AI Engineer

Avion Solutions•Huntsville, AL

7d•Onsite

About The Position

Avion Solutions Inc., a 100% employee-owned company, is seeking candidates for an AI Engineer to support MDA. This position is located in Huntsville, AL. The role involves providing Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) support to government teams in the development and assessment of AI-enabled applications and tools. The engineer will advise on technical approaches for AI application design, prototyping, integration, and evaluation, with a focus on modern AI patterns such as LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, and prompt pipelines. Responsibilities include reviewing architectures, development approaches, model usage, and technical risks, as well as advising on AI engineering considerations like latency, reliability, and system integration. The position also involves evaluating AI frameworks and libraries, assisting in the development of technical guidance and briefings, supporting test and evaluation activities, and collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure AI efforts are technically grounded and operationally relevant. Staying current with AI advancements and providing informed recommendations on emerging tools and practices is also a key aspect of the role.

Requirements

Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related field and 12+ years of relevant experience.
Experience designing, building, integrating, or evaluating AI/ML-enabled applications or software tools.
Familiarity with modern AI application patterns, including LLM-based applications, RAG, prompt engineering, agentic systems, and AI-assisted workflows.
Experience with software development fundamentals, APIs, data handling, and system integration.
Ability to assess technical tradeoffs and communicate them clearly to both engineers and government stakeholders.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Must be a U.S. citizen and have the ability to obtain/maintain a DoW security clearance.
Must be able to travel up to 15% of the time.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages commonly used in AI application development.
Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, model APIs, evaluation frameworks, and agent testing harnesses.
Exposure to model hosting, inference pipelines, or cloud-based AI development environments.
Understanding of secure AI development practices, data protection, and operational constraints in government settings.
Experience supporting defense, cyber, intelligence, or mission application development.
Familiarity with human-in-the-loop workflows, AI assurance, and evaluation methodologies.
Working knowledge of one or more agentic or orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI, Haystack, LlamaIndex, or similar ecosystems.

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.
Other duties as assigned.