AI Engineer (TS/SCI with Polygraph is REQUIRED)

Aperio Global•Fort Meade, MD

1d•$127,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Aperio Global is seeking AI Engineers at the SWE2 and SWE3 experience levels to support its AI & Emerging Technologies (AI&ET) mission. The role works closely with mission stakeholders to capture requirements, support structured planning, and improve the certification process through AI/ML tooling. Engineers develop tools and techniques—including fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs)—to enhance vulnerability identification and mitigation within classified secure enclaves. The position focuses on LLM orchestration, data preparation and vectorization, and database solutions for retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), artifact storage, audit trails, and metadata management. Engineers collaborate with systems engineers and technical leadership to architect and deploy networked AI tools, assess performance and scalability, support security assessments and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes, and contribute to system design and roadmap planning. The role is located in Fort Meade, Maryland. U.S. citizenship and an active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph are required before applying. The posted salary range is $127,000–$200,000, with placement based on factors including qualifications, experience, education, skills, work location, and business needs.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree plus 5 years of relevant experience for SWE2 or 8 years for SWE3, or equivalent.
Proficiency in Python, LLM integration, and data engineering.
Experience with static analyzers and RAG frameworks.
Experience with relational and vector databases.
Familiarity with Agile methodologies, Git, Jira, and Confluence.
Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph; the clearance must be held before applying.
U.S. citizenship is required.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Rust.
Experience with Claude Code or OpenAI Codex.
CI/CD pipeline design and maintenance experience.
Hands-on experience deploying AI tools in classified or air-gapped environments.
Performance profiling and scalability optimization experience in networked AI systems.

Responsibilities

Capture requirements with mission stakeholders and support structured planning.
Improve the certification process by introducing AI/ML tooling.
Develop AI/ML tools and techniques, including fine-tuning LLMs, to improve vulnerability identification and mitigation.
Design, develop, and maintain LLM orchestration frameworks coordinating static analyzers, RAG systems, and automated testing pipelines.
Develop and optimize data preprocessing pipelines to ingest, clean, transform, and vectorize product documentation, source code, and test results for LLM use.
Design and implement database solutions for RAG architectures, artifact storage, audit trails, and metadata management.
Collaborate with systems engineers to architect and deploy networked AI tools within secure enclaves.
Conduct performance profiling, optimization, and scalability analysis of mission systems.
Support security assessments and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes.
Collaborate with technical leadership on system design decisions and roadmap planning.