---
title: 'Software Engineer, AI Platform at Nominal'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ai-platform-nominal-new-york-mjaw2v1jzezp'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Software Engineer, AI Platform at Nominal

- **Company:** Nominal
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/nominal/am9icG9zdDoniTz6EhFnrGsUt2iCvqbq

## Job description

## About Nominal

Nominal is building the connected test and operations platform powering the world's most advanced hardware systems, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation defense programs. Our platform gives hardware engineering teams a single place to ingest data, analyze performance, automate test execution, and collaborate across every phase of development, so they can move faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.

We serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, from autonomy leaders like Anduril and Shield AI to next-generation aerospace teams like Hermeus and REGENT, and performance engineering teams like Pratt Miller Motorsports, alongside mission partners within the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force on programs where failure isn’t an option. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.

We're building AI systems that reason over real-world engineering data to help engineers understand failures, investigate root causes, and accelerate mission-critical work. This is an opportunity to help define an entirely new category of software at the intersection of AI, distributed systems, and physical engineering.

🚀 About The Role

We're looking for an experienced software engineer to join our Hardware Intelligence team. This is a highly ambiguous, zero-to-one engineering role. You'll build the infrastructure, data systems, and AI capabilities that power the next generation of intelligent engineering tools. Rather than implementing predefined product requirements, you'll work alongside customers and product leaders to discover what should exist, and then build it.

Success in this role comes from being comfortable making technical bets, rapidly prototyping new ideas, and turning uncertainty into working software.

✅ What You'll Do

- Build the systems that power Hardware Intelligence, including agent infrastructure, evaluation pipelines, retrieval systems, and tooling for reasoning over engineering data.
- Design and ship AI-powered workflows that help engineers investigate anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and understand complex hardware behavior.
- Work across large-scale time series, telemetry, logs, and other engineering datasets to build robust, production-ready systems.
- Prototype new approaches quickly, evaluate them with customers, and iterate based on real-world feedback.
- Partner closely with engineers and product leaders to determine where the team should invest next.
- Help establish engineering patterns, infrastructure, and best practices as Hardware Intelligence scales.
- Engage directly with customers to understand how complex engineering problems are solved today and translate those workflows into product capabilities.

⚡️ Skills That Accelerate Us

We're less interested in checking every technical box than finding someone who thrives in early-stage environments and enjoys solving difficult, undefined problems.

You might be a great fit if you have:

- 5+ years of experience building AI or machine learning products that shipped to production.
- Experience working with large datasets, time series data, observability platforms, data infrastructure, or machine learning systems.
- A background in ML, data science, applied AI, or adjacent fields that gives you strong intuition for working with data-intensive systems.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, with experience designing scalable backend or distributed systems.
- Experience taking products from zero-to-one, whether at a startup or inside an entrepreneurial team within a larger company.
- Strong product instincts and curiosity about customer problems.

👀 Nice to Have

- Experience working with telemetry, sensors, robotics, aerospace, industrial systems, autonomous systems, or other hardware domains.
- Experience building agentic systems, LLM applications, retrieval pipelines, or evaluation infrastructure.
- Familiarity with time series databases, observability tooling, or data platforms.
- Experience supporting engineers or scientists working with large-scale operational data.
- Prior startup founding experience or experience on an incubation/new products team.

✨ Benefits/Perks

- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

ITAR Requirements To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR [here](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

## About Nominal

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Nominal provides a unified industrial data stack that enables hardware engineering teams to test, analyze, and operate mission-critical systems with the speed of software development.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Cameron McCord (Co-founder & CEO)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Aerospace & Defense, Hardware Testing, Industrial Data Infrastructure
- Target customers: B2B – Engineering teams at startups, enterprises, and government agencies building complex hardware (e.g., autonomous vehicles, space systems, hypersonics)
- Mission: "Equip engineers to test and operate critical technology" – delivering the tools and infrastructure to deliver mission-critical capabilities at scale in the shortest time possible.

## Products & Services
- **[Nominal Core](https://nominal.io)**: A cloud-based collaborative workspace that ingests, structures, and analyzes telemetry, logs, video, and simulation results. Provides real-time mission control, trend analysis, and automated reporting to accelerate development, production, and operations. (SaaS)
- **[Nominal Connect](https://nominal.io)**: An edge compute platform for hardware test. Deploys Python-based test apps on-premises, turns scripts into operator-ready interfaces, and runs tests deterministically at the edge (lab, remote range, air-gapped). Automatically syncs results to Core for deeper analysis. (On-premise/Edge software)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$182.5M** across 5 rounds (Seed, Series A, Series B, and a non-equity assistance)
- **Notable Investors**: Founders Fund (led Series B), General Catalyst (led Series A), Lux Capital (led Seed), and Sequoia Capital (partnered 2025)
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew **+202.5% YoY** to 196 employees (as of 2026)
  - 17,984 LinkedIn followers (+209.7% yearly)
  - Customer Anduril reduced test review time from 5+ hours to near real-time across 300+ engineers
  - Active job postings: 67 (up +346.7% yearly)
  - Offices in Los Angeles (HQ), New York, Austin, Pflugerville (TX)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Unified platform** that replaces fragmented test tools – one data model for telemetry, logs, video, simulations, and documents
- **Built by engineers from Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril, and Lockheed Martin** – deep domain expertise in mission-critical hardware
- **Edge-to-cloud architecture** that works in air-gapped, offline, and secure environments
- **Enterprise-grade security and scale** with support for startups, large enterprises, and government deployments
- **Open API, SDKs, and integration ecosystem** allowing teams to modernize legacy systems without disruption

## Strategic Focus
- Continue scaling the platform to serve larger defense and aerospace programs (e.g., integrated programs, fleet management)
- Expand into manufacturing test lines and production environments (scaling test code from prototype to manufacturing)
- Deepen government partnerships and secure FedRAMP or similar certifications
- Grow headcount aggressively, especially in engineering, mission operations, and sales roles

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: "Engineers building for Engineers" – a tight-knit team of operators and builders from Palantir, SpaceX, Anduril, and more. High ownership, real impact on hardware that flies, launches, or defends.
- **Work Policy**: In-office **5 days per week** (LA, NY, Austin, Pflugerville). Gourmet lunch provided daily.
- **Perks & Benefits**:
  - 100% covered health, dental, and vision insurance (for you and family)
  - Unlimited paid vacation
  - 12-weeks parental leave
  - Fertility and family planning ($15,000 lifetime)
  - $500/year hardware sensor stipend
  - Wellness stipend ($100/month)
  - 401K with employer match
  - Learning & development stipend
  - Employee-friendly equity terms
- **Growth Trajectory**: Over 200% yearly headcount growth, recent Series B funding, and a clear mission to accelerate the "hardware renaissance" – strong signal for career growth and impact.

## Sources
1. [Nominal Careers Page](https://nominal.io/careers)
2. [Nominal About Us](https://nominal.io/about-us)
3. [Nominal Product Page](https://nominal.io/?j=35813&sfmc_sub=16110646&l=1582_HTML&u=1011363&mid=546014653&jb=234&sfmc_id=16110646)
4. [LinkedIn Company Profile](https://linkedin.com/company/nominal-inc)
5. [Sequoia Capital Portfolio](https://sequoiacap.com/companies/nominal/)

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