Applied AI Engineer 3 - (Python, LLM, MCP)

Akina • Columbia, MD

2d • Onsite

About The Position

Akina is seeking a senior Applied AI Engineer to embed with mission customers and bring AI capabilities into operations. The engineer will work with operators, analysts, and developers to understand their workflows, identify tasks where AI can save time, and deliver reliable tools and agents from prototype through production. Solutions may use frontier or on-premises open-weight models through the customer's enterprise AI platform, and may support tasks such as triaging incoming data, automating repetitive tradecraft, and researching across disparate sources.

The role leads forward-deployed engagements and sets technical direction for agentic systems. It includes building trusted autonomous agents with appropriate guardrails, human approval gates, and audit logging; developing evaluations with mission users; assessing models and frameworks; and communicating findings and tradeoffs to technical and government leadership. The engineer will also mentor colleagues and help establish standards for reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code.

The position is located in Columbia, Maryland, and requires TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph. Akina describes itself as a small, Woman Owned, Service Disabled, Veteran Owned Business.

Requirements

• Extensive professional software engineering experience and advanced Python proficiency, including production services, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Experience building LLM applications or agentic systems using tool or function calling, structured outputs, context management, and multi-step workflows.
• Experience working directly with end users or mission customers to turn ambiguous operational problems into delivered software.
• Experience designing tests, evaluations, or validation layers for AI or other non-deterministic systems.
• Experience using AI coding assistants or agents for code generation, refactoring, and debugging, with the ability to review, own, and explain generated work.
• Technical leadership experience, such as serving as a tech lead, leading design decisions, or mentoring engineers.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, Docker/Kubernetes, and Atlassian tools such as Jira and Confluence; GitLab is preferred.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences.
• A minimum of 12 years of software engineering experience on 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; four additional years of relevant software engineering experience may substitute for the degree.
• TS/SCI clearance with polygraph required.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), Skills, subagents, or multi-agent orchestration frameworks such as PydanticAI or LangGraph.
• Experience securing LLM applications against prompt injection, data leakage, and over-permissioned tool access.
• Experience with retrieval systems such as RAG, vector databases, or Elasticsearch.
• Experience building spec-driven or autonomous development pipelines with AI coding agents.
• Prior forward-deployed or embedded customer-facing engineering experience.
• Experience with production CNO capabilities and operations, or knowledge of end-to-end SIGINT collection and analysis systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead forward-deployed engagements with operations customers, eliciting requirements, identifying useful AI workflows, and delivering solutions from prototype to production.
• Architect and build agentic systems in Python that connect LLMs, MCP servers, Skills, and subagents to mission data sources and operational tools.
• Design safeguards for autonomous agents, including scoped permissions, human approval gates, and audit logging.
• Build evaluation suites with mission users to measure accuracy, reliability, and failure modes, and use results to assess readiness for fielding.
• Evaluate frontier and open-weight models, frameworks, and AI design patterns for mission needs, and brief findings and tradeoffs to technical and government leadership.
• Use AI coding agents in daily development and help define standards for reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing, and lead technical design discussions.
• Communicate project progress, risks, and tradeoffs to project leads and government stakeholders.

Benefits

• 24 days of PTO accrued annually.
• 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 for college classes.
• Coverage of costs associated with job-related training and certifications.

What This Job Offers

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