Applied AI Engineer

Groundswell is seeking an Applied AI Engineer to help clients and internal teams move AI from initial requirements to deployed capabilities. In this onsite role in Virginia, you will lead AI-literate delivery that ties measurable outcomes to system design, evaluation, and operationalization, including knowing when a non-AI solution is the better path.

You will collaborate with business and technical stakeholders to clarify workflows and constraints, then translate those inputs into an approach that fits the problem. The work spans end-to-end capability building, with attention to adoption needs as much as model performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead requirements conversations with business and technical stakeholders, including workflow, the decision being supported, acceptable result standards, and unraised constraints.
• Define and defend the technical approach, selecting the right AI pattern such as extraction, classification, summarization, retrieval, or agentic workflows.
• Recommend against AI when a simpler solution is the correct choice, including process changes, improved interfaces, and rule updates.
• Define measurable success criteria before building, including accuracy targets, human review thresholds, acceptance conditions, and the definition of failure.
• Build the complete capability beyond model components, including prompt and retrieval design, structured outputs, tool and function definitions, API integration, data handling, error states, and the user interface.
• Set up evaluation sets from real data and measure results against them.
• Iterate based on evaluation results, determine readiness for deployment, and make architecture decisions within scope while weighing quality, cost, latency, security, and authorization constraints.
• Operationalize capabilities in the client environment, covering governance, logging, and traceability requirements.
• Monitor quality, cost, latency, and drift after launch, and optimize as better or less expensive options become available.
• Support adoption by helping clients understand what is possible and shaping the next phase of work through proof of concept work.
• Mentor engineers new to AI through code review, pairing, and guidance toward the appropriate pattern for each problem.
• Maintain current knowledge of models, tooling, and techniques and bring back reusable patterns for the team.
• Move across client delivery, internal product work, rapid proofs of concept, and internal enablement as needed.
• Produce clear documentation describing what the solution does, known limitations, validation approach, and what happens when incorrect results occur.

Minimum Requirements

• 4+ years building and shipping production software.
• At least 1 year of hands-on experience integrating large language models, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, structured extraction, tool use, and agent patterns.
• Proven ability to own a capability end to end, from ambiguous requirements to production use.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating AI system quality, including building test sets, defining metrics, and making deployment decisions based on evidence.
• Strong programming ability in a general-purpose language such as Python, TypeScript, or SQL, applied across the full application.
• Ability to lead requirements conversations with non-technical stakeholders and translate input into a technical approach.
• Judgment on tradeoffs between accuracy, cost, latency, and complexity, with the ability to explain tradeoffs to engineers and executives.
• Excellent written communication for client-facing documentation and design rationale.
• Ability to work independently through ambiguity, define an approach, and drive implementation and delivery with minimal direction.
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Ability to obtain and maintain any federal government background investigation, suitability determination, or security clearance required by assigned client engagements.
• Willingness to teach, including developing the capability of others alongside individual delivery.

Technologies

• Python, TypeScript, SQL
• Appian, OutSystems, Mendix, Microsoft Power Platform, ServiceNow, Salesforce
• AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans
• Flexible Spending Account
• 4% 401K Match (immediate vesting)
• Paid Time Off
• Tuition reimbursement, certification programs, and professional development
• Flexible work schedule
• On-site gym and childcare option

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field such as Data Science, Business Analytics, Mathematics, or Computer Science.
• Experience with a low-code or application platform such as Appian, OutSystems, Mendix, Microsoft Power Platform, ServiceNow, or Salesforce.
• Public sector or regulated-industry delivery experience, including compliance and authorization processes.
• Experience with cloud AI services such as AWS Bedrock or Azure OpenAI.
• Familiarity with LLM evaluation or observability tooling.
• Prior consulting, solutions engineering, professional services, or embedded client work.

Location: Virginia (onsite)

Salary: USD 88,177 - 171,637 per yearly

Note: Groundswell does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies. All unsolicited resumes will be considered the property of Groundswell, and Groundswell will not be obligated to pay a placement fee.