Lead AI/ML Engineer

Lead AI/ML Engineer

Fulltime . Remote – Travel As required by the Federal Government assignment.

Position Summary

The Federal Government is modernizing enterprise technology governance through authoritative software records, AI-assisted intake, and evidence-based decisions. As Lead AI/ML Engineer, you will set technical direction for a multidisciplinary engineering team, own the architecture and authoritative record service, establish evaluation standards for AI solutions, and build AI-guided intake capabilities that deliver reliable, traceable answers.

What You Will Do

• Architecture and engineering standards

• Set architecture and engineering standards for the Government to adopt.
• Own the resolver, the authoritative ID model and the analysis method behind the record.
• Review every change to resolver, loader and schema code as the required reviewer.
• Work within the Government's change control and refer production approval to the System Owner.

• The record service

• Design the record service that routing checks, AI personas and the requestor chatbot read for approval status, installs and license availability.
• Make sure every change lands without breaking the record or losing adjudication history.
• Lead knowledge transfer and protect the Government's rights to all code, data and documentation.

• AI applications

• Build various AI personas on a Federal Government-approved AI platform; collaborate with software engineers to scale the capability.
• Extract technical approval decisions from board comments, backed by an evaluation set, until structured decision fields are available.
• Back up the AI applications focus area: personas, the requestor chatbot and analyst automation.
• Keep AI work portable across Federal Government-approved platforms, with prompts, grounding and evaluation sets stored in the Government repository.

• Evaluation

• Write the evaluation standard that every AI persona and automation must pass before release.
• Support AI use-case registration through Federal Government AI governance processes.
• Work with the Project Manager so personas meet Section 508 accessibility requirements.

• How success is measured

• Changes land without breaking the record.
• Every persona passes its evaluation before release.

• Who you work with

• The federal Enterprise Architecture lead and the System Owner.

• Federal Government AI governance representatives and the owner of the approved AI platform.
• Technical approval boards and the Federal Government ServiceNow team.
• Software Engineers, Data Managers and Business Architects on the team.
• This role sets technical direction and has no supervisory duties. The Project Manager handles tasking, timesheets and staff supervision.

What You Bring

• Experience leading architecture and engineering for data-intensive systems and AI applications, including setting standards that other engineers build to.
• Strong Python and SQL. You can review loader, schema and matching code in PostgreSQL.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, version control and automated build and deployment pipelines.
• Experience building large language model (LLM) applications, including:
• retrieval grounded in a database
• conversational design
• prompt management
• Experience designing evaluation sets and evaluation standards for AI systems, including extraction tasks.
• Experience with entity resolution and authoritative identifier design, such as matching records from multiple sources into one traceable record.
• Ability to keep AI designs portable across platforms rather than tied to a single vendor.
• Clear written communication for standards, design decisions and technical briefings to Government leadership.

Nice to Have

• Experience with software asset data: product naming and versions, licensing and installs.
• Familiarity with ServiceNow data structures and integrations through APIs.
• AI system security experience, such as defending against prompt injection and data leakage, and logging and approval controls for automated actions.
• Familiarity with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) SP 800-53 controls and federal Authority to Operate (ATO) packages.
• Knowledge of the Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), TOGAF or a Technical Reference Model.

• Prior work with Federal Government IT governance, demand management or AI governance.

Certifications, Clearance and Eligibility

Location and Work Arrangement

• Place of performance: On-site work at a Federal Government-designated facility, as required by the assignment. Meetings may take place at other Government offices.
• Telework: Telework may be authorized subject to applicable Federal Government policies, training and approval.
• Hours: Work hours will follow the assigned Federal Government program schedule, excluding federal holidays. Occasional schedule changes may be required for deployments or priority deadlines.
• Equipment: You will work on a Government-furnished laptop. Personal or company storage devices are not permitted.
• Meetings: You will attend weekly progress meetings with Government staff.
• Travel: Travel requirements will be determined by the Federal Government assignment.