Data Engineer (AI) Subject Matter Expert (SME) (4799) (TS/SCI) (Ft. Belvoir, VA - Nolan Bldg)

Smartronix • Fort Belvoir, VA

46d • Onsite

About The Position

SMX is seeking a Data Engineer (AI) Subject Matter Expert (SME) to spearhead the development and sustainment of data pipelines and data services that enable AI/ML capabilities within Army Intelligence mission environments. This role defines standards, develops and implements end-to-end data pipeline strategy, and guides a small team to deliver reliable, secure, and observable data services for training, inference, and analytics. The Data Engineer (AI) SME partners with AI/ML engineers, analysts, platform teams, and mission leadership to align data capabilities with operational outcomes, security, and governance. This is a full-time onsite position in Ft. Belvoir, VA.

Requirements

• Active TS security clearance and eligible for SCI and NATO read-on prior to starting work
• Meet all requirements to receive a privileged user account on a TS/SCI information system (e.g. Army Cloud Computing Service Provider) prior to starting work. The requirements are currently defined in DoDD 8140.01.
• Security+ or related DoDD 8140-relevant certification.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 7+ years of experience in data engineering or large-scale data processing in an AI/ML-supporting capacity; 2+ years leading data engineering efforts (tech lead, team lead, or equivalent).
• Proven experience designing and operating ELT/ETL at scale; orchestration.
• Highly proficient with programming and/or scripting languages (e.g., Python, SQL, Bash).
• Proficient with cloud platforms, data storage systems, and workflow orchestration tools.
• Proficient with containerization and CI/CD principles.
• Knowledgeable with military operations, intelligence workflows, and digital platforms.
• Ability to work within the constraints of military security and compliance standards.
• Highly proficient in working closely with model developers, analysis, and platform engineers to understand data requirements and operational context.
• Expert problem-definition and solution-development skills to troubleshoot and optimize data operations in support of AI/ML systems.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for effective collaboration with diverse teams.
• Support new team member onboarding and assist with training materials as needed.

Nice To Haves

• Background in data privacy, ethical AI deployment, or regulated industries
• AWS Certified Security - Specialty or equivalent cloud certifications.

Responsibilities

• Translate mission needs into a data engineering roadmap, delivery plans, and measurable outcomes for AI/ML use cases.
• Serve as primary technical point of contact for data dependencies across model development, analytics, and platform teams; drive cross-team decision making and risk trade-offs.
• Review and recommend designs, requests, and deployments from team members; develop quality standards and coding conventions.
• Define reference architectures and patterns for ingestion, ELT/ETL, lake/lakehouse/warehouse integration, and feature data delivery.
• Select and standardize pipeline tooling and storage/layout strategies to balance performance, cost, and security.
• Establish schema, partitioning, and lifecycle strategies to support model retraining, reproducibility, and rollback.
• Design and oversee ETL/ELT pipelines that supply structured and unstructured data to AI/ML workflows.
• Establish and ensure compliance with SLOs/SKIs for data freshness, latency, and completeness; oversee and implement autoscaling and performance tuning across cloud/hybrid environments.
• Implement and oversee data ingestion, cleansing, transformation, normalization, and feature preparation steps according to established methods.
• Ensure pipelines are reliable, repeatable, and well-documented.
• Perform data profiling, validation, and integrity checks to ensure high-quality inputs to AI/ML models.
• Monitor data pipeline performance and data flow health; document and escalate issues to senior engineers.
• Drive issue triage and root-cause analysis; lead post-incident reviews and preventative improvements.
• Contribute to improving data observability and traceability.
• Lead employment of Agile methodologies for project management.
• Manage deployment pipelines, containerization, and CI/CD workflows for AI services in the cloud to ensure reproducible data operations.
• Implement and oversee robust monitoring, observability, and performance tracking for AI-supporting data systems.
• Provide training and technical support to military personnel to ensure effective adoption and utilization of AI technologies.
• Ensure comprehensive documentation of integration architecture, processes, and operational dependencies, to include data structures, transformation logic, data lineage, pipeline workflows, and operational procedures.
• Mentor and coach engineers; build repeatable playbooks and raise the team's technical maturity.
• Ensure compliance with military security, privacy and governance standards for AI-supporting data systems.
• Ensure processes and procedures leverage changes in data engineering and AI/ML governance best practices.

Benefits

• At SMX, one of our Core Values is to Invest in Our People so we offer a competitive mix of compensation, learning & development opportunities, and benefits.
• Some key components of our robust benefits include health insurance, paid leave, and retirement.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees