Applied AI Engineer 1 - (Python, LLM, MCP)

Akina • Columbia, MD

2d

About The Position

The Applied AI Engineer joins a forward-deployed team working directly with a mission customer to build and improve AI agents, Skills, and tools used in daily operations. The team embeds engineers with operators, analysts, and developers supporting the CNO mission to understand their workflows and identify tasks where AI can help improve efficiency while maintaining accuracy and control. Solutions use frontier models and on-premises open-weight models through the customer's enterprise AI platform, including agents for triaging incoming data, automating repetitive tradecraft, and researching across disparate sources. The work also includes developing autonomous agents that take actions within guardrails, are evaluated with input from users, and log their activity for review.

The engineer works under senior engineers' guidance, learns CNO tradecraft from operators and analysts, and contributes to applied AI capabilities. The position is suited to someone with a solid software engineering foundation who wants to develop their applied AI experience. The role requires a TS/SCI clearance with polygraph and is located in Columbia, Maryland.

Requirements

• Proficiency in Python, including working with JSON, REST APIs, and data manipulation.
• Understanding of software engineering fundamentals, including version control (Git), testing, and debugging.
• Familiarity with LLM concepts such as prompt engineering, structured outputs, and tool/function calling.
• Experience using AI coding assistants (e.g., Claude Code, Copilot) to write, debug, or test code.
• Familiarity with Linux environments and the command line.
• Strong communication skills and willingness to learn from senior engineers and mission subject matter experts.
• A minimum of three years of experience as a software engineer (SWE) in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related discipline from an accredited college or university, or four additional years of SWE experience on projects with similar software processes as a substitute.
• TS/SCI clearance with polygraph required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience building agentic workflows, MCP servers, or Skills.
• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, or GitLab CI/CD.
• Experience with retrieval systems such as RAG, vector databases, or Elasticsearch.
• Experience building web interfaces with React or TypeScript.
• Background in cybersecurity, or knowledge of CNO operations and SIGINT collection and analysis systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and test components of agentic AI solutions in Python, including MCP servers, Skills, and integrations with mission data sources and tools.
• Participate in requirements discussions with operators and analysts and learn their workflows and tradecraft.
• Build scripts and tools to convert, normalize, and extract information from customer data.
• Write test cases and evaluation examples to check the correctness and reliability of AI capabilities.
• Use AI coding agents in daily development and understand and review generated code before committing it.
• Collaborate with other engineers to test workflows, identify issues, and recommend fixes.
• Create documentation and user guides to help mission users adopt new AI tools.

Benefits

• 24 days of PTO accrued annually and 11 federal holidays.
• 401(k) is 100% vested on the start date, with a direct company contribution worth 10% of salary.
• Company covers 100% of employee healthcare costs and 50% of dependent healthcare costs.
• Educational assistance toward college classes.
• Coverage of costs associated with job-related training and certifications.

What This Job Offers

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