Artificial Intelligence Engineer

Caladwich Consulting LLC•Washington, DC

21h•Remote

About The Position

Caladwich is seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented Artificial Intelligence Engineer to support the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Information Security Cybersecurity Operations and Security Engineering (COSE) program. The selected professional will design, develop, evaluate, and deploy AI and machine-learning capabilities that support VA cybersecurity architecture and engineering. This role applies production-grade data science and software engineering practices while maintaining security, privacy, explainability, and Federal compliance. This position offers the opportunity to contribute directly to responsible use of AI to improve cybersecurity analysis, engineering, automation, and decision support across VA. The engineer turns operational needs into measurable AI solutions and integrates them safely into enterprise workflows.

Requirements

Minimum 10 years of experience in relevant fields such as IT security, data science, or software engineering, including at least five years designing, developing, or deploying AI or machine-learning systems in enterprise or Government environments.
Expertise working on data science, machine-learning, or AI projects and building, training, and deploying models and AI systems in production.
Expertise collaborating across data science, software development, cybersecurity, and domain teams; preparing datasets; and applying AI to real-world enterprise problems.
Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence, Business Administration, Business Management, Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Assurance, Information Security, Information Resource Management, or a related field.
Certification in one or more of the following: IAT III, IAM III, or IASAE III.
Must be able to read, write, speak, and understand the English language.
Must successfully complete and maintain the VA personnel vetting and background investigation requirements applicable to assigned work; PWS Tasks 5.1 through 5.9 are designated Tier 4 / High Risk.
Must complete required fingerprinting, personnel security forms, security and privacy training, and Rules of Behavior acknowledgments within Government-established timelines.
Must qualify for and properly safeguard any required VA Personal Identity Verification (PIV) credential and Government-furnished equipment.
Must be available and responsive during core hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on normal Federal Government workdays.
Must be able to work from a Contractor-provided facility and travel occasionally to VA Central Office in Washington, D.C., or other approved locations when coordinated in advance.
Remote access to VA systems must occur only through VA-approved methods and from locations permitted by VA policy.

Nice To Haves

PWS substitution: a PhD in IT security, data science, software engineering, or a related field may substitute for up to five years of required experience. IAT III, IAM III, or IASAE III certification may substitute for a relevant Bachelor's degree or four years of relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Design, build, train, evaluate, deploy, and maintain machine-learning models and AI systems in enterprise or Government environments.
Identify and implement AI-enabled automation opportunities that reduce manual analysis, review cycle time, or rework without degrading security or quality.
Collect, clean, transform, analyze, and govern data used for modeling, testing, monitoring, and decision support.
Apply AI/ML engineering to security architecture, secure engineering, baseline management, risk analysis, and other COSE mission needs.
Collaborate with data scientists, software developers, security architects, engineers, and domain experts to define requirements and validate outcomes.
Develop production pipelines, interfaces, documentation, testing strategies, monitoring, and lifecycle controls for AI capabilities.
Assess model performance, reliability, drift, bias, explainability, privacy, security, and operational risk; document limitations and mitigations.
Integrate AI solutions with VA-approved platforms, applications, data sources, and security controls in accordance with Federal and VA policy.
Coordinate with VA stakeholders, technical teams, system owners, and other contractors to resolve issues and keep work aligned with VA priorities.
Develop, maintain, and submit accurate technical documentation, status information, and contract deliverables within required timeframes.
Apply VA security, privacy, accessibility, records-management, and configuration-management requirements to all work products.
Support risk, issue, dependency, schedule, and quality management activities, including corrective actions and continuous improvement.
Protect VA information and systems, use approved collaboration and remote-access methods, and promptly report security or privacy concerns.
Participate in meetings, reviews, briefings, and occasional travel as directed and approved under the task order.
Prepare model documentation, data lineage, test evidence, deployment records, monitoring results, and decision-ready technical briefings.
Support governance reviews, secure design assessments, incident response, vulnerability remediation, and ongoing model maintenance.