SEI AI Division

AssociateAIEngineer-MissionInnovationLab

$95–135k ~AI est. Arlington, Virginia, United States; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States FULL TIME
Market Sentiment
HIGH DEMAND

Neural analysis suggests this role is
optimal for Entry candidates.

The Brief

“Associate AI Engineer - Mission Innovation Lab at SEI AI Division. Skills: AI models, Agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, CI/CD, LLMs. Design AI models. Develop AI models”

Industry & Context.

Problems you'll solve

Analytical thinking; Decompose complex AI problems; Iterate rapidly

Eligibility Requirements

Background investigation, Obtain and maintain active Department of War (DoW) security clearance, Work onsite 5 days per week

What They're Looking For.

Must Have

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field with at least three (3) years of relevant experience, MS degree in the same with at least one (1) year of relevant experience, Active Department of War (DoW) security clearance, Proficiency in Python, Proficiency in at least one compiled language (C/C++ or Java), Experience with REST/GraphQL APIs, Experience with containerization, Grasp of ML theory, Hands-on experience fine-tuning LLMs, Hands-on experience using Hugging Face Transformers, Hands-on experience using LangChain, Hands-on experience using comparable agent tools, Familiarity with building RAG pipelines, Experience applying PEFT/LoRA methods, Experience building evaluation frameworks, Experience building benchmarks, Experience building data quality pipelines

Nice to Have

Experience with TensorFlow, Experience with PyTorch, Knowledge of data-pipeline tools (Airflow, Prefect, Ray), Awareness of DevSecOps practices, Deploying LLM APIs (FastAPI, gRPC) at scale, Building multi-tool agents, Building planner-executor loops, Building tool-calling pipelines, Conducting adversarial testing, Implementing input sanitization, Contributing to AI-safety research, Utilizing GPU/TPU resources, Mixed-precision training, Distributed training frameworks (DeepSpeed or ZeRO), Prior work on defense, intelligence, or government-focused AI projects, Familiarity with DoW acquisition or compliance processes, Contributing to open-source AI and ML libraries, Contributing to agentic frameworks, Contributing to context-protocol implementations

What You'll Do.

Design autonomous agents

Design multi-step pipelines

Employ Model Context protocol

Build Retrieval-Augmented Generation pipelines

Combine knowledge bases with LLMs

Implement end-to-end data pipelines

Implement ETL processes

Implement back-end services

Create CI/CD pipelines for model training

Create CI/CD pipelines for validation

Create CI/CD pipelines for containerized deployment

Maintain model registries

Maintain version control

Produce rapid prototypes

Conduct robustness testing

Conduct adversarial testing

Work closely with senior ML engineers

Work closely with software developers

Work closely with government sponsors

Contribute to design reviews

Contribute to documentation

Stay current with LLM architectures

Stay current with agentic paradigms

Stay current with PEFT/LoRA methods

Stay current with AI-safety

Translate new research into operational capabilities

Deploy LLM APIs at scale

Handle load balancing

Build multi-tool agents

Build planner-executor loops

Build tool-calling pipelines

Conduct adversarial testing

Implement input sanitization

Contribute to AI-safety research

Utilize GPU/TPU resources

Perform mixed-precision training

Perform distributed training

Work on defense projects

Work on intelligence projects

Work on government projects

Contribute to open-source AI libraries

Contribute to open-source ML libraries

Contribute to agentic frameworks

Contribute to context-protocol implementations

How You'll Work.

Team & Collaboration

Collaborate with senior researchers; Collaborate with software engineers; Collaborate with government sponsors; Collaborate in interdisciplinary groups; Contribute to shared codebases

Communication Scope

Written communication; Verbal communication; Presenting results

Process & Methodology

CI/CD, GitOps

Full Job Description

At the SEI AI Division, we conduct research in applied artificial intelligence and the engineering questions related to the practical design and implementation of AI technologies and systems. We currently lead a community-wide movement to mature the discipline of AI Engineering for Defense and National Security. As our government customers adopt AI and machine learning to provide leap-ahead mission capabilities, we * build real-world, mission-scale AI capabilities through solving practical engineering problems * discover and define the processes, practices, and tools to support operationalizing AI for robust, secure, scalable, and human-centered mission capabilities * prepare our customers to be ready for the unique challenges of adopting, deploying, using, and maintaining AI capabilities * identify and investigate emerging AI and AI-adjacent technologies that are rapidly transforming the technology landscape Are you creative, curious, energetic, collaborative, technology-focused, and hard-working? Are you interested in making a difference by bringing innovation to government organizations and beyond? Apply to join our team. **Overview** As an associate AI Engineer who thrives at the intersection of deep‑learning research and production‑grade software development, you will translate cutting‑edge AI concepts into robust, mission‑scale solutions for the warfighting community. You will work comfortably with large‑scale foundation models such as GPT and LLaMA, designing and deploying agentic workflows, as well as apply and advance traditional ML research and engineering across domains such as natural language processing, computer vision, time series forecasting, and other predictive analytics. You will collaborate closely with senior researchers, software engineers, and government sponsors to define problem statements, iterate on experimental designs, and deliver secure, reliable AI capabilities that meet stringent mission requirements. The Mission Innovation Lab within

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