Lead AI Engineer

jobs.frontdoordefense.com - Jobboard; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Govini is seeking a Lead AI Engineer in Pittsburgh, PA, to lead the development of multi-agent AI systems for government clients. This role entails overseeing projects through design to production, integrating and working with LLMs, and mentoring engineering teams. Applicants should have a minimum of 3 years of experience with ML systems, strong Python skills, and an ability to operate in ambiguous environments. It is a full-time position with potential for up to 10% travel.

Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years of experience building and deploying ML or LLM-powered systems in production environments.
• Minimum 2 years of experience leading or mentoring engineering teams in production environments.
• Familiarity with common LLM algorithms and implementations.

Responsibilities

• Designs and builds multi-agent systems with tool use, memory, routing, and planning.
• Develops Agent Skills and tools as modular services interacting with backend systems.
• Assist with automated evaluation of agents across the product lifecycle.

Skills

Experience with LLMs

Leadership of engineering teams

Advanced software skills in Python

Ability to work in ambiguous environments

Hands-on experience with AWS

Education

Bachelor's, Master's, or Doctorate in Computer Science or related field

Tools

AWS

Git

Job description

Lead AI Engineer

Lead design and deployment of multi-agent AI systems for government customers

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Job Tags: Software

About The Role

Govini transforms Defense Acquisition from an outdated manual process to a software-driven strategic advantage for the United States. Our flagship product, Ark, supports Supply Chain, Science and Technology, Production, Sustainment, Logistics, and Modernization teams with AI-enabled Applications and best-in-class data to more rapidly imagine, develop, and field the capabilities we need. Today, the national security community and every branch of the military rely on Govini to enable faster and more informed Acquisition decisions.

We are seeking an experienced Lead AI Engineer to lead our Agentic AI team as we scale our agentic offerings across all levels of the US government. Over the past year, we have seen the rapid adoption of our agent, Ace. We expect Ace to be handling much more complex tasks and workflows end-to-end and/or in cooperation with a human user as time goes on. The team is striving to make Ace an even more effective agent, focusing on planning, reliable execution over longer time horizon tasks, scaled tool use, Ace Skills, memory, and inter-agent coordination.

In order to do this job well, we are looking for someone who can demonstrate a project built on LLMs that showcases your skill at getting them to do complex tasks.

Experience leading agentic system development from ideation through production, including technical design, architecture decisions, and day-to-day leadership of Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers

Experience integrating and working with LLMs, with a strong understanding of their capabilities and limitations

Experience integrating and working with agent frameworks like Claude Agent SDK or OpenAI Agent SDK

Experience building observability, evaluation, and feedback loops for agent behavior (telemetry, prompt evaluation, regression testing, and reliability metrics).

Experience working in highly ambiguous environments, and operating with urgency

Lead Agile ceremonies and technical planning for the Agentic AI team

Strong Candidates have:

Experience designing and deploying complex agentic systems using LLMs

Hands‑on work with multi-agent coordination, routing, and tool orchestration

Passion for building autonomous and semi-autonomous systems that solve real customer problems

This role is a full-time position located out of our office in Pittsburgh, PA.

This role may require up to 10% travel

Scope of Responsibilities

Designs and builds multi-agent systems with tool use, memory, routing, and planning

Develops Agent Skills and tools as modular, composable services that interact with backend systems, models, and data processing

Assist with automated evaluation of agents, skills, and prompts across the entire product lifecycle

Work with our Product and Implementation organizations to find solutions to our most vexing challenges applying agents to our customer problems

Qualifications

U.S. Citizenship is required

Bachelor's, Master's, or Doctorate in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Data Science, or a related field

Minimum 3 years of experience building and deploying ML or LLM-powered systems in production environments

Minimum 2 years of experience leading or mentoring engineering teams in production environments

Practical experience in building, developing, and productionizing machine learning systems

Advanced software skills in Python

Experience with common LLM algorithms and implementations

Hands‑on experience with AWS and cloud infrastructure

A strong desire to learn and investigate new technologies

Familiarity with Git source control management

Ability to work collaboratively with little supervision

A burning desire to work in a challenging fast-paced tech environment

Desired Skills

Current possession of a U.S. security clearance, or the ability to obtain one with our sponsorship

Experience in or exposure to the nuances of a startup or other entrepreneurial environment

Experience with Claude Code and GenAI coding best practices.

We firmly believe that past performance is the best indicator of future performance. If you thrive while building solutions to complex problems, are a self-starter, and are passionate about making an impact in global security, we're eager to hear from you.

Govini is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and protected veterans status or any other characteristic protected by law.