Senior AI Systems Architect

B&A•Ashburn, VA

About The Position

At B&A, we foster and embrace a distinct set of values that we live by and instill in all aspects of our organization: dedication, commitment, partnership, trust, and recognition. We have incorporated these values into successful delivery for our customers since 1988. B&A believes in ensuring its employees feel deeply connected to B&A, recognizing successes and hard work, and providing continuous opportunities to learn and grow. Our people are entrepreneurial thinkers that combine mindset, vision, and experience to drive value – not only to us as an organization, but to the clients we support. We promote a collaborative culture with our clients, and with each other, as one team working towards a common vision. We’d love for you to join our team! B&A is looking for a Senior AI Systems Architect to join a contract with a federal government client in support of an important mission. The Senior AI Systems Architect leads the design of enterprise AI ecosystems and reusable AI services within the client's AI Enablement Center, enabling AI-as-a-Service capabilities across multiple applications and operational environments. The role combines enterprise architecture, AI engineering, cloud modernization, cybersecurity, and mission operations expertise to deliver scalable, secure, and governable AI solutions aligned with operational requirements and federal AI governance mandates. This position serves as a trusted technical advisor to leadership, program stakeholders, architects, developers, data scientists, and cybersecurity teams while driving the transition of AI capabilities from research and experimentation into production operational environments.

Requirements

12+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, AI/ML engineering, cloud modernization, or advanced analytics solutions.
5+ years designing and implementing AI/ML or Gen-AI solutions in enterprise or federal environments.
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology Management or Engineering is required.
Strong expertise in: Generative AI, LLM architectures, RAG frameworks, MLOps, AI operationalization, Computer Vision, NLP, Cloud-native architectures.
Experience with AWS and/or Google Cloud AI ecosystems.
Strong experience designing: Event-driven architectures, API ecosystems, Data streaming platforms, Microservices architectures, Enterprise integration frameworks.
Experience implementing secure AI and DevSecOps pipelines within regulated environments.
Strong understanding of federal cybersecurity and compliance frameworks including NIST RMF and Zero Trust.
Experience operationalizing AI-as-a-Service capabilities across mission applications.
Experience designing scalable multimodal AI platforms supporting image intelligence, semantic search, and automated metadata generation.
Experience reducing operational analytical processing times from hours/days to near real-time through the implementation of massively parallel AI architectures.
Experience implementing secure AI governance and operationalization frameworks aligned with customer AI policies and federal security mandates.
Experience enabling reusable enterprise AI services to accelerate adoption of AI across operational domains.
Active TS or CBP BI

Nice To Haves

MBA/Master's Degree in a relevant field of study preferred.

Responsibilities

Serve as the lead architect for AI and Gen-AI initiatives supporting operational mission requirements across national security customer domains.
Design and operationalize enterprise AI architectures supporting scalable AI-as-a-Service capabilities across client applications.
Develop reusable AI frameworks, shared services, and reference architectures aligned with customer enterprise standards and governance models.
Architect multimodal AI solutions supporting text, image, video, and structured/unstructured data analysis.
Define enterprise AI integration patterns supporting cloud-native, event-driven, and microservices-based architectures.
Lead design and deployment of AI/ML and Gen-AI solutions including: RAG architectures, Agentic AI frameworks, LLM orchestration, Computer Vision, Image analysis and object detection, Anomaly detection, Predictive analytics, NLP and summarization services, Intelligent search and semantic retrieval.
Design scalable pipelines for AI model training, inference, monitoring, retraining, and operational management.
Implement secure Gen-AI guardrails addressing: Hallucination mitigation, Prompt injection prevention, Prompt leakage controls, Explainability and traceability, Responsible AI governance.
Architect high-throughput AI processing frameworks capable of supporting near real-time mission operations and large-scale analytical workloads.
Integrate AI services into operational systems, mission workflows, and enterprise data platforms.
Architect event-driven data ecosystems leveraging Kafka/MSK, APIs, streaming pipelines, and real-time interoperability frameworks.
Support modernization of legacy systems and data platforms into scalable cloud-native AI-enabled architectures.
Design interoperable data frameworks leveraging NIEM, WCO, JSON/REST APIs, and other federal interoperability standards.
Enable AI integration across structured and unstructured mission datasets including operational intelligence, targeting data, image repositories, and external partner feeds.
Architect secure AI environments leveraging AWS and Google cloud ecosystems including: Amazon Bedrock, AWS SageMaker, Vertex AI, Databricks, Containerized AI platforms.
Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automated provisioning, CI/CD, and MLOps pipelines supporting rapid AI deployment and lifecycle management.
Design AI operationalization pipelines with: Automated model deployment, Drift monitoring, Retraining triggers, Model governance, Security automation.
Collaborate with DevSecOps and cybersecurity teams to integrate AI solutions into secure enterprise delivery pipelines.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to AI engineers, data scientists, architects, and development teams.
Lead architecture reviews, technical strategy sessions, and solution design workshops.
Translate operational mission requirements into scalable technical architectures and implementation roadmaps.
Develop technical white papers, executive briefings, architecture diagrams, and implementation strategies for leadership.
Support proposal development, technical volume writing, and customer demonstrations for customer's AI initiatives.

Benefits

three robust individual and family medical plans to full time employees, including a Health Savings Account (HSA) option
two tiers of dental coverage
vision
life & AD&D
disability
accident
hospital indemnity
critical illness insurance
paid time off
B&A sponsored trainings and certifications
pet insurance benefits
commuter transit benefits
a free subscription to a virtual exercise platform (NEOU)
B&A’s 401(k) plan is available to all employees and includes a company matching contribution
The B&A Cares program: 30/60/90-day wellness check ins, personal development, financial management, and stress management seminars, and more
A formal mentorship program
Job shadowing and cross training opportunities
Brand Ambassador program
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - Access to various support resources to include counseling, legal guidance, financial planning, and more
Monthly teambuilding events
B&A Annual Wellness Challenges: #StepWithB&A, #WalkDuringLunchWithB&A, #VolunteeringWithB&A, #ExerciseDuringLunchWithB&A, and more