Senior Principal AI Data Engineer for Secure Gov Pipelines

General Dynamics IT; Virginia (MN); On-site; USD 174,000 - 236,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Growth opportunities

Internal mobility support

Competitive pay and PTO

Military-friendly culture

Job summary

Iron EagleX is seeking a Senior Principal AI Data Engineer to support our AI team in Crystal City, VA. In this role, you will design, build, and operate data pipelines that ingest, store, and process high-volume, multi-source data primarily for modern AI/ML processes.

You will partner with software, analytics, and product teams to create model-ready datasets (including features, embeddings, and prompts), implement scalable storage layers (such as a data lakehouse and vector stores), and enable

Qualifications

• Experience with Airflow for workflow orchestration.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Experience with ElasticSearch/OpenSearch for indexing and search.
• Understanding of vector databases and embeddings for AI apps.
• Expertise in event-driven architecture and microservices.
• Hands-on experience with cloud storage and compute resources (MinIO).
• Strong Linux and database optimization knowledge.
• Version control with Git.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable data pipelines and ETL processes for AI workloads.
• Build and tune search and retrieval capabilities using ElasticSearch/OpenSearch.
• Enable low-latency data access for inference and RAG applications.
• Collaborate with analytics teams to define schemas and interfaces.
• Use Git for version control, CI/CD, and reproducible deployments.
• Operate in Linux environments and optimize pipeline performance.

Skills

Apache Airflow

Python

ElasticSearch/OpenSearch

Vector databases

Event-driven architecture

Cloud services (MinIO)

Linux

Git

Data pipelines

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering or related field

Tools

MinIO

Job description

Iron EagleX is seeking a Senior Principal AI Data Engineer to support our AI team in Crystal City, VA. In this role, you will design, build, and operate data pipelines that ingest, store, and process high-volume, multi-source data primarily for modern AI/ML processes.

You will partner with software, analytics, and product teams to create model-ready datasets (including features, embeddings, and prompts), implement scalable storage layers (such as a data lakehouse and vector stores), and enable