Principal Ai/Ml Engineering Leader
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Overview
Job Description
Overview
Our client is seeking an experienced engineering leader to drive the design, development, and deployment of advanced AI and machine learning solutions supporting complex, mission-focused programs.
This individual will provide technical leadership across the full AI/ML lifecycle while partnering with engineering, product, data, and customer stakeholders to build scalable, secure, and production-ready systems.
Location: Hybrid in the Northern Virginia/Washington, DC metro area
Compensation: $225,000–$250,000
Clearance: Active Secret Clearance required
Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture and delivery of enterprise AI and machine learning solutions.
- Design scalable machine learning pipelines from data preparation through production deployment.
- Guide the development and operationalization of modern AI capabilities, including generative AI and intelligent automation.
- Collaborate with software, infrastructure, and platform engineering teams to deploy secure, cloud-based solutions.
- Establish technical standards, engineering best practices, and architectural direction across AI initiatives.
- Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across multiple development teams.
- Partner directly with customers and stakeholders to translate operational requirements into technical solutions.
- Improve system reliability, scalability, performance, and observability across production environments.
- Contribute to long-term technology strategy and AI roadmap planning.
- Support research, evaluation, and adoption of emerging artificial intelligence technologies.
Qualifications
- Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline preferred.
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering, machine learning, or artificial intelligence.
- Experience building and deploying production machine learning solutions.
- Strong programming skills in Python and experience with modern ML frameworks.
- Experience designing APIs, distributed applications, and cloud-native software.
- Familiarity with Kubernetes, containerization, CI/CD, and modern software delivery practices.
- Strong communication skills with experience leading cross-functional engineering initiatives.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor technical teams and influence engineering direction.
Preferred Experience
- Experience with large language models, retrieval-augmented AI, or intelligent automation platforms.
- Knowledge of MLOps, model lifecycle management, and production monitoring.
- Experience developing secure AI solutions within regulated or government environments.
- Familiarity with streaming data architectures and distributed systems.
- Contributions to open-source software, technical publications, or research initiatives are a plus.
Security Requirements
- Active Secret security clearance required.
- Ability to obtain additional clearance if required by future program needs.
What You'll Find
- Opportunity to lead high-impact AI initiatives.
- Collaborative engineering culture with significant technical ownership.
- Challenging, mission-focused work utilizing modern technologies.
- Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, retirement plan, generous paid time off, and professional development support.
Automate your job search with Sonara.
Submit 10x as many applications with less effort than one manual application.
