Frontier AI Research Lead — Build Next-Gen AI Systems

Booz Allen Hamilton; McLean (VA); Hybrid; USD 128,700 - 292,000; Full time

Job summary

Booz Allen Hamilton is seeking a Frontier AI Research Engineer, Lead to evaluate emerging AI advances, design and deliver end-to-end AI systems spanning infrastructure, frontier LLMs, agentic applications, and physical AI pipelines.

You will lead technical delivery, guide architectural decisions, and translate prototype learnings into scalable frameworks while collaborating with business units to integrate AI into complex environments.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in deep technical engineering.
• Experience designing and building advanced AI systems, including managing them.
• Experience developing AI prototypes, products, or high‑visibility technical demonstrations.
• Experience leading technical exchanges and evaluations with commercial partners and executive stakeholders.
• Experience with translating research into scalable, revenue‑generating solutions.
• Experience guiding R&D efforts from concept through implementation.
• Ability to create and drive technical roadmaps aligned with organizational goals.
• Ability to display high creativity, intellectual curiosity, and enthusiasm for showcasing innovative AI capabilities.
• Bachelor’s degree.

Responsibilities

• Evaluate emerging advancements across hyperscalers, leading AI labs, academia, and venture‑backed companies.
• Conduct hands‑on technical assessments, benchmarks, and proof‑of‑concepts to validate applicability and performance.
• Own the technical delivery of end‑to‑end AI systems spanning infrastructure, frontier LLMs, agentic and multi‑agent applications, and physical AI pipelines.
• Deliver working systems—not slideware.
• Work with business units to support hands‑on integration of emerging AI technologies in complex customer environments such as cloud, hybrid, edge, or disconnected.
• Ensure production rigor without sacrificing innovation speed.
• Provide day‑to‑day technical leadership to engineers and researchers.
• Conduct design reviews, guide architectural decisions, and raise the overall technical bar of the Applied Research team.
• Convert prototype learnings into reusable frameworks, reference architectures, accelerators, and technical artifacts that scale across programs and business units.

Skills

Deep technical engineering

AI system design

AI prototypes/products

Technical leadership

Translating research to revenue

R&D leadership

Technical roadmaps

Creativity & curiosity

Bachelor’s degree

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree preferred

Doctorate preferred

Tools

MLOps

Cloud AI infrastructure

Job description

Booz Allen Hamilton is seeking a Frontier AI Research Engineer, Lead to evaluate emerging AI advances, design and deliver end-to-end AI systems spanning infrastructure, frontier LLMs, agentic applications, and physical AI pipelines.

You will lead technical delivery, guide architectural decisions, and translate prototype learnings into scalable frameworks while collaborating with business units to integrate AI into complex environments.