering. You will apply Sakana AI's latest research to some of the most demanding deployment scenarios in the world, working with teams that require absolute confidence in system behavior. You will also collaborate with our cybersecurity team to ensure all systems meet the highest classification and compliance standards.

The ideal candidate combines strong software engineering skills with an understanding of government compliance requirements and secure development practices. You should be comfortable working in highly regulated environments, meticulous about security protocols, and passionate about responsible AI deployment in service of public safety.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of software engineering experience, preferably in defense, intelligence, or government technology
• Strong proficiency in Python, Go, or Rust with a focus on secure, reliable systems
• Experience with secure software development practices and compliance frameworks (NIST, Common Criteria)
• Deep understanding of containerization and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker) in restricted environments
• Familiarity with air-gapped deployment, edge computing, and constrained-resource inference
• Ability to obtain security clearance (Japanese government or allied nation equivalent)
• Experience with MLOps, model deployment in constrained environments, and hardware-software co-optimization