AI Engineer - SETA

SAIC•Hanover, NH

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Varen, an SAIC Company is seeking an AI Engineer - SETA to join their team in Columbia, MD. This position requires a TS/SCI with polygraph. The AI Engineer - SETA will provide technical advisory support for the design, evaluation, and advancement of AI-enabled applications, tools, and workflows. This role is intended for a hands-on technical professional who understands how modern AI systems are built and can help guide teams developing practical solutions using large language models, agentic workflows, orchestration frameworks, and supporting software infrastructure. The ideal candidate is a builder who explores new frameworks, prototypes ideas, and continuously learns emerging techniques. Curiosity and passion are highly valued, with a desire to follow the fast-moving AI ecosystem out of genuine interest.

Requirements

TS/SCI with polygraph clearance required.
Hands-on technical professional understanding of modern AI system development.
Experience guiding teams developing practical solutions using large language models, agentic workflows, and orchestration frameworks.
Ability to explore new frameworks, prototype ideas, and continuously learn emerging techniques.
Genuine curiosity and passion for the AI ecosystem.

Responsibilities

Provide SETA support to government teams developing or assessing AI-enabled applications and tools.
Advise on technical approaches for AI application design, prototyping, integration, and evaluation.
Assess solutions involving LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, orchestration layers, prompt pipelines, and evaluation harnesses.
Support the review of architectures, development approaches, model usage patterns, and technical risk areas.
Advise on AI engineering considerations such as latency, reliability, observability, testability, guardrails, data flow, and system integration.
Evaluate and compare modern AI frameworks, agentic libraries, and experimentation harnesses for suitability in mission use cases.
Assist with the development of technical guidance, prototypes, engineering recommendations, and briefings for government stakeholders.
Support test and evaluation activities for AI tools, including performance assessment, qualitative review, and workflow validation.
Collaborate with platform engineers, product leads, mission users, and government leadership to ensure AI efforts remain technically grounded and operationally relevant.
Stay current on rapid changes in the AI ecosystem and provide informed recommendations on emerging tools and practices.