Applied AI Engineer 3 - (Python, LLM, MCP) Software Engineer/Developer 20-16-054-SWE3 Columbia, Maryland

Akina Inc; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 241,000 - 295,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO 24 days

11 federal holidays

401k 100% vesting

Healthcare for employees

Dependent coverage 50%

Education assistance

Job summary

Akina Inc. is seeking a Senior Applied AI Engineer in Columbia, MD to lead forward-deployed engagements with government mission customers. You will architect agentic systems, apply guardrails, and guide the team through production deployment and validation.

You will mentor junior engineers, review AI-generated code, and collaborate with stakeholders to shape software with AI that remains auditable and secure. Competitive compensation and benefits offered.

Qualifications

• 12+ years SWE experience in large programs with similar scope
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field required
• Four additional SWE years may substitute for a degree
• Experience building AI-enabled production services and data pipelines
• Experience with end-to-end software lifecycle and gov't customers

Responsibilities

• Lead forward-deployed engagements with operations customers and deliver solutions from prototype to production
• Architect agentic systems connecting LLMs, servers, and data sources
• Design guardrails, permissions, and audit trails for safe autonomous agents
• Build and run evaluation suites to measure AI capabilities and readiness
• Evaluate new models/architectures and brief leadership on tradeoffs
• Mentor engineers and lead technical design discussions
• Define team standards for reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code

Skills

Python proficiency

LLM applications

Agentic systems

User/mission customer collaboration

Testing/validation

AI coding aids

Technical leadership

Git, CI/CD

Docker/Kubernetes

Jira/Confluence

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or related

Tools

GitLab CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

PydanticAI/LangGraph (nice-to-have)

Job description

Clearance: TS/SCI - Polygraph required
Position ID: 20-16-054-SWE3
Location: Columbia, Maryland

Description

Brings AI into the operations organization, embedding engineers with the operators, analysts, and developers who carry out the CNO mission. Our engineers learn how those teams work, find the tasks that consume their time, and build AI agents and tools that let them move faster without giving up accuracy or control. We build on both frontier models and on-premises open-weight models, served through the customer's enterprise AI platform, and turn them into mission capabilities such as agents that triage incoming data, automate repetitive tradecraft, or research across disparate sources on an analyst's behalf. We are now introducing autonomous agents the mission can trust: agents that take real actions within guardrails, are measured against evaluations built with the people who use them, and log every step so a reviewer can follow what they did. As a senior Applied AI Engineer, you will lead forward-deployed work with a mission customer from the first conversation through production and set the technical direction for the agents your team builds. You will mentor engineers who are newer to applied AI and help define how our team develops software with AI, including the review standards and validation layers that let us put autonomous coding agents to work on mission code. This role suits an experienced engineer who wants to shape how AI is fielded across operations and grow into project leadership.

• Lead forward-deployed engagements with operations customers: elicit requirements from operators and analysts, identify the workflows where AI saves the most time, and deliver solutions from prototype to production.
• Architect and build agentic systems in Python that connect LLMs, MCP servers, Skills, and subagents to mission data sources and existing operational tools.
• Design guardrails for autonomous agents, including scoped permissions, human approval gates, and audit logging, so agents can act on operational systems safely.
• Build evaluation suites with mission users that measure the accuracy, reliability, and failure modes of AI capabilities, and use the results to decide when a capability is ready to field.
• Evaluate new models, frameworks, and AI design patterns, both frontier and open-weight, for fit against mission problems, and brief findings and tradeoffs to technical and government leadership.
• Use AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code) in daily development, and help define team standards for reviewing, testing, and validating AI-generated code.
• Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and pairing, and lead technical design discussions for your project area.
• Communicate progress, risks, and tradeoffs to project leads and government stakeholders.

Position Required Skills

• Extensive professional software engineering experience with advanced Python proficiency, including production services, APIs, and data pipelines that users depend on.
• Experience building LLM applications or agentic systems that use tool/function calling, structured outputs, context management, and multi-step workflows.
• Experience working directly with end users or mission customers to turn ambiguous operational problems into delivered software.
• Experience designing tests, evaluations, or validation layers for AI or other non-deterministic systems.
• Experience using AI coding assistants or agents (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, Copilot) for code generation, refactoring, and debugging, with the review discipline to own and explain everything they produce.
• Technical leadership experience, such as serving as tech lead, leading design decisions, or mentoring engineers.
• Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines (GitLab preferred), Docker/Kubernetes, and Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence).
• Strong written and verbal communication with technical and non-technical audiences.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), Skills, subagents, or multi-agent orchestration frameworks such as PydanticAI or LangGraph.
• Experience securing LLM applications against prompt injection, data leakage, and over-permissioned tool access.
• Experience with retrieval systems (RAG, vector databases, Elasticsearch).
• Experience building spec-driven or autonomous development pipelines with AI coding agents.
• Prior forward-deployed or embedded customer-facing engineering experience.
• Experience with production CNO capabilities and operations, or knowledge of end-to-end SIGINT collection and analysis systems.

SWE3 Qualifications

A minimum of twelve (12) years of experience as a SWE in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity is required. Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related discipline from an accredited college or university is required. Four (4) years of additional SWE experience on projects with similar software processes may be substituted for a bachelor's degree.

Salary Range: $241k-$295k (Annually)

The range displayed above is a likely salary range for this position. This is not, however, a guarantee of compensation or salary. Rather, salary will be set based on experience, geographic location and possible contractual requirements and could fall outside of this range.

Akina is a Woman Owned, Service Disabled, Veteran Owned, Small Business, looking for talented and ambitious individuals to join our team. We offer a generous compensation package that includes 24 days PTO accrued annually and 11 federal holidays. Our 401k is 100% vested on your start date and the company makes a direct contribution worth 10% of your salary. Akina covers 100% of healthcare costs for employees and 50% toward dependents. We offer educational assistance towards college classes and will cover costs associated with job related training and certifications.

Akina is committed to excellence and creating innovative and flexible solutions for our clients. We are a small company with an open ear to our employees' needs in order to attract and retain quality talent that enables our customer's mission.

We are an equal employment opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.