Applied AI, Forward Deployed Machine Learning Engineer

📋 Job Overview

Applied AI, Forward Deployed Machine Learning Engineer, Critical and Sovereign Institutions, EMEA. The Applied AI for Critical and Sovereign Institutions team is Mistral’s specialized unit dedicated to delivering high-impact, secure AI solutions for institutions and organizations operating in highly regulated and strategic environments. We work hand-in-hand with clients to design, deploy, and maintain AI systems that meet the highest standards of reliability, security, and operational excellence.

🏢 About Mistral

Mistral provides full-stack AI solutions: from frontier models to developer tools, applications, and compute. We partner with enterprises tackling the hardest problems—across high-stakes industries like finance, manufacturing, defense, healthcare, and the public sector—co-creating customized AI systems that they can run on their terms. We are a dynamic, collaborative team passionate about AI and its potential to transform society. Our diverse workforce thrives in competitive environments and is committed to driving innovation. Our teams are distributed between Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. We are creative, low-ego and team-spirited.

🎯 The Role

Mistral AI is seeking an Applied AI Engineer to join this team. You will be responsible for the technical design, implementation, and deployment of AI solutions tailored to the needs of critical infrastructure and sovereign institutions. Your work will directly contribute to projects with significant societal and operational impact.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Individually deploy AI solutions into production for use cases with significant operational and strategic impact.
• Develop state-of-the-art GenAI applications tailored to the specific needs of sovereign institutions and critical infrastructure, driving technological transformation in collaboration with our customers.
• Work closely with our researchers, AI engineers, and product teams on complex customer projects involving advanced fine-tuning, LLM applications, and contributions to our open-source codebases for inference and fine-tuning.
• Participate in pre-sales discussions to understand the needs, challenges, and aspirations of potential clients, providing technical guidance on Mistral’s products and technologies to diverse stakeholders.
• Collaborate with our product and science teams to continuously improve our offerings based on customer feedback, with a focus on security, compliance, and performance.

📌 Required Qualifications

• Fluent in English.
• PhD or Master's in AI, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or related field.
• 2+ years of experience in AI/ML
• Proven track record of leading teams to deliver complex AI projects from prototyping to production.
• Deep expertise in fine-tuning LLMs, advanced RAG, agentic systems, and deploying NLP applications at scale.
• Proficient in Python, PyTorch, and modern AI frameworks (LangChain, HuggingFace). Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps tools a plus.
• Strong software engineering skills: API design, backend/full-stack development, system architecture.
• Excels in technical communication with technical and non-technical audiences, including executives.
• Thrives in fast-paced collaborative environments and is passionate about mentoring technical talent.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Have experience with React or other frontend frameworks.
• Have experience with Deep Learning in PyTorch
• Contributed to open-source projects in the LLM or AI space.
• Have experience in customer-facing roles with a focus on enterprise AI adoption.

🎁 Benefits

We offer a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your well-being, growth, and work-life balance. Benefits vary by country and may include healthcare coverage, parental leave, retirement plans, relocation support, wellness programs, meal and transportation allowances, and other location-specific perks. For the most up-to-date details on benefits available in your location, please refer to our Benefits page.

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

• Eligibility: must hold citizenship in the target territory (France for now).
• Clearable: must meet all local requirements for high-level security clearance (e.g., no criminal record, fulfillment of national service obligations).