AI Implementation Engineer - JobID-0245

Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT); Mount Laurel Township (NJ); On-site; USD 114,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous benefits package

401(k) with matching

9/80 optional schedule

Job summary

Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) seeks an AI Implementation Engineer to design and deliver on-prem AI solutions for air-gapped environments, with a focus on end-to-end agentic systems and MCP interfaces. The role requires active Secret clearance and on-site work in Mt.

Laurel, NJ or Arlington, VA with 3+ days in the office. The engineer will integrate LLMs and tools, develop RAG pipelines, deploy production-grade AI workflows, and optimize local CPU/GPU workloads while collaborating with

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/CE/EE/Systems Eng/Physics/Math
• 5-10+ years in software/ML/AI engineering or related roles
• Proficiency in Python with NumPy and Pandas
• Hands-on with production local inference engines (vLLM, SGLang, Triton, TensorRT-LLM)
• Experience with PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel or AutoGen
• Experience with Linux and hardening (fapolicy/selinux/fips)
• Experience with hosting LLM servers and containerization
• Ability to work independently and in Agile teams
• Strong leadership and documentation skills
• Willingness to travel up to 10%

Responsibilities

• Design and Build AI Solutions for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environments with end-to-end agentic capabilities
• Integrate Models and Tools across LLMs, APIs, data sources, MCP interfaces
• Develop Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines for grounding and relevance
• Engineer Conversational and Agentic Interfaces with memory and multi-turn interactions
• Implement and Evaluate AI Workflows; optimize prompts, orchestration, retrieval, and performance
• Architect local infrastructure to optimize CPU/GPU workloads and quantization for throughput
• Orchestrate disconnected environments and offline model update pipelines
• Define and validate technical requirements with stakeholders
• Collaborate across teams to integrate AI into broader architectures
• Support testing, debugging, and performance optimization of AI-enabled apps
• Stay current with advances in LLMs and agent frameworks
• Document architectures, workflows, and decisions for maintainability
• Travel up to 10% as needed

Skills

Python

NumPy

Pandas

LLM tooling

LLM servers

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

AutoGen

Linux hardening

Containerization

MCP interfaces

RAG pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree in IT/CS/CE/EE/Systems Eng/Physics/Math

Tools

vLLM

SGLang

Triton Inference Server

TensorRT-LLM

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Compensation: $114,000 - $231,000 / year

Department: Engineering

Location: Mount Laurel, NJ

Compensation: $114,000 - $231,000 / year

Description

Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT), a leading defense technology company, is seeking an AI Implementation Engineer to be part of our Warfare Systems team and based out of our Arlington, VA or Mount Laurel, NJ location.

The AI Implementation Engineer will design and deliver engineering-focused AI solutions that move beyond demos into reliable, mission-relevant systems. This role is ideal for an engineer who has extensive experience with commercially available AI tooling/chat, hosting LLM servers and has demonstrated ability to build end-to-end capabilities including MCP integrations, RAG pipelines, tool-using agents, and production-grade AI workflows.

