Senior Forward Deployed Engineer// Senior AI/ML Engineer

Senior AI/ML Engineer — Forward Deployed Engineer

Work location

Washington, DC hybrid; at least three days onsite weekly;

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.

Position summary

The Senior AI/ML Engineer serves as a senior Forward Deployed Engineer and the accountable technical lead for one or more DOL agencies. The role turns ambiguous mission needs into secure, usable, accessible, Government-owned AI capabilities. The incumbent provides hands-on architecture, engineering, AI assurance, delivery leadership, and stakeholder advisory support across discovery, design, development, test, deployment, operations, and knowledge transfer.

Essential responsibilities

• Lead agency-specific AI solution discovery, feasibility analysis, architecture, engineering design, integration, deployment, and operational support.
• Translate incomplete mission needs into measurable problem statements, user needs, acceptance criteria, prioritized backlogs, experiments, and release plans.
• Architect and implement AI-enabled applications using appropriate methods, including classical ML, document intelligence, NLP, LLM integrations, RAG, agentic workflows, multi-agent patterns, MCP server-based components, APIs, and deterministic automation.
• Select the simplest safe and effective solution rather than defaulting to generative AI.
• Lead the technical design of data flows, identity and access controls, trust boundaries, fallback and rollback methods, observability, and resilience.
• Direct MLOps/LLMOps practices, including version control, CI/CD, model/artifact registration, evaluation, monitoring, retraining or refresh workflows, and release management.
• Define and oversee AI evaluation methods for accuracy, groundedness, relevance, hallucination, cal