AI/ML Engineer with Security Clearance

Cornerstone Defense; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Cornerstone Defense in Herndon, VA is seeking an AI/ML Engineer to design and implement scalable AI/ML-powered web services and data-driven mission analytics. You will join a cross-functional team of software engineers, data scientists, and ETL specialists to build ingest pipelines, search infrastructure, and production-grade components that handle petabyte-scale data.

This hands-on role requires strong backend and frontend skills, AWS, Linux expertise, and a proven track record delivering

Qualifications

• 4–6 years backend development; proficient in Python and Java.

Responsibilities

• Integrate AI/ML into production web applications.
• Develop and test scalable data-driven services.
• Collaborate with data scientists and developers.
• Design ingest pipelines and text extraction services.
• Ensure security and performance of systems.

Skills

Python

Java

Angular

AWS

Linux

Shell scripting

SQL

NoSQL

ETL pipelines

Microservices

Docker

Elasticsearch

Solr

OpenSearch

Agile

GitHub

Jira/Confluence

Tools

Docker

Podman

OpenSearch

Elasticsearch

Job description

Title: AI/ML Engineer Location: Herndon, Virginia

• Clearance:
• Active TS/SCI w/ Polygraph needed to apply
• Company Overview: Cornerstone Defense is the Employer of Choice within the Intelligence, Defense, and Space communities of the U.S. Government. Realizing early on that our most prized assets are our employees, we continually focus our attention on improving the overall work/life experience they have supporting the mission. Our Team is pushed every day to use their industry leading knowledge to provide end-to-end solutions to combat our nation's toughest and most secure problems. If you are looking for a place to not only be professionally challenged, but encouraged and supported by a company that cares, don't look any further than Cornerstone Defense. Currently seeking a Software Engineer (Expert) in Herndon VA to work on a suite of services that will supply users with tools to automate a wide range of enterprise-wide applications and data centric mission management applications, with a focus on artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML). The candidate will be part of a team of Software Developers, ETL Developers, and Data Scientists to enhance existing production applications and build out new web services on a routinized production cadence to meet the evolving needs of users. This role is focused on developing high-performance, distributed systems that operate on petabyte-scale structured and unstructured data, enabling mission users to rapidly access, process, and exploit critical information. You will operate at the intersection of big data, distributed systems, and mission analytics, building core platform capabilities such as ingest pipelines, text extraction services, and search infrastructure that directly enable downstream analytics, AI, and operational workflows. This is a hands‑on technical leadership role for engineers who thrive on building scalable systems from the ground up, solving hard data problems, and delivering production‑grade capabilities that operate in high‑stakes, real‑world environments. This position will include a variety of activities, including: Integrating AI/ML technology into a production web application. Participation with iterative software development teams with adherence to all reporting requirements. Designing, developing and unit testing code for a production system and demonstration capabilities. Developing rapid prototypes to drive out requirements and design. Providing demonstrations and detailed walk through of features to a variety of technical and non‑technical audiences. Meeting with stakeholders, analyzing requirements, developing user stories, and translating these into software development tasks. Development of technical documentation and briefing materials to support program status reviews, control gates, and other presentations as directed. Write and maintain technical documentation for application workflows, integrations, and compliance procedures. Optimize and enhance application performance, ensuring scalability and security. Demonstrated 4-6 years in backend development - must be proficient in both Python and Java Demonstrated 4-6 years in frontend development like Angular Demonstrated 6-8 years of AWS Architecture design proficiency Significant proficiency 6-8 years in Linux - shell scripting, mounting drives, text editing with vi or emacs, system diagnostic checks [memory management, process running] Demonstrated 2-3 years working with AI/ML development and data science understanding Demonstrated experience on Agile software development teams following Agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban. Demonstrated experience using Jira, Confluence, and GitHub for documenting work and team collaboration. Minimum 6-8 years of experience with SQL and NOSQL databases Minimum 6-8 years of demonstrated experience with development and deployment of applications in the Commercial Cloud Services (C2S) environment or an Amazon Web Services cloud environment. Minimum 6-8 years of demonstrated experience with search & analytic tools. Examples to include ElasticSearch, Solr/Lucene, OpenSearch. Minimum 2-4 years of demonstrated (Extract, Transform, Load - ETL) with large structured and unstructured raw data sets. Minimum 6-8 years of demonstrated ability to design, develop, test and implement new applications based on project requirements. The ability to work individually as well as the ability to work in project teams. Proven ability in decomposing concepts to discrete development tasks and managing your work to a deadline. Minimum 6-8 years of demonstrated ability in microservices up to and including docker, podman, and or containerization services. Minimum 6-8 years in Object Oriented programming. Python is preferred software development language