Senior AI/ML Engineer: Agentic AI & LLM Architect

Leidos; Huntsville (TN); On-site; USD 108,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Leidos Defense Systems Sector seeks a Senior AI/ML Engineer to integrate LLMs, VLMs and mLLMs into existing software products, leading the design and governance of agentic AI solutions across multidisciplinary teams.

The role requires DoD Secret clearance, a CS/DS/ML degree with 8+ years in AI/ML, and hands-on experience with Python and major ML frameworks. You will own deployment, testing, and cross‑functional collaboration for secure, compliant solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, or related field and 8+ years of experience.
• 5+ years of relevant experience with AI/ML, including hands-on production integration of LLMs/VLMs
• Proven track record managing agentic AI systems through a full lifecycle
• Strong experience with agentic frameworks and patterns (MCP, tool/function calling, etc.)
• Familiarity with model documentation practices and AI governance requirements in regulated environments
• Proficiency with Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face Transformers)
• Experience with prompt engineering and evaluation methodologies for generative AI
• Understanding of deployment practices (containerization, APIs, CI/CD, versioning for ML/agentic systems)
• Ability to lead the development of technical solutions for AI/ML or agentic systems and mentor other team members
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Responsibilities

• Lead the integration of LLMs, VLMs, and mLLMs into existing software products and platforms
• Design and execute fine-tuning strategies for pretrained models (LoRA, QLoRA, RLHF/DPO)
• Architect agentic AI solutions: agent/skill design, MCP tool/server integrations, and multi-agent orchestration workflows
• Set organizational standards for prompt engineering to optimize agent reasoning and output quality
• Lead the development of test harnesses, evaluation suites, and red-teaming/adversarial testing for agentic systems prior to production release
• Own end-to-end deployment and operations of agentic AI systems – CI/CD, monitoring, versioning and rollback, and lifecycle management
• Collaborate with software engineers, product owners, security, and data teams to align capabilities with product and compliance requirements
• Present architectures and lifecycle strategies to technical leadership and stakeholders

Skills

AI/ML experience

Agentic AI

Python

ML frameworks

Prompt engineering

CI/CD for ML

Leadership

Communication

DoD clearance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in CS/DS/ML

Tools

MCP framework

Tool/Function calling

MLflow

Vector databases

RAG architectures

Job description

Leidos Defense Systems Sector seeks a Senior AI/ML Engineer to integrate LLMs, VLMs and mLLMs into existing software products, leading the design and governance of agentic AI solutions across multidisciplinary teams.

The role requires DoD Secret clearance, a CS/DS/ML degree with 8+ years in AI/ML, and hands-on experience with Python and major ML frameworks. You will own deployment, testing, and cross‑functional collaboration for secure, compliant solutions.