(9301) Software Engineer

IAMUS Consulting•Columbia, MD

20h•$187,000 - $243,000•Hybrid

About The Position

IAMUS Consulting is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to build foundational AI integration frameworks and agentic platforms. The role focuses on designing, developing, and implementing the agentic platform for the proprietary JCRSD Data Lake tool, primarily through Python-based components and container orchestration. The position applies industry best practices, open-source capabilities, and large language models to create a secure, scalable framework for integrating AI into the platform; it does not involve training foundational AI models from scratch. The engineer will build Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, reusable AI skills, and safety guardrails, and coordinate with internal teams to expose their APIs to autonomous agents. This is a hybrid role requiring an average of 1–2 days per week at the Columbia, Maryland office, with flexibility to adapt to schedule changes. The role calls for a senior-level contributor who can balance hands-on engineering with team guidance and mentorship. The successful candidate must be a U.S. citizen and obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Security Clearance, though a clearance is not required on the first day. The estimated salary range is $187,000–$243,000, depending on location, education, skills, experience, and contract-specific affordability.

Requirements

At least 9 years of software engineering experience focused on Python backend development and a bachelor’s degree in a related field; or 7 years of relevant experience and a master’s degree in a related field; or a high school diploma or equivalent and 13 years of relevant experience.
Must be a U.S. citizen and able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government Security Clearance; clearance is not required on day one.
Hands-on experience deploying and managing containerized workloads in Kubernetes.
Hands-on experience integrating commercial LLM APIs or open-source models into production backend applications.
Understanding of applied AI concepts, including prompt engineering, agents, function calling/tool use, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
Experience designing enterprise APIs, RESTful web services, and microservices architecture.
Experience with configuration management tools such as Git, CI/CD pipelines, and Docker.
Comfort working on a Linux command line.
Experience serving as a tech lead, mentor, or manager for engineering teams.
Ability to work in a hybrid environment, averaging 1–2 days per week at the Columbia, Maryland office, and adapt to schedule changes.
Strong troubleshooting, responsiveness, inquisitiveness, and testing skills.

Nice To Haves

Active Secret or Top Secret clearance.
Familiarity with Java frameworks such as Spring or Java-based software capabilities.
Familiarity with Python AI integration frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, or AutoGen.
Experience with vector databases, semantic caching, and AI observability tools.
Experience with NiFi, Kafka, and cloud infrastructure such as AWS or Azure.
Experience with SQL databases such as Postgres or MySQL, distributed databases, or NoSQL databases.
Prior experience or familiarity with Big Data platforms or Data Lake architectures.

Responsibilities

Design and develop Python-based components for the core agentic platform.
Deploy, manage, and scale applications in Kubernetes environments.
Build MCP servers and reusable AI skills that enable agents to interact safely with internal databases, microservices, and external APIs.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to expose Java-based APIs to AI agents.
Implement enterprise AI guardrails, including data privacy protections, sensitive-data scrubbing, prompt-injection defenses, and output validation.
Maintain strong testing practices, including automated testing pipelines for non-deterministic AI outputs.
Troubleshoot effectively and manage multiple deadlines in a fast-paced, small-business environment.
Provide team guidance and mentorship while contributing hands-on; take on other duties as assigned.