Senior AI/ML Data Engineer

Boeing Intelligence & Analytics; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 242,000 - 305,000; Full time

Job summary

Boeing Intelligence & Analytics seeks a Senior AI/ML Data Engineer to lead design and delivery of enterprise-scale data platforms enabling vector search, RAG, LLM apps, and Agentic AI capabilities in a hybrid Washington, DC area role.

You will collaborate across Data Science, ML Engineers, Architects, Cybersecurity, and Software teams to ensure reliability, observability, and production readiness, with a focus on governance, traceability, and scalable AI infrastructure.

Qualifications

• 20 years of experience in AI/ML, Data, or Software Engineering.
• Active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph.
• Expert proficiency in Python and SQL.
• Deep experience with Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud data and AI platforms.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native architectures.
• Experience implementing vector databases, embedding pipelines, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and observability tooling.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and maintain enterprise-scale data platforms for vector databases, semantic search, and RAG.
• Define and implement data quality, lineage, source attribution, and prompt/context traceability.
• Support explainability and evaluation of AI outputs through measurable, operational feedback loops.
• Lead architectural decisions for AI-supporting data infrastructure balancing performance, scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, and cost.
• Partner with Data Scientists, ML Engineers, Architects, Cybersecurity, and Software Engineers to production-grade capabilities.
• Translate complex AI topics into operational impacts, risks, opportunities, and implementation considerations for senior leadership.
• Coordinate across multiple organizations to align AI initiatives and maximize reuse of enterprise capabilities.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and alerting to ensure reliability and performance.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, promoting engineering best practices and innovation.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, vector database platforms, retrieval frameworks, and engineering approaches to expand organizational AI capabilities.

Skills

Python

SQL

Azure

AWS

Google Cloud

MLOps

Vector databases

RAG

CI/CD

Observability

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree

Tools

Data platforms

CI/CD pipelines

Observability tooling

Job description

Boeing Intelligence & Analytics is seeking a Senior AI/ML Data Engineer to help lead the design and delivery of enterprise-scale data platforms that enable vector search, RAG, LLM applications, and emerging Agentic AI capabilities. In this hybrid role based in the Washington, DC area, you will provide technical leadership across architecture, integration, governance, and operational readiness, with an emphasis on reliability, observability, and evaluation of AI system outputs.

This position is contingent upon program award and requires an active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph.

What you’ll do

• Architect, build, and maintain enterprise-scale data platforms for vector databases, semantic search, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Agentic AI systems, and large language model applications.
• Define and implement controls for data quality, lineage, source attribution, and prompt and context traceability.
• Support explainability and evaluation of AI system outputs through measurable, operational feedback loops.
• Lead architectural decisions for AI-supporting data infrastructure, balancing performance, scalability, security, reliability, maintainability, and cost.
• Partner with Data Scientists, Machine Learning Engineers, Architects, Cybersecurity, and Software Engineers to convert AI requirements into production-grade capabilities.
• Translate complex AI, machine learning, and data architecture topics into operational impacts, risks, opportunities, and implementation considerations for senior leadership.
• Coordinate across multiple organizations to align AI initiatives, maximize reuse of enterprise capabilities, and reduce duplication.
• Implement monitoring, observability, and alerting to ensure reliability, performance, and continuous improvement.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, promoting engineering best practices and innovation.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, vector database platforms, retrieval frameworks, and engineering approaches to expand organizational AI capabilities.

What you bring

• 20 years of experience in AI/ML, Data, or Software Engineering roles (or a highly related field) with similar scope and responsibilities.
• A Bachelor’s degree may substitute for 4 years of experience, and a Master’s Degree may substitute for 6 years of experience.
• Active TS/SCI with CI Polygraph.
• Expert proficiency in Python, SQL, and modern software engineering practices.
• Deep experience with Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud data and AI platforms.
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, cloud-native architectures, MLOps, and AI platform engineering.
• Experience implementing vector databases, embedding pipelines, retrieval systems, and RAG architectures.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, orchestration platforms, infrastructure automation, and observability tooling.

Technologies

• Python, SQL
• Azure, AWS, Google Cloud
• MLOps, vector databases, embedding pipelines
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
• CI/CD pipelines, observability tooling

Desired qualifications

• Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale AI, machine learning, generative AI, or Agentic AI solutions.
• Demonstrated success architecting and implementing production cloud-native data systems supporting advanced analytics and AI workloads.
• Proven experience working in complex enterprise environments with security, infrastructure, technology dependencies, governance requirements, and competing priorities.
• Extensive experience designing data pipelines for machine learning models, vector databases, semantic search, and generative AI applications.
• Proven ability to deliver complex technical solutions from strategic requirements through operational deployment while balancing schedule, performance, capability, and cost.
• Experience building and operating enterprise-scale vector search, RAG, knowledge management, and LLM-based platforms.
• Experience supporting AI adoption efforts within large government, defense, intelligence, or highly regulated organizations.

Location and work schedule

• Location: Washington, DC (hybrid) or Reston, VA
• Telework/Remote availability: Hybrid work authorized with a minimum of 2-3 days onsite

Pay range

USD 242,000 - 305,000 per year