AI Software Engineer

Dark Wolf; Herndon (VA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Dark Wolf is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to architect, build, and deploy secure AI-driven solutions for federal and defense enterprises. You will design RAG architectures, automated data ingestion pipelines, and predictive analytics tools to tackle enterprise data fragmentation.

You will lead NLP-driven workflows, explainable AI, and role-based dashboards while ensuring compliance with DoD security standards and government clearance requirements. Location: Chantilly/Herndon, VA.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in CS/DS/AI or related field.
• 5+ years building production AI/ML systems (or 3+ with master’s/PhD).
• Experience fine-tuning and deploying LLMs and embeddings.
• Proficient in Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and API frameworks.
• Experience with SQL/NoSQL, data lakes, and data pipelines.
• Active U.S. Government Secret clearance or higher and TS/SCI eligibility.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement RAG systems with LLM agents.
• Build semantic search integrating internal and external data sources.
• Implement NLP translation, document classification, and multi-document summarization.
• Develop AI chatbots delivering role-based recommendations and skills analysis.
• Ingest inquiries and draft contextual responses with audit trails.
• Design ML algorithms to identify risks, optimize resources, forecast changes.
• Collaborate with UI/UX and data engineers for dashboards with NLQ.
• Design ETL/ELT pipelines transforming diverse data into a unified Data Fabric.
• Apply Explainable AI techniques ensuring transparency of recommendations.
• Ensure models and data storage comply with DoD security standards.

Skills

NLP & LLMs

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

LangChain

LlamaIndex

APIs (FastAPI)

SQL/NoSQL

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or related field

Tools

Pinecone

Milvus

Qdrant

FAISS

FastAPI

REST APIs

Job description

Dark Wolf constructs and deploys data management and analytics solutions for the defense and intelligence communities. We’re proud to boast a world-class engineering team that thrives on rolling up their sleeves to solve your mission’s biggest challenges.

Dark Wolf is seeking a highly skilled Senior AI Engineer to architect, build, and deploy advanced, secure AI-driven solutions supporting federal and defense enterprises. In this role, you will tackle enterprise data fragmentation by designing automated data ingestion pipelines, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, and predictive analytics tools.

You will directly address critical operational areas including HR workforce analytics, enterprise workflow automation, program management analytics, and automated scientific literature discovery.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and Large Language Model (LLM) agents to query, summarize, and synthesize insights across large volumes of structured and unstructured data.
• Build semantic search engines capable of integrating internal legacy databases, data lakes, open-source repositories, and subscription-based scientific literature via APIs.
• Implement natural language translation, automated document classification, and multi-document summarization to augment science and technology gap analysis.
• Develop intelligent chatbots and virtual agents to deliver automated, role-based recommendations, career path mapping, and skills gap analysis for enterprise workforces.
• Build NLP-driven tasking models to ingest natural language inquiries, query underlying enterprise data sources, and draft contextual responses with audit trails for records management compliance.
• Design ML algorithms (including anomaly detection, predictive modeling, and causal inference) to identify project risks, optimize resource allocation, and forecast financial/technical shifts.
• Collaborate with UI/UX and data engineers to build interactive, role-based dashboards enabling natural language querying and drill-down analytics for leadership decision-making.
• Design automated ingestion and ETL/ELT pipelines using NLP and pattern recognition to transform disparate data formats into a standardized, unified Data Fabric schema.
• Implement robust Explainable AI (XAI) techniques to ensure transparency and trustworthiness of model recommendations.
• Ensure all AI models, APIs, and data storage solutions strictly adhere to DoD security regulations (e.g., NIST, FedRAMP, Risk Management Framework) across multiple classification levels.

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related technical field.
• Experience: 5+ years of experience engineering production-grade AI/ML systems (or 3+ years with a Master's/Ph.D.).
• NLP & LLMs: Hands-on experience fine-tuning, evaluating, and deploying open-source and proprietary LLMs, embedding models, and vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Qdrant, FAISS).
• Programming & Frameworks: Proficiency in Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, LlamaIndex, and modern API frameworks (FastAPI, RESTful APIs).
• Data Pipelines & Databases: Experience working with complex structured and unstructured data sources, SQL, NoSQL, graph databases, and data lakes.
• Security Clearance: Must hold an active U.S. Government Secret clearance (or higher) and be eligible to obtain TS/SCI access.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience deploying AI applications within DoD, Air Force, or Federal agency environments (CAC/PKI integration, IL4/IL5/IL6 cloud environments).
• Proven track record building XAI (Explainable AI) architectures for leadership decision support.
• Background in developing AI solutions for HR systems, workflow management software, or scientific/academic literature indexing.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government) and containerized deployment technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).

Core Competencies

• System Integration: Ability to connect AI models with existing legacy software, APIs, and document management systems seamlessly.
• Problem Solving: Aptitude for turning complex, noisy, multi-dimensional data into intuitive, actionable insights.
• Communication: Ability to communicate technical AI concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders, scientific subject matter experts, and executive leadership.

Position Clearance Requirement

US Citizenship with an active U.S. Government Secret clearance (or higher) and be eligible to obtain TS/SCI access.

Location: Chantilly/Herndon, VA.

Target Salary Range: $120,000.00 – $160,000.00 (Commensurate with specialized expertise and technical skillset).

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled and other protected categories. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity, confirm US Citizenship, and complete the required employment eligibility verification upon hire.

We are strictly looking for direct, full-time W2 employees. We do not engage with third-party staffing agencies, C2C, or 1099 independent contractors for this role.