Senior Applied AI Engineer — TS/SCI Clearance

Visionist, Inc.; Columbia, Northern (MD, KY); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee-owned culture

Competitive retirement plan (ESOP)

Paid time off and holidays

Parental leave

Medical, dental, vision benefits

Job summary

Visionist, Inc. is seeking a Senior Applied AI Engineer - Software Engineering to join our fully funded opportunity on a large PRIME contract.

You will design, develop, and maintain production AI-enabled software applications using Python, architectures, and modern software engineering practices, collaborating with analysts, engineers, and mission stakeholders. You will architect LLM-powered workflows, RAG pipelines, and AI agent capabilities; build backend services and data pipelines; translate

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline or equivalent experience (12+ yrs in software development)
• Production software development experience using Python
• Experience designing and developing distributed or backend software systems
• Experience building AI-enabled applications using LLMs, RAG, AI agents, or similar tech
• Experience developing REST APIs and integrating multiple data sources
• Experience with SQL, Elasticsearch, or other data storage technologies
• Strong understanding of software architecture, object-oriented design, and best practices
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Experience collaborating with mission customers to understand requirements
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain production AI-enabled software applications using Python and modern software engineering practices
• Architect and implement LLM-powered workflows, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and AI agent capabilities
• Develop backend services, APIs, and data pipelines supporting AI-enabled applications
• Translate natural language user requests into deterministic analytical workflows through integration with mission data sources, databases, and search platforms
• Collaborate directly with mission stakeholders to understand operational workflows and rapidly prototype customer-focused AI solutions
• Integrate structured and unstructured data from multiple sources into scalable AI applications
• Evaluate emerging AI frameworks, models, and software engineering techniques for mission applicability
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to technical architecture, engineering standards, and software design across the team

Skills

Python

REST APIs

Distributed systems

Backend software

AI/ML

LLMs

RAG

Data pipelines

SQL/Elasticsearch

Software architecture

Stakeholder communication

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline

Tools

Elasticsearch

SQL

Job description

Visionist, Inc. is seeking a Senior Applied AI Engineer - Software Engineering to join our fully funded opportunity on a large PRIME contract.

You will design, develop, and maintain production AI-enabled software applications using Python, architectures, and modern software engineering practices, collaborating with analysts, engineers, and mission stakeholders. You will architect LLM-powered workflows, RAG pipelines, and AI agent capabilities; build backend services and data pipelines; translate