Senior Data Scientist

Unisys; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology company based in McLean, VA seeks a Principal Data Scientist specializing in Generative AI. The role involves leading the design and development of advanced AI applications and workflows that address complex business challenges. Candidates should have extensive experience in AI/ML, prompt engineering, and AWS deployments. Strong collaboration skills are essential as you will work closely with engineers and designers. This position requires a hands-on approach alongside strategic thought leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, with 3+ years in GenAI or LLM-based solutions.
• Deep expertise in prompt engineering and vector databases.
• Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with ML libraries.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement scalable AI agents and GenAI applications.
• Develop and optimize lightweight LLMs, lead model evaluations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for full-stack Gen AI experiences.

Skills

Prompt engineering

Large Language Models (LLMs)

AWS cloud deployments

Python

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

AWS SageMaker

MLFlow

Kubernetes (EKS)

Job description

Principal Data Scientist (GenAI) – McLean, VA 22102, 5 days onsite a week.

Duration: 06 Months (Possible Extensions)

Employment type: Contract

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Job Description

We are seeking a highly experienced Principal Gen AI Scientist with a strong focus on Generative AI (GenAI) to lead the design and development of cutting‑edge AI Agents, Agentic Workflows and Gen AI Applications that solve complex business problems. This role requires advanced proficiency in Prompt Engineering, Large Language Models (LLMs), RAG, Graph RAG, MCP, A2A, multi‑modal AI, Gen AI Patterns, Evaluation Frameworks, Guardrails, data curation, and AWS cloud deployments. You will serve as a hands‑on Gen AI (data) scientist and critical thought leader, working alongside full‑stack developers, UX designers, product managers and data engineers to shape and implement enterprise‑grade Gen AI solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and implement scalable AI Agents, Agentic Workflows and GenAI applications to address diverse and complex business use cases.
• Develop, fine‑tune, and optimize lightweight LLMs; lead the evaluation and adaptation of models such as Claude (Anthropic), Azure OpenAI, and open‑source alternatives.
• Design and deploy Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) and Graph RAG systems using vector databases and knowledge bases.
• Curate enterprise data using connectors integrated with AWS Bedrock's Knowledge Base/Elastic.
• Implement solutions leveraging MCP (Model Context Protocol) and A2A (Agent‑to‑Agent) communication.
• Build and maintain Jupyter‑based notebooks using platforms like SageMaker and MLFlow/Kubeflow on Kubernetes (EKS).
• Collaborate with cross‑functional teams of UI and microservice engineers, designers, and data engineers to build full‑stack Gen AI experiences.
• Integrate GenAI solutions with enterprise platforms via API‑based methods and GenAI standardized patterns.
• Establish and enforce validation procedures with Evaluation Frameworks, bias mitigation, safety protocols, and guardrails for production‑ready deployment.
• Design & build robust ingestion pipelines that extract, chunk, enrich, and anonymize data from PDFs, video, and audio sources for use in LLM‑powered workflows—leveraging best practices like semantic chunking and privacy controls.
• Orchestrate multimodal pipelines using scalable frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark, PySpark) for automated ETL/ELT workflows appropriate for unstructured media.
• Implement embeddings drives—map media content to vector representations using embedding models, and integrate with vector stores (AWS KnowledgeBase/Elastic/Mongo Atlas) to support RAG architectures.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in AI/ML, with 3+ years in applied GenAI or LLM‑based solutions.
• Deep expertise in prompt engineering, fine‑tuning, RAG, GraphRAG, vector databases (e.g., AWS KnowledgeBase / Elastic), and multi‑modal models.
• Proven experience with cloud‑native AI development (AWS SageMaker, Bedrock, MLFlow on EKS).
• Strong programming skills in Python and ML libraries (Transformers, LangChain, etc.).
• Deep understanding of Gen AI system patterns and architectural best practices, Evaluation Frameworks.
• Demonstrated ability to work in cross‑functional agile teams.
• Need Github Code Repository Link for each candidate. Please thoroughly vet the candidates.

Preferred Qualifications

• Published contributions or patents in AI/ML/LLM domains.
• Hands‑on experience with enterprise AI governance and ethical deployment frameworks.
• Familiarity with CI/CD practices for ML Ops and scalable inference APIs.