SETA AI Engineer with Security Clearance

Cornerstone Defense; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 220,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Cornerstone Defense is seeking an SETA AI Engineer in Columbia, MD to provide technical advisory support for AI-enabled applications and workflows. You will guide teams in building practical AI solutions using large language models, agentic workflows, and orchestration frameworks while maintaining government-focused security and reliability.

The role requires hands-on experience with AI systems, strong communication skills, and the ability to translate complex concepts for government

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required, or 15 years with a Master’s in CS/Engineering/Data Science/Math.
• Experience designing, building, integrating, or evaluating AI/ML-enabled applications.
• Familiarity with LLM-based apps, RAG, prompt engineering, agentic workflows, orchestration frameworks.
• Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI, Haystack, LlamaIndex, or similar ecosystems.
• Strong API, data handling, and system integration skills.
• Ability to assess tradeoffs and communicate them to tech and government stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication; defense, cyber, intelligence, or mission-focused experience.
• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop workflows, AI assurance, and evaluation methodologies.

Responsibilities

• Provide SETA technical advisory support to government teams on AI-enabled apps and workflows.
• Advise on LLM, RAG, prompt pipelines, agentic systems, and orchestration layers for mission suitability.
• Review architectures, model usage, and risks; deliver guidance and briefs to stakeholders.
• Evaluate AI frameworks, agent libraries, and cloud environments for mission relevance.
• Support testing, performance analysis, and workflow validation.
• Advise on latency, reliability, observability, and secure development in gov environments.
• Collaborate with platform engineers, users, and leadership to ensure mission-aligned AI solutions.
• Translate complex concepts for government audiences, including tradeoffs and risks.
• Maintain knowledge of evolving AI tools, patterns, and evaluation methods.
• Support creation of knowledge repositories and AI assurance artifacts.

Skills

LLM-based applications

RAG

Prompt engineering

Agentic workflows

Orchestration frameworks

APIs and integration

Cloud AI environments

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

AutoGen

CrewAI

Haystack

LlamaIndex

Job description

SETA AI Engineer

Location: Columbia, MD

Compensation Range: $220 -$250K

Clearance

• Active TS/SCI w/ Polygraph needed to apply

Company Overview

Cornerstone Defense is the Employer of Choice within the Intelligence, Defense, and Space communities of the U.S. Government. Realizing early on that our most prized assets are our employees, we continually focus our attention on improving the overall work/life experience they have supporting the mission. Our Team is pushed every day to use their industry leading knowledge to provide end-to-end solutions to combat our nation’s toughest and most secure problems. If you are looking for a place to not only be professionally challenged, but encouraged and supported by a company that cares, don’t look any further than Cornerstone Defense.

Benefits Overview

Cornerstone Defense offers a very comprehensive benefits package including, but not limited to:

• Medical, Dental and Vision Plans
• Generous PTO Policy
• 401(k)
• HSA and FSA options
• Life and Disability Insurance
• Tuition Reimbursement and Training
• Perks at Work Discount Program
• Referral Program
• Leads Generation Program
• CollegeAmerica 529
• Fitness Reimbursement Program
• Travel Assistance
• Norton Lifelock Benefit Solutions
• Life Planning Financial & Legal Services

Position Description

Seeking an AI Engineer to provide technical advisory support for the design, evaluation, and advancement of AI-enabled applications, tools, and workflows. This role is intended for a hands-on technical professional who understands how modern AI systems are built and can help guide teams developing practical solutions using large language models, agentic workflows, orchestration frameworks, and supporting software infrastructure.

Core Tasks

• Provide SETA technical advisory support to government teams designing, developing, evaluating, and integrating AI-enabled applications, tools, and workflows.
• Assess and advise on solutions involving large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, prompt pipelines, agentic systems, orchestration layers, and evaluation harnesses to ensure mission suitability.
• Review architectures, development approaches, model usage patterns, and technical risks; deliver engineering recommendations, prototypes, guidance, and technical briefs for government stakeholders.
• Evaluate modern AI frameworks, agentic libraries, experimentation harnesses, vector databases, embeddings, inference pipelines, and cloud-based AI environments for suitability in mission applications
• Support test and evaluation activities including performance analysis, qualitative assessments, workflow validation, and guardrail reviews.
• Advise on AI engineering considerations such as latency, reliability, observability, testability, secure development, data flow, system integration, and operational constraints in government environments.
• Collaborate with platform engineers, mission users, product leads, and leadership to ensure AI solutions are technically grounded, mission-aligned, and operationally relevant.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear communication for government audiences, including tradeoff analysis, risk identification, emerging trends, and engineering implications.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem; provide continuous recommendations on emerging tools, practices, frameworks, and development patterns.
• Support development of knowledge repositories, engineering documentation, evaluation artifacts, and AI assurance products.

Qualifications

• Minimum 18 years of experience with a Bachelor's degree, or 15 years with a Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• Experience designing, building, integrating, or evaluating AI/ML-enabled applications or software tools.
• Familiarity with LLM-based applications, RAG, prompt engineering, agentic workflows, orchestration frameworks, and modern AI application patterns.
• Working knowledge of frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI, Haystack, LlamaIndex, or similar ecosystems.
• Experience with software development fundamentals including APIs, data handling, and system integration.
• Ability to assess technical tradeoffs and communicate them effectively to technical and government stakeholders.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience supporting defense, cyber, intelligence, or mission-focused development.
• Familiarity with human-in-the-loop workflows, AI assurance, and evaluation methodologies.

Preferred

• Experience with Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages used in AI development.
• Familiarity with vector databases, embeddings, model APIs, evaluation frameworks, and agent testing harnesses.
• Exposure to model hosting, inference pipelines, or cloud-based AI development environments.
• Understanding of secure AI development practices and data protection requirements in government settings.