AI/ML Engineer (TS Clearance)

Assured Consulting • Reston, VA

5h • $175,000 - $220,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Assured Consulting Solutions is seeking an experienced and highly motivated AI/ML Engineer to join their team. The role involves the continued development and training of a custom in-house AI language model used for critical data labeling tasks across various media sources. The AI/ML Engineer will be a core mission specialist responsible for developing, implementing, and deploying innovative AI/ML and LLM-enabled capabilities to solve mission-critical problems. This position combines deep model engineering expertise with mission-focused innovation to create new features and approaches that leverage AI/ML technologies for maximum mission impact.

Requirements

• Must be a U.S. Citizen and possess a current and active Top Secret clearance.
• Must be eligible for a clearance upgrade to SCI and able to pass a Counterintelligence (CI) Polygraph.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related STEM field, or equivalent experience
• Hands-on experience in machine learning engineering, applied AI, or model development with demonstrated model deployment to production.
• Strong software engineering skills in Python for model development, training, inference, and experimentation workflows.
• Experience developing and evaluating machine learning models (supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement learning) in production or mission-focused contexts.
• Demonstrated experience implementing and operationalizing LLM-enabled applications or features, including prompting strategies, retrieval approaches, and integration patterns.
• Experience building and maintaining MLOps infrastructure, including experiment tracking, model versioning, reproducibility, and continuous deployment practices.
• Experience defining model performance metrics, conducting model evaluation, and using evaluation results to drive improvements.
• Experience deploying and operating model services in containerized environments (for example OpenShift or Kubernetes).
• Demonstrated case studies or examples of innovative use of AI/ML to solve domain-specific or mission-critical problems.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical complexity, model assumptions, and performance limitations clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Understanding of secure development, secure AI practices, and deployment governance in controlled or classified environments.
• Ability to work onsite in a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) environment, as required
• Ability to collaborate effectively with government customers, technical teams, and cross-functional partners
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively, both verbally and in writing
• Ability to operate standard office equipment and remain in a stationary position for extended periods
• Ability to analyze complex system requirements and develop technical recommendations
• Ability to contribute to systems engineering, integration, and evaluation efforts across the lifecycle
• Ability to support technical planning, risk identification, and system improvement initiatives
• Ability to work independently while contributing to team objectives in a fast-paced environment
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver high-quality work under deadlines

Nice To Haves

• Having a current TS/SCI and/or CI Polygraph is a plus.
• Once TS/SCI is obtained it must be maintained for continued employment.
• Experience supporting DIA or comparable intelligence community mission environments and problem sets.
• Experience with AWS and C2E cloud environments for AI/ML workload and model serving.
• Experience with advanced model-serving frameworks, orchestration, or inference optimization.
• Familiarity with ontology-driven data modeling or semantic technologies (for example RDF, OWL, or knowledge graphs) for structured reasoning.
• Experience with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), vector search, knowledge-grounded LLM approaches, or semantic search.
• Experience with multi-model or ensemble approaches for improved performance or robustness.
• Familiarity with DevSecOps practices and model release governance in secure environments.
• Experience evaluating and improving reliability, observability, and performance monitoring for mission-critical AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and automate fine-tuning and model training pipelines using available tools or custom code.
• Develop innovative AI/ML and LLM-enabled solutions to address specific mission challenges and operational needs.
• Design, implement, and optimize machine learning models for new mission-critical use cases and features.
• Conduct research on novel modeling approaches, architectures, and techniques to maximize mission capability and competitive advantage.
• Work with mission leads and stakeholders to translate operational needs into technical AI/ML designs and implementation plans.
• Build and maintain MLOps and model deployment pipelines for experiment tracking, model versioning, and reliable production releases.
• Define and track model performance metrics aligned to mission success criteria and use evaluation findings to drive improvements.
• Integrate AI/ML model services into application workflows through APIs and production-ready interfaces.
• Partner with Data Integration Engineers to utilize curated training datasets, test corpora, and evaluation frameworks.
• Collaborate with Senior Software Engineers to operationalize AI/ML capabilities within secure, mission-focused application environments.
• Implement guardrails, monitoring, and fallback strategies for responsible and reliable AI/ML-enabled operations.
• Analyze model behavior, identify performance gaps, and innovate on approaches to improve quality, reliability, and mission impact.
• Document model designs, assumptions, training methodologies, evaluation results, and operational guidance for sustainability and knowledge transfer.
• Support production troubleshooting and performance optimization for mission-critical model-serving workloads.
• Contribute to technical standards and best practices for responsible, secure AI/ML engineering in mission environments.

Benefits

• Assured Consulting Solutions is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. Minorities, females, disabled and protected veterans are urged to apply.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior