Applied AI Engineer

Bitwise • Columbia, MD

16d • $160,000 - $205,000

About The Position

We're looking for an Applied AI Engineer who's excited about pushing the boundaries of AI in cybersecurity. This role is for someone who experiments with cutting-edge models, builds proof-of-concepts in their spare time, and sees every workflow challenge as an opportunity to apply AI in creative ways. You'll be supporting cyber operations teams, working directly with security professionals to ideate and deploy AI solutions that enhance their daily workflows. AI is evolving rapidly—this isn't about following established playbooks, it's about exploring new territory, staying current, and building solutions that don't exist yet.

Requirements

• Active TS/SCI with Polygraph. Candidates without a current clearance will not be considered.
• 3+ years of software development experience with strong Python proficiency.
• Hands-on experience building production AI applications (not just notebooks or demos).
• Familiarity with modern AI frameworks and tooling (Pydantic AI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, agent frameworks).
• Experience with API development and integration (REST, GraphQL, streaming APIs).
• Understanding of prompt engineering, structured outputs, and tool/function calling.
• Strong debugging skills and ability to troubleshoot non-deterministic AI behavior.
• Git proficiency and collaborative development experience.
• Self-directed learner who thrives in ambiguity and rapidly evolving technology.
• Genuine enthusiasm for exploring what's possible at the frontier of AI capabilities.
• Three (3) years of experience with a Bachelor’s degree in a technical discipline or 4 additional years may substitute for a degree.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with agentic workflows and multi-agent orchestration.
• Background in cybersecurity or understanding of security operations workflows.
• Contributions to open-source AI projects or public demos/repositories.
• Experience with retrieval systems (RAG, vector databases, semantic search).
• Knowledge of AI engineering best practices (evals, observability, deployment patterns).
• Familiarity with multiple AI providers (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, open-weight models).
• Experience building IDE extensions, CLI tools, or browser extensions with AI features.
• Understanding of data pipelines and structured/unstructured data handling.

Responsibilities

• Rapidly prototype AI-powered tools and integrations for cyber operations teams.
• Build and deploy agentic systems using modern frameworks like LangGraph, CrewAI, or similar orchestration tools.
• Create custom tools and integrations that extend AI capabilities into existing security infrastructure.
• Develop Python applications that leverage multiple AI models and APIs in production
• Work directly with cyber analysts to understand workflows and identify high-impact automation opportunities.
• Experiment with frontier models and techniques, quickly evaluating their operational viability.
• Build robust API integrations connecting AI capabilities to security tooling and data sources.
• Iterate quickly based on user feedback, often shipping multiple improvements daily.
• Document novel approaches and contribute to the team's knowledge base.
• Build and maintain a library of reusable AI components and design patterns.

Benefits

• Top salaries because we're top performers
• Pick your PTO – Everyone values time and money differently, so we give you the flexibility to choose between 3 and 5 weeks of PTO with a corresponding adjustment to your pay. Your choice, your balance.
• All 11 federal holidays, paid!
• Up to 2 snow days, paid!
• We’ll quadruple (4x!) the first 6% you contribute to your 401(k), giving you up to a 24% company match. Contributing less than 6%? Unclaimed matches come right back to you as extra income, giving you a guaranteed 24% that goes to your retirement, to your paycheck, or both. C’mon now!
• 100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurances. That’s a lot. Already covered on health insurance? No problem – we’ll trade you this benefit for a boost to your salary instead.
• $5,250 annual education assistance for training, certifications, tuition, and even student loan repayments.
• Spot bonuses for obtained certifications, customer recognition, and just about anything else that makes us go "Hot damn!". We hope to say that many times about you.

What This Job Offers

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