AI Engineer

Talentify; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 108,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos is seeking an AI Engineer to lead AI development within the Cyber & Analytics Business Area. You will guide a 20+ engineering team, build AI/ML tools, and collaborate with stakeholders to advance AI-enabled software and secure deployments.

The role focuses on AI-enabled SDLC architectures, MCC integration, and secure AI practices across DoD environments, with required active clearance and Security+ certification within 90 days of hire.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in a related field with 8+ years of experience; additional experience may substitute for degree.
• Experience designing or implementing AI-enabled SDLC architectures and developer productivity platforms.
• Hands-on experience with AI-assisted development tools and coding agents.
• Experience configuring or extending agentic development platforms and workflow integrations.
• Experience building or securing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers/clients.
• Understanding secure AI development practices and AI governance.
• Experience deploying AI/ML services in containerized environments (Kubernetes/Docker).
• Active Secret clearance with potential for TS/SCI in the future.
• DoD 8570 security certification (Security+) required within 90 days of hire.

Responsibilities

• Lead AI development across a 20+ person engineering team.
• Build AI/ML tools including LLM orchestration and RAG pipelines.
• Collaborate with customers through technical meetings and reviews.
• Design AI system architectures and secure APIs.
• Integrate AI into engineering workflows for requirements, code generation, testing, and release.
• Configure AI agents, plugins, and automation frameworks.
• Develop user guides, API references, and operational playbooks.
• Support deployment and testing of AI-enabled systems in secure environments.
• Optimize AI models for performance and scalability.
• Ensure security compliance with cybersecurity and DevSecOps teams.

Skills

AI-enabled SDLC architecture

AI coding agents

OpenCode extensibility

MCP expertise

Secure AI engineering

Modern AI infrastructure

security clearance

DoD 8570 Security+

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Tools

OpenCode

Claude Code

GitHub Copilot

Cursor

Aider

Continue

Sourcegraph Cody

Job description

Leidos has a new and exciting opportunity for a AI Engineer in our INTEL Sector's Cyber & Analytics Business Area (CABA). Our talented team is at the forefront in Security Engineering, Computer Network Operations (CNO), Mission Software, Analytical Methods and Modeling, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and Cryptographic Key Management. At Leidos, we offer competitive benefits, including Paid Time Off, 11 paid Holidays, 401K with a 6% company match and immediate vesting, Flexible Schedules, Discounted Stock Purchase Plans, Technical Upskilling, Education and Training Support, Parental Paid Leave, and much more. Join us and make a difference in National Security!

The program is seeking an AI Engineer with a proven track record in software engineering and deep understanding of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) techniques to support the exciting new AI-Assisted development mission. The AI engineer will work closely with mission stakeholders to capture requirements, aid in structured planning, and improve the certification process by introducing AI/ML tooling. Additionally, the engineer will use AI/ML to develop tools and techniques to include fine tuning Large Language Models (LLM) that assist in enhanced vulnerability identification and mitigation capabilities.

Position Responsibilities:

• Lead AI development across a 20+ person engineering team, supporting AI‑enabled software modernization.
• Build AI/ML tools including LLM orchestration, RAG pipelines, automation workflows, and mission‑focused applications.
• Collaborate with customers through technical meetings, architecture reviews, and briefings.
• Design AI system architectures, integration strategies, secure APIs, and user‑facing tools.
• Integrate AI into engineering workflows for requirements analysis, code generation, testing, vulnerability scanning, and release processes.
• Configure AI agents, plugins, and automation frameworks to boost developer productivity.
• Develop documentation including user guides, API references, and operational playbooks.
• Support deployment and testing of AI‑enabled systems in secure environments.
• Optimize AI models for performance, scalability, and mission reliability.
• Ensure security compliance in partnership with cybersecurity and DevSecOps teams.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's Degree in System Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering Science, Engineering Management, or a related field and at least 8+ years of related experience. Additional experience may be substituted for a Degree.
• AI-Enabled SDLC Architecture: Experience designing or implementing AI-enabled software development lifecycle (SDLC) architectures and developer productivity platforms. Familiarity with internal developer portals, CI/CD automation, software delivery tooling, and secure development workflows. Understanding of how AI coding agents integrate across the full SDLC, including requirements analysis, system design, implementation, code review, automated testing, security scanning, release management, documentation generation, and operational support.
• AI Coding Agent Experience: Hands-on experience using, configuring, or extending AI-assisted development tools and coding agents such as OpenCode, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Aider, Continue, Sourcegraph Cody, or similar agentic development environments. Understanding of how coding agents perform repository inspection, task planning, code modification, command execution, diagnostic interpretation, and iterative remediation workflows.
• OpenCode Extensibility & Workflow Integration: Experience configuring or extending OpenCode or similar agentic development platforms through custom agents, tools, plugins, hooks, and workflow integrations. Familiarity with integrating external services and automation pipelines using MCP servers, plugin frameworks, and event-driven customization mechanisms.
• Model Context Protocol (MCP) Expertise: Experience building, integrating, or securing Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and clients. Understanding of MCP concepts including tools, resources, prompts, transports, authentication, authorization, permissions management, context isolation, and safe execution boundaries. Familiarity with enabling AI systems to securely interact with local filesystems, APIs, databases, search services, and mission-specific workflows.
• Secure AI Engineering: Understanding of secure AI development practices, AI governance, model safety, prompt injection mitigation, data protection, and secure integration of LLM-powered systems within classified or restricted computing environments.
• Modern AI Infrastructure: Experience deploying and operating AI/ML services in containerized and orchestrated environments using Kubernetes, Docker, or cloud-native MLOps platforms. Familiarity with scalable inference architectures, GPU-enabled workloads, and automated model deployment pipelines.
• Must possess an active Secret clearance to be considered and would be eligible to obtain up to a TS/SCI clearance in the future.
• DoD 8570 approved security certification (i.e., Security +) (Will be required 90 days after hire).

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Experience working in all phases of the engineering product development lifecycle.
• Experience with Agile Scrum methodology.
• Active Top Secret/SCI Clearance

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

May 26, 2026

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

Pay Range $107,900.00 - $195,050.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.