Applied AI Engineer 3

Applied AI Engineer 3 will lead forward-deployed work with mission customers to deliver trusted autonomous AI agents and tools from early discovery through production.

Responsibilities

• Lead forward-deployed engagements with operations customers: elicit requirements from operators and analysts and identify workflows where AI reduces time-to-completion
• Deliver solutions from prototype to production
• Architect and build agentic systems in Python that connect LLMs, Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, Skills, and subagents to mission data sources and existing operational tools
• Design agent guardrails, including scoped permissions, human approval gates, and audit logging for safe actions on operational systems
• Build evaluation suites with mission users to measure accuracy, reliability, and failure modes; use results to determine readiness to field capabilities
• Evaluate new models, frameworks, and AI design patterns (frontier and open-weight), then brief technical and government leadership on findings and tradeoffs
• Use AI coding agents (example: Claude Code) in daily development
• Define team standards for reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing; lead technical design discussions for the project area
• Communicate progress, risks, and tradeoffs to project leads and government stakeholders

Requirements

• Advanced Python with extensive professional software engineering experience, including production services, APIs, and data pipelines relied on by users
• Experience building LLM applications or agentic systems using tool/function calling, structured outputs, context management, and multi-step workflows
• Experience working directly with end users or mission customers to translate ambiguous operational needs into delivered software
• Experience designing tests, evaluations, or validation layers for AI or other non-deterministic systems
• Experience using AI coding assistants or agents (examples: Claude Code, Codex, Copilot) for code generation, refactoring, and debugging, plus the review discipline to own and explain output
• Technical leadership experience (tech lead, leading design decisions, mentoring engineers)
• Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines (GitLab preferred), Docker/Kubernetes, and Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence)
• Strong written and verbal communication with both technical and non-technical audiences

Technologies

• Python
• LLMs
• Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Skills
• subagents
• Git
• CI/CD pipelines
• GitLab
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Jira
• Confluence
• Claude Code
• Codex
• Copilot
• Atlassian tools

Benefits

• 24 days PTO accrued annually and 11 federal holidays
• 401k is 100% vested on your start date; company direct contribution worth 10% of salary
• Akina covers 100% of healthcare costs for employees and 50% toward dependents
• Educational assistance toward college classes; coverage for job-related training and certifications

Clearance

• TS/SCI - Polygraph required

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), Skills, subagents, or multi-agent orchestration frameworks such as PydanticAI or LangGraph
• Experience securing LLM applications against prompt injection, data leakage, and over-permissioned tool access
• Experience with retrieval systems (RAG, vector databases, Elasticsearch)
• Experience building spec-driven or autonomous development pipelines with AI coding agents
• Prior forward-deployed or embedded customer-facing engineering experience
• Experience with production CNO capabilities and operations, or knowledge of end-to-end SIGINT collection and analysis systems

SWE3 Qualifications

• Minimum twelve (12) years of experience as a SWE in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related discipline from an accredited college or university is required
• Four (4) additional years of SWE experience on projects with similar software processes may substitute for the bachelor's degree

Location: Columbia, Maryland (onsite)

Salary: USD 241,000 - 295,000 per yearly

The range displayed is a likely salary range; final compensation may be set based on experience, geographic location, and possible contractual requirements and could fall outside this range.