Director, AI & ML Engineering

We will be accepting applications through June 25, 2026 or until filled.

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Gogo, a leading satellite connectivity reseller, is seeking a CONTRACT Director of AI & ML Engineering to lead the engineering, delivery, and operationalization of AI/ML capabilities across our software products and internal platforms. This role will build and mentor a high-performing AI/ML engineering team and partner closely with Product, Operations, Support, Sales, IT, Security, and Data to identify and deliver practical AI/ML solutions that improve business efficiency, enhance customer experience, and increase the value of our core products.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader who understands how to take AI/ML initiatives from opportunity discovery through production deployment and long-term lifecycle ownership (monitoring, retraining, governance, and cost/performance optimization).

COME ON BOARD THE GOGO SAAS ENGINEERING TEAM!

How will you make a difference?

Execute the company’s AI strategy, aligning with Gogo’s business objectives and the evolving needs of the satellite connectivity industry

Lead the design, build, and deployment of AI/ML solutions that improve customer experience and operational outcomes, including areas such as network/service insights, predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, support automation, and sales enablement

Own the end-to-end delivery lifecycle for AI/ML initiatives: problem framing, data readiness, experimentation, production-ization, monitoring, and continuous improvement

Partner with Product to translate business goals into actionable AI/ML roadmaps and measurable outcomes tied to customer and operational value

Establish and mature ML Ops and LLM Ops practices: model versioning, CI/CD, evaluation, monitoring, drift detection, retraining workflows, and production support

Define engineering standards for AI/ML systems including quality, reliability, security, latency, cost-to-serve, and scalability

Collaborate with platform and data teams to ensure strong foundations for data pipelines, feature management, and model-ready datasets

Work with cross-functional stakeholders (Product, Operations, Support, Sales, IT, Security, Legal/Compliance) to identify high-value AI/ML opportunities and integrate solutions into business workflows and customer-facing experiences

Ensure AI/ML capabilities are delivered as durable product features and operational tools.

Communicate plans, tradeoffs, progress, and outcomes clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences

Establish best practices for data governance, privacy, security, and responsible AI usage, ensuring compliance with internal policies and applicable regulations

Implement guardrails and review processes for model risk, bias, explainability (where needed), and appropriate use of customer and operational data

Build, lead, and develop a team of AI/ML engineers and applied scientists; set expectations, coach performance, and foster a culture of execution and continuous learning

Manage vendor relationships and partnerships related to AI/ML platforms, tooling, and services

Support budgeting and capacity planning for AI/ML programs and platform investments.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science , Engineering , Data Science , or related field (Master’s preferred)

10+ years of engineering experience with 6+ years delivering ML/AI solutions

3+ years in a technical leadership role

This will be a 3 month contract to start

Required Skills, Talents, & Experience

Demonstrated success taking AI/ML systems into production and owning operational performance (monitoring, reliability, retraining, cost)

Strong experience with modern ML tooling and frameworks (e.g., PyTorch , TensorFlow ) and cloud-based AI services ( Azure , AWS , or GCP )

Proven ability to lead cross-functional execution and communicate effectively with engineering, product, and business stakeholders

Strong understanding of data privacy , security , and governance practices in production systems

Experience delivering AI/ML capabilities in connectivity, telecommunications, aviation, or other high-reliability industries

Familiarity with RAG , LLM integration , and evaluation practices for AI assistants and automation use cases

Experience building or scaling MLOps platforms (feature stores, model registries, CI/CD for models, observability)

Preferred Skills, Talents, & Experience

Strong working knowledge of DevOps, distributed systems, and agile product delivery

Track record of measurable business impact from AI/ML initiatives (efficiency gains, cost reduction, improved customer outcomes)

Equal Pay Disclosure(s)

Contract Pay Rate :

135.20 - 169.00 USD Hourly

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Qualified candidates will be considered for employment regardless of race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, marital status, medical condition, or disability.