Clearance & Location Requirements

• All applicants must be able to obtain/maintain an active Secret U.S. Security Clearance.
• This is an on-site position. Requiring at least 3 days in office, based out of our Arlington, VA location or Mt. Laurel, NJ location.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and Build AI Solutions for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environment: Design and implement end-to-end agentic AI systems that support planning, reasoning, tool use, and multi-step execution in real-world environments. Build modular, testable components that move from prototype to operational capability.
• Integrate Models and Tools for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environment: Develop integrations across LLMs, APIs, data sources, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) interfaces to enable intelligent agents to interact with external systems, retrieve context, and take action safely and reliably.
• Develop Retrieval Pipelines for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environment: Build and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines that connect models to live knowledge sources, structured data, and enterprise content to improve factual grounding, contextual relevance, and response quality.
• Engineer Conversational and Agentic Interfaces for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environment: Create conversational systems and intelligent agents with memory, contextual awareness, adaptive decision-making, and support for multi-turn user and system interactions.
• Implement and Evaluate AI Workflows for On-Prem systems in Air-Gapped environment: Translate technical objectives into working pipelines, run experiments, evaluate agent behavior, and iterate on prompts, orchestration logic, retrieval quality, and system performance to improve reliability and usability.
• Architect local infrastructure to size, config, and optimize local CPU/GPU workloads, utilizing quantization techniques to maximize throughput, etc.
• Orchestrate disconnected environments, design and maintain offline model update pipelines, local package mirrors, etc.
• Scope and Define Requirements: Gather, document, and validate technical and functional requirements from project artifacts, stakeholders, and mission needs to ensure feasibility, completeness, and alignment with operational goals.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with engineers, technical leads, and mission stakeholders to integrate AI capabilities into broader software and system architectures. Participate in technical reviews, design discussions, and delivery planning.
• Support Technical Quality: Contribute to testing, debugging, and performance optimization of AI-enabled applications, including edge cases involving context management, retrieval failures, tool execution, and orchestration logic.
• Learn and Apply Emerging Practices: Stay current on advances in LLMs, agent frameworks, orchestration methods, and applied AI engineering practices, and bring that knowledge into practical system design and implementation.
• Communicate Technical Work: Clearly document architectures, workflows, assumptions, and implementation decisions so that solutions are maintainable, explainable, and transferable across teams.

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Physics, Math, or equivalent full-time professional experience; Master’s Degree in Engineering or other technical field highly desired
• 5-10+ years of professional experience in software engineering, machine learning engineering, AI engineering, or related technical roles
• Proficiency in Python, including experience with core libraries such as NumPy and Pandas
• Deep hands-on experience with production local inference engines such as vLLM, SGLang, Triton Inference Server, or TensorRT-LLM
• Experience building software with one or more modern AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, or AutoGen
• Experience with Linux and hardening (fapolicy/selinux/fips/etc)
• Experience with commercially available AI tooling/chat
• Experience with hosting LLM servers
• Experience with hosting different models (chat/embedding)
• Experience with distributed networking (reverse proxy/load balancing/firewalls/etc)
• Experience with containerization
• Ability to work independently on technical tasks while collaborating effectively in a team environment
• Ability to shift from one project to another in an agile work environment
• Strong leadership capabilities and skills
• Strong documentation skills
• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time, as needed

What Makes You Stand Out

• Experience hosting LLM servers on local hardware
• Experience with various GPU architectures (NVIDIA preferred)
• Experience with AI Gateways
• Experience with LLM servers and model optimization (VRAM/layers/quantization/fasttensor/kv-cache/parallel/etc)
• Experience with LLM toolcalling
• Experience with RAG
• Experience with vector stores
• Experience with ModelContextProtocol
• Experience with container orchestration
• Experience managing and directing personnel while maintaining cost and schedule targets
• Problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguous situations

Pay Range

$114,000 - $184,000 or $135,000 - $231,000

*Pursuant to New Jersey Senate Bill 2310 IDT is required to disclose the “pay scale” or “pay range” associated with a job posting. Notably, however, this amount may not be reflective of actual compensation that may be earned as pay is dependent on a candidate’s experience, skills, and education. The posted range does not include bonuses, commissions, tips, or other benefits. IDT is often looking to place multiple candidates at various levels. Therefore, more than one pay range has been included, commensurate with experience.

Job Benefits

• Generous benefits package
• Competitive PTO
• Paid holidays
• 401(k) with immediate vesting and matching
• 9/80 optional schedule (2nd and 4th Friday off every month)
• Tuition Assistance Reimbursement Program
• Professional Development Resources
• Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits
• Organization-Wide Monthly Tech Connect Events
• Annual Employee Recognition Awards
• Regular Social Events and Catered Lunches

Why Work at Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT)

IDT is a growing company with a vibrant, entrepreneurial culture. We are headquartered in Arlington, VA with additional offices in Fall River, MA; Mount Laurel, NJ; and San Diego, CA. At each location, our employees work together in a modern, snack-filled, and social office space, designing innovative solutions for our defense industry customers. We offer employees competitive pay and benefits including:

EEO Statement

IDT is an Equal Opportunity employer.