Lead AI Engineer/ Architect

PRECISE SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS INCORPORATED•Washington, DC

18h•Onsite

About The Position

Precise Software Solutions Inc. is seeking a Lead AI Engineer / Architect to serve as the senior technical lead and enterprise-wide technical authority for a Generative AI engineering program supporting the federal Government. You will set the architecture, engineering standards, and Responsible AI and security practices used across the AI systems the team delivers, and stay hands-on in design, development, and troubleshooting. You will lead a cross-functional team of AI engineers, developers, data engineers, UI/UX, and security specialists; author the program's core architecture, governance, and compliance deliverables; and lead each AI system through the federal Authority to Operate (ATO) process. Must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder). Must reside in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and be able to work on-site at DC Government offices. Must be able to obtain and maintain a Government background investigation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Systems, or a related scientific/technical discipline and 7+ years of relevant experience.
7+ years of hands-on experience in AI/ML engineering, enterprise architecture, cloud engineering, data engineering, or software engineering, including direct technical delivery of AI-enabled systems.
2+ years of hands-on experience with Generative AI, LLM integration, RAG, model evaluation, agentic AI, or production AI systems.
Demonstrated experience architecting and delivering secure enterprise or federal AI solutions.
Experience with AI system architecture, cloud AI platforms, APIs, data pipelines, MCP, vector databases, AI orchestration, model evaluation, and MLOps practices.
Experience designing AI solutions in FedRAMP-authorized environments under a Zero Trust security architecture.
Experience with AI-specific security and adversarial testing, including prompt injection, jailbreak, data-poisoning testing, and red teaming.
Knowledge of Responsible AI, AI governance, privacy, and federal compliance requirements, and experience delivering technology that conforms to Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 A and AA.
Experience leading technical teams and advising Government or enterprise stakeholders.
At least one current Generative AI or Machine Learning certification (e.g., Microsoft Azure AI, AWS, Google Cloud, or Databricks), or an equivalent.
Must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (green card holder).
Must reside in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and be able to work on-site at Government offices.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Government background investigation.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, and 10+ years of experience, including federal agency programs.
Multiple cloud architecture certifications (e.g., AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Architect) and Kubernetes certification (CKA).
Experience with multiple cloud AI platforms (e.g., AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry, Google Vertex AI) and open-weight model serving (e.g., vLLM, TGI).
Familiarity with the NIST AI RMF, OMB M-25-21 and M-25-22, OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications, and MITRE ATLAS.
Experience with CMMI or ISO-based quality processes and Agile program delivery.
An active federal background investigation.

Responsibilities

Lead AI solution architecture, design, integration, deployment, and technical oversight for Generative AI, Large Language Model (LLM), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), agentic, and AI-enabled automation capabilities.
Architect agentic and multi-agent AI workflows, and design and integrate Model Context Protocol (MCP) server-based components with appropriate autonomy limits and human oversight.
Define engineering standards, reusable architecture patterns, and delivery approaches applied across all supported agencies and AI systems.
Make and document major architecture decisions for Government approval, including cloud AI platform design, data flows, integrations, encryption, access controls, fallback procedures, and technical debt.
Support multimodal AI with structured evaluation, security, and privacy controls consistent with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
Provide hands-on leadership in development, integration, testing, deployment, and troubleshooting, and lead technical reviews, release readiness reviews, and sprint planning and demos.
Ensure every design uses only Government-furnished tools and environments or open, standards-based technologies.
Prepare Model/Service Approval Requests before any model or AI service is integrated, including version, hosting approach, FedRAMP status, benchmarks, limitations, and data handling.
Lead the ATO effort under the NIST Risk Management Framework (SP 800-37), including security boundaries, FISMA Moderate categorization, and ATO documentation.
Submit ATO packages before production deployment and maintain a current ATO or Interim ATO for all production AI systems.
Oversee AI-specific security, including prompt-injection, jailbreak, and data-poisoning defenses, red teaming, Zero Trust architecture, and the AI Incident Response Plan.
Oversee AI data architecture, model evaluation, MLOps, and operational readiness.
Design continuous monitoring for production AI systems, covering model, prompt, RAG, and dataset drift; retrieval quality; and security and compliance telemetry.
Lead Responsible AI activities, including Responsible AI Impact Assessments (RAIAs), model cards, bias and fairness reviews, explainability documentation, and human-in-the-loop controls, and lead quarterly AI governance reviews with customer stakeholders.
Serve as a Tier 3 escalation resource for production issues, including after-hours escalation of critical incidents.
Mentor engineers, oversee code and prompt reviews, and personally review AI-generated code before deployment.
Advise Government leaders on AI use-case feasibility, roadmaps, emerging technologies, and value measurement, and brief technical decisions to technical and non-technical audiences.

Benefits

Comprehensive Health Benefits (Medical, Dental and Vision)
Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) & Health Savings Account (HSA)
Retirement Plan with 4% match and discretionary match at year end
Paid Time Off (PTO): 15 days of PTO accrued per year; 7 holidays+ 3 Floating holidays; 2 Innovation days (paid training days)
Short Term and Long-Term Disability
Paid Parental Leave
Paid Jury Duty leave
Life and AD&D Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance
Training and Development
Wellness Incentives & Discount programs
Employee Referral Program
Annual Charity Donation Match
Awards and Recognition