AI Engineer

Parsons; Maryland; On-site; USD 158,000 - 284,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Best-in-class benefits

Flexible work schedules

Paid time off

401(k) plan

Job summary

Parsons is seeking an AI Engineer to provide technical advisory support for the design, evaluation, and advancement of AI-enabled applications and workflows for government use cases.

You will assess LLM-based solutions, guide architectures and toolchains, and collaborate with platform engineers, mission users, and leadership to ensure secure, reliable, and scalable AI capabilities. An active TS SCI w/ Polygraph clearance is required.

Qualifications

• Active TS SCI with Polygraph clearance.
• 18+ years with a Bachelor's or 15+ years with a Master's in CS, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or related field.
• Experience designing, building, integrating, or evaluating AI/ML-enabled applications or software tools.
• Familiarity with modern AI patterns including LLMs, RAG, prompts, agentic systems, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Experience with APIs, data handling, and system integration; ability to communicate tradeoffs clearly.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide SETA support to government teams developing or assessing AI-enabled applications and tools.
• Advise on technical approaches for AI design, prototyping, integration, and evaluation.
• Assess solutions involving LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, and orchestration layers.
• Review architectures, development approaches, model usage patterns, and technical risk areas.
• Advise on AI engineering considerations such as latency, reliability, observability, and testability.
• Stay current on AI ecosystem changes and provide recommendations on emerging tools and practices.
• Collaborate with platform engineers, product leads, mission users, and government leadership to stay grounded and relevant.
• Support test and evaluation activities for AI tools, including performance assessment and workflow validation.

Skills

AI/ML development

Agentic frameworks

APIs & integration

Technical advisory

Technical communication

Security clearance knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Master's degree in CS/Engineering/Data Science

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

AutoGen

CrewAI

Haystack

LlamaIndex

Job description

In a world of possibilities, pursue one with endless opportunities. Imagine Next!At Parsons, you can imagine a career where you thrive, work with exceptional people, and be yourself. Guided by our leadership vision of valuing people, embracing agility, and fostering growth, we cultivate an innovative culture that empowers you to achieve your full potential. Unleash your talent and redefine what’s possible.

Job Description:

Parsons is looking for an amazingly talented AI Engineer to join our team! In this role you will get to provide technical advisory support for the design, evaluation, and advancement of AI-enabled applications, tools, and workflows. This role is intended for a hands-on technical professional who understands how modern AI systems are built and can help guide teams developing practical solutions using large language models, agentic workflows, orchestration frameworks, and supporting software infrastructure.

The right candidate is a builder at heart someone who explores new frameworks, prototypes ideas, and continuously teaches themselves emerging techniques. Curiosity and passion matter greatly in this role. We want someone who follows the fast-moving AI ecosystem because they genuinely enjoy it, not just because the job requires it.

What You'll Be Doing:

• Provide SETA support to government teams developing or assessing AI-enabled applications and tools.
• Advise on technical approaches for AI application design, prototyping, integration, and evaluation.
• Assess solutions involving LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, orchestration layers, prompt pipelines, and evaluation harnesses.
• Support the review of architectures, development approaches, model usage patterns, and technical risk areas.
• Advise on AI engineering considerations such as latency, reliability, observability, testability, guardrails, data flow, and system integration.
• Evaluate and compare modern AI frameworks, agentic libraries, and experimentation harnesses for suitability in mission use cases.
• Assist with the development of technical guidance, prototypes, engineering recommendations, and briefings for government stakeholders.
• Support test and evaluation activities for AI tools, including performance assessment, qualitative review, and workflow validation.
• Collaborate with platform engineers, product leads, mission users, and government leadership to ensure AI efforts remain technically grounded and operationally relevant.
• Stay current on rapid changes in the AI ecosystem and provide informed recommendations on emerging tools and practices.

What Required Skills You'll Bring:

• Min 18 years with Bachelors, 15 years with Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or related field.
• Experience designing, building, integrating, or evaluating AI/ML-enabled applications or software tools.
• Familiarity with modern AI application patterns, including LLM-based applications, RAG, prompt engineering, agentic systems, and AI-assisted workflows.
• Working knowledge of one or more agentic or orchestration frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI, Haystack, LlamaIndex, or similar ecosystems.
• Experience with software development fundamentals, APIs, data handling, and system integration.
• Ability to assess technical tradeoffs and communicate them clearly to both engineers and government stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Active TS SCI w/Polygraph security clearance required

What Desired Skills You'll Bring:

• Experience with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages commonly used in AI application development.
• Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, model APIs, evaluation frameworks, and agent testing harnesses.
• Exposure to model hosting, inference pipelines, or cloud-based AI development environments.
• Understanding of secure AI development practices, data protection, and operational constraints in government settings.
• Experience supporting defense, cyber, intelligence, or mission application development.
• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop workflows, AI assurance, and evaluation methodologies.

Security Clearance Requirement:

An active Top Secret SCI w/Polygraph security clearance is required for this position.

Salary Range: $157,500.00 - $283,500.00We value our employees and want our employees to take care of their overall wellbeing, which is why we offer best-in-class benefits such as medical, dental, vision, paid time off, 401(k), life insurance, flexible work schedules, and holidays to fit your busy lifestyle!

We truly invest and care about our employee’s wellbeing and provide endless growth opportunities as the sky is the limit, so aim for the stars! Imagine next and join the Parsons quest

Parsons is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status or any other protected status.

Parsons is aware of fraudulent recruitment practices. To learn more about recruitment fraud and how to report it, please refer to https://www.parsons.com/fraudulent-recruitment/.