Senior AI/ML Engineer – Forward Deployed Engineer

Digital Links Inc; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Links Inc in Washington, DC is seeking a Senior AI/ML Engineer (Forward Deployed) to design and deploy secure GenAI solutions for federal agencies, from discovery through production, while ensuring compliance with security onboarding requirements and NDA rules. The role is hybrid with 3 days onsite.

You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, leverage Python, APIs, data pipelines and MLOps/LLMOps, and maintain evidence of AI credentials as part of onboarding and annual reviews.

Qualifications

• 7+ years AI/ML, software, cloud, data engineering or architecture experience.
• 2+ years production experience with GenAI, LLM, RAG, AI Agents or AI operations.
• Build secure AI solutions for Federal/DOL agencies from discovery through production.
• Strong Python, APIs, data pipelines, cloud, MLOps/LLMOps.
• Experience with LLM integration, RAG, NLP, document intelligence, agents/MCP.
• AI evaluation, security/adversarial testing, Responsible AI and compliance.
• Federal/regulated environment experience strongly preferred.
• Relevant AI/ML certification required.

Skills

AI/ML experience

GenAI/LLM/RAG/LLMOps

Secure AI Solutions

Python & APIs

LLM integration & NLP

Responsible AI & security

Federal/regulatory experience

AI/ML Certification

Tools

AWS

Azure AI Foundry

Google Vertex AI

AWS Bedrock

GitHub Copilot/VS Code

GitLab

JIRA

CI/CD pipelines (gov)

Job description

Senior AI/ML Engineer Forward Deployed Engineer

Location: Washington, DC Hybrid (3 days onsite)
Security eligibility: US Citizen or Permanent Resident (no H1 or OPT) Must be eligible for and obtain DOL onboarding approval, NACI clearance, PIV, system access, mandatory training completion, and execution of DOL Rules of Behavior and NDA.

Note:

Required certification evidence

The candidate must hold and provide verifiable evidence of at least one relevant AI/ML credential, such as an Azure AI/Generative AI certification, AWS Generative AI or ML certification, Google Cloud Generative AI/ML credential, Databricks Generative AI Engineer credential, Snowflake data credential, NVIDIA generative AI credential, CAIP, or equivalent.

Skills:

• 7+ years AI/ML, software, cloud, data engineering or architecture experience.
• 2+ years production experience with GenAI, LLM, RAG, AI Agents or AI operations.
• Build secure AI solutions for Federal/DOL agencies from discovery through production.
• Strong Python, APIs, data pipelines, cloud, MLOps/LLMOps.
• Experience with LLM integration, RAG, NLP, document intelligence, agents/MCP.
• AI evaluation, security/adversarial testing, Responsible AI and compliance.
• Federal/regulated environment experience strongly preferred.
• Relevant AI/ML certification required.

Preferred qualifications

• Direct experience in federal civilian agencies, especially systems involving PII, CUI, public-facing digital services, grants, enforcement, benefits, claims, or case-management operations.
• Experience with AWS, Azure AI Foundry, Google Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock, GitHub Copilot/VS Code, GitLab, JIRA, and Government-controlled CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with accessibility-by-design and delivery of systems meeting Section 508/WCAG 2.1 A/AA.
• Experience supporting independent testing, red teaming, security assessment, and production ATO activities.

Required certification evidence

The candidate must hold and provide verifiable evidence of at least one relevant AI/ML credential, such as an Azure AI/Generative AI certification, AWS Generative AI or ML certification, Google Cloud Generative AI/ML credential, Databricks Generative AI Engineer credential, Snowflake data credential, NVIDIA generative AI credential, CAIP, or equivalent. Evidence must be supplied at onboarding and annually thereafter; self-attestation is not sufficient.