Database Administrator & Data Architect

The world’s most consequential systems need the world’s best builders.

A new era is taking shape. AI is no longer confined to models or interfaces. It is becoming the foundation of how decisions are made across governments, industries, and real-world environments. What matters now is not just access to capability, but how it is applied, controlled, and sustained over time.

Torch.AI builds a government-owned reasoning infrastructure which creates a Reasoning Layer that enables machine reasoning at scale, in environments where it is hardest to achieve and least tolerant of failure. This is not incremental software. It is long-term infrastructure designed to endure, integrate, and evolve alongside the systems it supports.

Not another dashboard. Not another workflow app. Not another black-box model glued to a PowerPoint.

The Reasoning Layer is a modular architecture where data is connected, governed, transformed, represented, fused, reasoned over, and delivered into mission applications and operational workflows. It does not replace systems of record. It enables them to function better together.

The Reasoning Layer is comprised of: ORCUS (ingestion, orchestration, governance), NEXUS (semantic representation, vectorization), HALO (graph-based fusion and reasoning) and various product and capability components deployed for specific customer use cases.

We are seeking candidates who approach problems creatively, are comfortable operating without full clarity, and take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation. 

If you’re driven to strengthen U.S. defense readiness and protect national interests, Torch.AI offers meaningful impact at national scale.

What Makes Torch.AI Different

Torch.AI was founded on a simple operational insight: better use of data leads to better decisions. As data volumes increased across commercial, enterprise, and national security environments, the limiting factor was not collection, storage, or user interface design. The missing layer was machine understanding. And an infrastructure that could operate and reason between layers, preserve context, reconcile meaning, and make data useful for decisions in real time.

We believe the government must own its data and decision environment. In mission and operational environments, the layer where data becomes context, context informs models, models support decisions, and decisions shape action cannot be controlled entirely by private technology vendors.

Ownership does not mean the government must build every component itself. It means the government maintains stewardship and authority over the mission and operational layer. Commercial software, models, and services can contribute to the environment, but they should not capture the mission.

We are craftsmen.
We build with intention.
We ship with discipline.

You’ll collaborate with engineers, data experts, veterans, and mission practitioners. You’ll own meaningful work, move quickly, and see your systems deployed in production, often within weeks.

We are fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and mission-driven. Every day is a new puzzle.

The Customers You’ll Support

In 2021, Torch.AI acquired The Data Tech Group (DTG), a trusted provider of mission-critical software and sustainment support. Torch.AI (DTG) plays a key role in supporting the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Telecommunications Inventory and Billing Information (TIBI) program. The system manages and reconciles telecommunications service inventory and associated billing data for DoW customers. It provides visibility into telecom assets such as circuits and services, links those assets to customer accounts, and supports accurate chargeback and financial tracking by aligning service inventory records with billing information.

This role offers the opportunity to support current TIBI operations while contributing to future TIBI program modernization efforts, including system upgrades, security compliance evolution, and long-term platform sustainment. As part of this program. Torch.AI, processes over 1 billion financial transactions per year across the DoW, supporting auditability and financial transparency.

You’ll join a team (DTG) who has spent the last 20+ years providing DISA with excellent service quality, expertise, and customer satisfaction. You’ll be a key part of Torch.AI’s team of engineers, data experts, veterans, and mission practitioners dedicated to delivering operational AI that runs in production—at speed, at scale, and under real-world constraints. You’ll own meaningful work, move quickly, and see your systems deployed in production, often within weeks.

The Type of Candidates Who Thrive

People who do well here tend to approach problems similarly.

• They are comfortable operating without full clarity.
• They pay attention to what actually happens, not just what was intended.
• They are willing to be wrong, adjust quickly, and improve based on real feedback.


• They take responsibility for outcomes, not just implementation. 

This is not a good fit for someone who needs tightly defined problems or prefers distance from how their work is used.

Security Clearance

This role requires an active Secret clearance (minimum). Candidates must be eligible to obtain and maintain the appropriate clearance level.

