AI Forward Deployed Engineer | Washington, DC | Up to $250K

HUG; Maryland; On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity 0.5-1.0%

Relocation package

Health benefits

Job summary

HUG is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to design and ship agentic AI systems for public-sector missions in Washington, DC. You will own end-to-end system delivery from PoC to production, embedding with government partners to operate in real environments and ensure reliability and security.

You will work on multi-agent frameworks, RAG pipelines, tool-calling agents, and data pipelines, with direct impact on mission-critical programs and a path to Top Secret clearance for eligible candidates.

Qualifications

• 1–4 years of production engineering with end-to-end shipping ownership.
• Hands-on experience building LLM and agentic systems (RAG pipelines, tool-calling agents, multi-agent frameworks).
• Strong fundamentals; not vibe-coding.
• Track record designing data pipelines and ML infrastructure.
• Excellent verbal communication; represent the company professionally with external partners.
• Based in or willing to relocate to Washington, DC; 5 days/week in-person.
• Equity: 0.5% - 1.0%. Relocation package.
• Standard medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Path to Top Secret clearance for qualifying candidates.

Responsibilities

• Architect and deliver agentic AI systems for critical public-sector missions.
• Design and integrate LLM-based applications — multi-agent frameworks, tool-calling agents, RAG pipelines, and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Embed directly with government partners in real operational environments.
• Build and scale data curation and evaluation pipelines for model training and iteration.
• Develop and maintain infrastructure for model inference, experimentation, evaluation, and deployment on frontier platforms.
• Convert mission-relevant data, models, and tooling into reliable operational autonomy.
• Own the full system lifecycle: discovery, architecture, deployment, security, reliability, and continuous improvement.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical government stakeholders and represent the company at a high standard.

Skills

Production engineering

LLM agentic systems

Data pipelines

Verbal communication

Tools

ML infrastructure

RAG pipelines

Tool-calling agents

Context management

Job description

AI Forward Deployed Engineer (Agentic Systems – Public Sector)

Washington, DC | Full-time | Multiple openings

We’re partnering with a Seed-stage AI company building agentic systems to systematically identify and combat fraud, waste, and abuse across U.S. government programs. The platform ingests public and restricted government data sources, reasons across them, and surfaces actionable cases with full evidence chains that enable auditors and agencies to act. Current focus includes large-scale healthcare program integrity, where the addressable problem is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

The team has already uncovered significant previously unidentified fraud across multiple agencies, maintains active conversations with major federal and state partners, and benefits from strong political and operational tailwinds. The primary constraint on growth is engineering capacity - government partners require a more mature technical team before committing larger contracts.

The Role

We are hiring the first cohort of Forward Deployed Engineers (Member of Technical Staff). These roles combine applied AI research, production systems engineering, and direct partner-facing work inside U.S. government environments.

You will architect and ship agentic AI systems from proof‑of‑concept through production, embed with government partners, and own outcomes in high‑stakes operational settings.

What You’ll Own

• Architect and deliver agentic AI systems for critical public‑sector missions
• Design and integrate LLM-based applications — multi‑agent frameworks, tool‑calling agents, RAG pipelines, and human‑in‑the‑loop workflows
• Embed directly with government partners in real operational environments
• Build and scale data curation and evaluation pipelines for model training and iteration
• Develop and maintain infrastructure for model inference, experimentation, evaluation, and deployment on frontier platforms
• Convert mission‑relevant data, models, and tooling into reliable operational autonomy
• Own the full system lifecycle: discovery, architecture, deployment, security, reliability, and continuous improvement
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to non‑technical government stakeholders and represent the company at a high standard

Requirements

• 1–4 years of production engineering experience with real end‑to‑end shipping ownership
• Hands‑on experience building LLM and agentic systems (RAG pipelines, tool‑calling agents, multi‑agent frameworks, context management)
• Solid fundamentals - not vibe‑coding
• Track record designing or managing data pipelines and ML infrastructure
• Excellent verbal communication skills; able to represent the company professionally with external partners
• Based in or willing to relocate immediately to the Washington, DC area; 5 days/week in‑person required
• Equity: 0.5% - 1.0%
• Relocation package
• Standard medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Path to Top Secret clearance for qualifying candidates

Location

Washington, DC — 5 days/week in‑office. Higher‑security track includes periodic on‑site work at secure government facilities.