Senior AI Developer

Role overview Join a multidisciplinary engineering team delivering cyber analysis and development capabilities for federal defense missions, with emphasis on cyber situational awareness, command and control, mission assurance, and homeland defense. As a Senior AI Developer, you will design and implement features within a mission-critical line-of-business application supporting operational management functions, applying hands-on AI integration expertise across the full software lifecycle.

Responsibilities - Translate requirements specifications into new or modified application features and document changes thoroughly. - Design, code, benchmark-test, debug, and document software across enterprise systems. - Review existing enterprise applications to identify upgrade, performance, and sustainment opportunities. - Contribute to performance, load, and stress testing cycles and remediate identified defects. - Participate in security architecture reviews for large-scale enterprise systems. - Carry projects through the full lifecycle: requirements analysis, system design, implementation, testing, deployment, and sustainment. - Produce supporting artifacts including technical documentation, test scripts, and training materials. - Collaborate in an Agile environment, taking part in sprint planning, retrospectives, reviews, and daily stand-ups.

Requirements - Bachelor's degree with 8-10 years, Master's with 6-8 years, or PhD with 3-5 years of relevant experience. - Active Secret clearance with the ability to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI clearance. - DoDD 8140.01 Information Assurance Management (IAM) Level I certification or higher. - Proficiency with the Python programming language. - Hands-on experience building software applications that interface directly with AI systems (distinct from using AI coding assistants). - Practical experience with AI workflow frameworks such as Haystack, LangChain, or LlamaIndex. - Experience implementing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines and context engineering, including prompt design, enrichment steps, and guard handling. - Experience developing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers that allow AI agents to interact with application APIs. - Track record of evaluating and selecting models for specific capabilities and managing operational costs of AI-driven features.

Nice to have - Familiarity with FastAPI for backend service development.

Benefits and work setup - Compensation range of approximately $106,480.81 to $185,149.47, influenced by contract wage determinations, experience, skills, location, education, and certifications. - Benefits package typically includes health insurance, life insurance, paid time off, holiday pay, short- and long-term disability, retirement and savings programs, learning and development opportunities, and wellness programs.