U.S. citizenship is required for all positions. Torch.AI does not sponsor employment visas.

Work Location

This role is based at our headquarters in Leawood, KS. Limited travel (<5%) may be required for some roles. This role supports government customers in the Ft Meade, MD and St. Louis / Scott AFB region.

Compensation, Benefits, Incentives

We offer competitive, performance-aligned compensation tied to technical depth, clearance level, and mission impact.

Total Rewards Include:

• Competitive base salary
• Quarterly performance bonuses
• Equity participation within the first 12 months
• Unlimited PTO + 11 paid company holidays
• Professional development in a high-growth, mission-driven environment
• Weekly in-office catering at HQ

Benefits:

• 401(k) plan (no current employer match, but under consideration)
• PPO, HSA, and TRICARE Supplement medical options
• Above-market HSA contributions
• HSA, FSA, and Dependent Care FSA options
• Dental and vision plans above national averages
• Employer-paid life insurance (1× salary)
• Employer-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability
• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity coverage
• Up to $300/month in tax-advantaged commuter benefits

Torch.AI is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer committed to building a team that reflects the mission we serve.

If you want to build AI systems that move from ingestion to actionable insight and know exactly why they produced the answer they did, we should talk.

What You’ll Do

• Administer and maintain Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server environments across development, test, and production systems.
• Monitor database health, availability, and performance, ensuring reliable mission operations.
• Perform performance tuning, indexing strategies, and query optimization to improve responsiveness and stability.
• Troubleshoot database issues and conduct root-cause analysis to resolve outages or degradation quickly.
• Support backup, recovery, patching, and database maintenance activities in compliance-driven environments.

• Maintain and evolve logical and physical data models supporting transactional and reporting workflows.
• Collaborate with application teams to ensure scalable, normalized, and secure schema designs.
• Define and maintain database standards including naming conventions, schema governance, and documentation practices.
• Support ETL processes, data integration workflows, and reporting requirements across multiple mission systems.
• Provide guidance on data design decisions that impact performance, auditability, and long-term maintainability.

• Ensure database environments align with DoD and federal security requirements, including:
  • RMF / NIST 800-53 controls
  • Oracle and SQL Server STIG compliance
  • Audit logging and access control enforcement
• Support ATO activities, security documentation, and audit readiness.
• Support implementation of encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access controls, and least-privilege principles.
• Partner with cybersecurity teams and ISSM/ISSO personnel to ensure compliance and secure configuration baselines.

• Work closely with developers, system administrators, cybersecurity staff, and program leadership.
• Support structured change management, release planning, and incident response workflows.
• Create and maintain SOPs, runbooks, and technical documentation to ensure operational continuity.

• Identify opportunities to modernize legacy database architecture, schema patterns, and integration workflows.
• Support modernization planning through evaluation of performance bottlenecks, data quality gaps, and scalability constraints.
• Collaborate with Torch.AI engineers to integrate modern data ingestion and orchestration capabilities that improve data movement and pipeline reliability.
• Support database changes required to enable modernization efforts, including new schema patterns, migration planning, and optimization of data flows.
• Contribute to technical documentation and implementation planning supporting phased modernization delivery.

Core Skills & Qualifications

• Active Secret clearance (minimum).
• Active CompTIA Security+ certification.
• B.S. Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 5+ years of experience supporting Oracle and/or SQL Server database environments.
• Hands-on experience with Oracle and SQL Server performance tuning.
• Strong SQL expertise, including writing and optimizing complex queries.
• Experience with PL/SQL and/or T-SQL development and optimization.
• Experience with data modeling tools and data architecture best practices.
• Familiarity with compliance-driven federal IT environments.

Additional Valuable Experience

• Experience supporting DoD or federal civilian agency contracts.
• Familiarity with RMF, NIST, and STIG implementation.
• Experience supporting ATO packages and security assessments.
• Experience with cloud database services (AWS RDS, Azure SQL, Oracle Cloud).
• Familiarity with data warehousing, reporting platforms, or analytics-oriented schema design.
• Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server certifications.