Lead AI Engineer

Jeppesen ForeFlight is hiring a Lead AI Engineer to join our RADAR (Reporting, Analytics, Data, AI

& Research) team. This is the team’s first strategic ML engineering hire, and you’ll play a

foundational role in shaping how we apply reproducible statistical programming, analytics

automation, and GenAI to solve real business problems across Finance, Customer Success,

Revenue Operations, Accounting, and Product.

You will design and build end-to-end machine learning pipelines, extract information from structured

and unstructured sources (PDFs, disparate systems, scanned documents), and serve as a technical

mentor who elevates the analytical capabilities of the broader team. This role blends deep applied

statistics with modern analytics and ML engineering practices. We’re looking for someone who can

move fluidly between exploratory analysis and SQL deep dives, production-grade modeling, and

Teaching Others How To Do The Same.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain reproducible end-to-end machine learning pipelines for
  
  
  

multivariate regression and classification tasks using frameworks such as R’s tidymodels

and/or Python’s scikit-learn.

• Apply gradient boosting methods (XGBoost, LightGBM) and ensemble approaches (random
  
  
  

forests), among other ML and deep learning algorithms, to high-impact business problems.

• Implement rigorous data pre-processing, feature engineering, hyperparameter optimization
  
  
  

(including space-filling designs), and post-processing techniques such as probability

calibration.

• Build and deploy GenAI-enabled information extraction workflows including OCR, named
  
  
  

entity recognition (NER), NLP, and custom prompting schemas to pull structured data from

PDFs, scanned contracts, and other unstructured documents across systems.

• Deploy trained model objects and workflows into production environments using Databricks,
  
  
  

APIs, SQL (for in-database inference using frameworks like Orbital), or containerized

services.

• Develop and deliver upskilling content, tutorials, and hands-on workshops for internal
  
  
  

RADAR team members and extended data scientists at Jeppesen ForeFlight covering git

and version control, scripting in R and Python, boosting productivity with GenAI tools, and

core data science concepts.

• Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to translate ambiguous business questions into
  
  
  

well-scoped analytical projects, and communicate findings to both technical and non-

technical audiences.

• Contribute to the team’s standards for reproducible, version-controlled analytical work.
  
  
  

Basic Qualifications

• 5-10 years of applied experience in data science, machine learning, and/or quantitative
  
  
  

analytics.

• Strong proficiency in R and Python for statistical modeling, ML, and API pipeline
  
  
  

development.

• Hands-on experience building supervised learning models (regression, classification) using
  
  
  

frameworks such as scikit-learn, tidymodels, XGBoost, Stan, or similar.

• Demonstrated understanding of the full modeling lifecycle: data pre-processing, feature
  
  
  

engineering, hyperparameter tuning, model evaluation, calibration, and deployment.

• Experience with SQL and working against large-scale data warehouses or analytical
  
  
  

databases.

• Familiarity with NLP, text extraction, or document processing techniques (OCR, NER, or
  
  
  

similar).

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex
  
  
  

analytical work to non-technical stakeholders.

• Bachelor’s degree in Mathematica, Statistics, Computer Science, Economics, or a related
  
  
  

quantitative field. Master’s degree preferred.

Preferred Qualifications

• ML Frameworks & Workflow Design: Experience designing deterministic, reproducible ML
  
  
  

workflows using tidymodels (R) and/or scikit-learn (Python) pipelines, including space-filling

experimental designs for hyperparameter optimization.

• Modern Data Tools: Experience with Apache Arrow, DuckDB, or Polars for high-
  
  
  

performance in-memory data processing and ETL.

• Cloud & Compute Platforms: Experience with Databricks (mlflow, notebooks, Unity
  
  
  

Catalog, Spark) or similar cloud-based ML platforms.

• R Ecosystem: Proficiency with tidyverse, DBI, odbc, dbplyr, Shiny, and ellmer.
• GenAI & Agentic Tools: Experience using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude
  
  
  

Code, Codex, Cline, etc., for accelerating analytical and engineering workflows.

• CI/CD & Version Control: Experience with git-based CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI/CD or
  
  
  

GitHub Actions) for automated testing, model validation, Quarto renderings, deployment

workflows, etc..

• IDE Proficiency: Comfortable working in VS Code, RStudio, or Positron (JetBrains DataGrip
  
  
  

a plus).

• Teaching & Mentorship: Track record of developing training materials, leading workshops,
  
  
  

or mentoring junior analysts and data professionals.

• Applied Statistics: Graduate-level coursework or professional experience in Bayesian
  
  
  

methods, mixed effects models, survival analysis, experimental design, time series analysis,

and/or pre-training transformers for event sequence problems.

• Cross-Industry Versatility: Experience working across multiple business domains (finance,
  
  
  

healthcare, operations, etc.) and adapting analytical approaches to varied problem types.

Summary Pay Range

About Jeppesen ForeFlight

Jeppesen ForeFlight is a leading provider of innovative aviation software solutions, serving the

Commercial, Business, Military, and General Aviation sectors globally. Combining Jeppesen’s 90-

year legacy of accurate aeronautical data with ForeFlight’s expertise in cutting-edge aviation

technology, the company delivers an integrated suite of tools designed to enhance safety, improve

operational efficiency, and sharpen decision-making.