Data Engineer – AI & Machine Learning

Integral•Tysons Corner, VA

2d•$150,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Integral Federal is hiring a Data Engineer for AI and Machine Learning to join its internal Office of Technology and core technical group. The role primarily supports internal projects, develops technical capabilities, and establishes best practices, with occasional support for billable client engagements. The position is based at the company’s McLean, Virginia headquarters and follows a hybrid schedule with three days in the office. The employee will interface with government stakeholders and must be eligible to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance. The Data Engineer will design and build data architectures and pipelines for AI and machine learning initiatives, working with structured and unstructured multimodal data. The role also involves evaluating and deploying AI models, including large language models, and ensuring solutions meet federal security, privacy, and governance requirements. The posted salary range is $150,000–$200,000, with potential eligibility for overtime, shift differential, and discretionary bonuses depending on the position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related highly technical field.
At least 3 years of progressive data engineering experience, including at least 2 years specifically supporting AI and machine learning operations (MLOps).
Strong background working with and deploying in cloud environments, particularly AWS GovCloud or Azure Government.
Expert-level proficiency in Python, SQL, and data manipulation libraries such as Pandas and PySpark.
Experience building complex ETL/ELT pipelines for unstructured and multimodal data.
Hands-on experience evaluating, fine-tuning, and deploying AI models, such as with HuggingFace, PyTorch, or TensorFlow.
Experience with modern data warehousing and data lake architectures, such as Databricks, Snowflake, or Redshift.
Must be eligible to obtain and maintain at least a DoD Secret clearance.

Nice To Haves

Active DoD Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI clearance.
Master’s degree in Data Science, AI, or a related field.
Prior experience consulting or working directly with the DoW, Intelligence Community, or DHS.
Deep understanding of MLOps frameworks, containerization with Docker or Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines for machine learning.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and optimize scalable data architectures that support advanced machine learning models, analytics, and high-volume processing for federal mission sets.
Develop, construct, test, and maintain resilient ETL/ELT data pipelines, including pipelines for synthetic data.
Process and integrate high-velocity structured and unstructured multimodal data, including text, imagery, sensor data, and audio/video.
Evaluate and deploy AI models, including large language models, and optimize them for performance, accuracy, and scalability in secure environments.
Engage with Integral project personnel and federal government stakeholders to gather requirements, translate mission needs into data solutions, and present technical concepts to non-technical leaders.
Lead internal, non-billable capability development and flex onto billable client engagements as required.
Ensure data pipelines and machine learning architectures comply with federal security, privacy, and data governance standards, including NIST, FISMA, and DoD Cloud Computing SRG.

Benefits

Paid parental leave
Immediate vesting in the 401(k)
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Flexible spending accounts
Short-term and long-term disability insurance
Life insurance
Paid time off and holidays
Earned bonuses and awards
Professional training reimbursement
Employee Assistance Program
Potential overtime, shift differential, and/or discretionary bonuses, depending on the position