AI/ML Engineer

ECS Tech Inc•WASAHINGTON, VA

6d•$125,000 - $145,000•Onsite

About The Position

Everforth ECS Federal is seeking an AI/ML Engineer to support the PSP2 Agentic Network program for a Department of Defense customer. The position is based onsite at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, with meetings and program events also taking place in Fairfax, Virginia. The role is contingent upon additional funding and requires routine domestic and international travel, including to Combatant Commands and other Government-directed locations. The role serves as a senior hands-on technical authority for the PSP2 Agentic Network, designing, prototyping, deploying, and sustaining secure agentic AI, data, and platform capabilities across classified and unclassified environments. Its primary focus is JWICS-hosted mission services and approved information-sharing paths. The engineer evaluates hosting architectures, including JWICS hosting and cloud landing-zone alternatives, and turns approved approaches into deployable, observable, and supportable systems. The position also engineers an unclassified platform for storing and sharing releasable information with approved allies and partners, and develops technically feasible data-transfer patterns into JWICS through authorized cross-domain solutions. The role defines necessary security, interface, data-governance, and operational constraints and supports technical integration, testing, deployment, troubleshooting, and sustainment. Travel of less than 50% is expected throughout the program. The position is contingent upon additional funding.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship.
Current DoD Top Secret clearance with eligibility for Sensitive Compartmented Information access (TS/SCI), and ability to obtain and maintain required facility, system, enclave, and JWICS access.
Active AWS Cloud and Security+ certifications.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Software Engineering, Systems Engineering, Cybersecurity, or a related technical field.
At least 5 years of relevant professional experience supporting technical integration, deployment, test, fielding, or sustainment activities.
Ability to work onsite at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and attend meetings and program events in Fairfax, Virginia.
Ability to travel less than 50% throughout the program to CONUS/OCONUS customer sites and Government installations; willingness to perform routine domestic and international travel.
Professional experience integrating, deploying, troubleshooting, or sustaining software, data, analytics, AI-enabled, or mission-platform capabilities in DoD, Intelligence Community, or other classified Government environments.
Experience integrating third-party software, data sources, models, agents, interfaces, or operational tools into an existing Government platform.
Experience with technical integration and deployment across multiple security enclaves, including NIPR, SIPR, JWICS, or comparable classified environments.
Experience troubleshooting technical issues involving configuration, dependencies, connectivity, access controls, interfaces, containerized applications, platform services, and deployment processes.
Experience coordinating technical readiness involving enclave access, credentials, accounts, Government-furnished equipment and information, platform dependencies, and security or accreditation actions.
Ability to isolate technical problems, distinguish contractor-controlled issues from Government dependencies, recommend corrective actions, and document escalation rationale.
Ability to resolve time-sensitive issues and manage multiple blockers, dependencies, and deployment priorities simultaneously.
Experience supporting hardening, integration testing, user acceptance testing, operational-readiness assessments, demonstrations, pilots, or fielding events.
Understanding of cross-domain deployment, classified data handling, system interfaces, access controls, and approved information-transfer paths.
Ability to assess architectural, cybersecurity, sustainment, reliability, performance, and scalability implications of technical approaches.
Ability to analyze and document technically feasible data flows from unclassified environments to JWICS while preserving security, release, and authorization controls.
Experience documenting technical risks, dependencies, configurations, test results, defects, corrective actions, deployment status, and sustainment requirements.
Ability to translate technical findings into operational impacts, decision points, and recommended actions for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Ability to coordinate across Government organizations, operational commands, engineering teams, vendors, network and security personnel, platform owners, and data owners.
Strong written, verbal, briefing, and technical-documentation skills, including preparing issue summaries, readiness assessments, decision-support materials, procedures, and senior-leader briefings.
Strong analytical, organizational, troubleshooting, risk-management, stakeholder-coordination, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
Ability to work independently in a classified, multi-vendor, Government-led environment with evolving priorities, compressed timelines, and mission-critical requirements.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, collaboration platforms, issue-tracking tools, technical documentation repositories, and standard Government staff-coordination tools.
Highly developed interpersonal and oral/written communication skills, with the ability to interact professionally with stakeholders ranging from peers and end users to executive management.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree.
Familiarity with the Maven Smart System and comparable CDAO, DoD, or Intelligence Community mission platforms.

Responsibilities

Lead the technical architecture for the PSP2 Agentic Network, including agent orchestration, model inference, data access, APIs, platform services, network boundaries, observability, and secure deployment patterns.
Assess JWICS hosting options for technical suitability, performance, resilience, supportability, and operational constraints; document recommended architecture patterns and tradeoffs.
Deploy and operate LLM inference and agentic AI services, including model-serving endpoints, prompt and policy controls, retrieval and tool-use integrations, scaling, performance tuning, monitoring, and failure recovery.
Implement an unclassified platform for controlled storage, discovery, access, and sharing of releasable data with approved allies and partners.
Analyze data flows between unclassified and JWICS environments and define data preparation, labeling, format, security, release, and interface requirements for authorized cross-domain transfer.
Develop technical designs, integration specifications, and proof-of-concept implementations for approved cross-domain data-transfer patterns without bypassing security, release, or authorization processes.
Implement application and platform observability, including health checks, logging, metrics, tracing, alerting, performance analysis, incident diagnostics, and operational dashboards.
Perform technical hardening, integration and performance testing, security validation, and operational-readiness verification before release.
Troubleshoot complex issues involving configuration, dependencies, connectivity, identity and access controls, interfaces, containers, data pipelines, model inference, and deployment processes.
Maintain architecture diagrams, interface-control documentation, configuration baselines, runbooks, troubleshooting procedures, deployment instructions, and technical decision records.
Evaluate architectural alternatives and communicate tradeoffs involving security, reliability, performance, scalability, interoperability, maintainability, and cost.
Provide technical evidence, configuration information, and architecture artifacts for cybersecurity, accreditation, and Authorization to Operate activities.
Review implementations, establish engineering standards, and provide technical direction to developers and engineers working on the program.
Provide on-site and remote technical support during integration, deployment, initial operational use, and stabilization.
Support technical integration, testing, deployment, troubleshooting, and sustainment at Combatant Commands and other Government-directed locations.