AI Solutions Architect with Security Clearance

Gridiron IT is seeking an AI Solutions Lead SME to support a federal program in Chantilly, VA. Chantilly, VA Bachelors required
Minimum 10 years experience What You’ll Do

• Design and govern end to end AI architectures, solution patterns, and reference designs.
• Architect multi step, agentic AI workflows involving retrieval, tool calling, and automated reasoning loops.
• Lead integration across cloud platforms (Azure/AWS/GCP), APIs, enterprise applications, and orchestration frameworks.
• Guide engineering and data teams from prototype through production deployment.
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend optimal technical stacks.
• Ensure security, scalability, governance, and zero trust alignment across all AI systems.
• Communicate architectural decisions to executives, mission owners, and technical teams. Required Qualifications
• 10+ years experiance • Experiance in AI/ML engineering, cloud architecture, or data engineering.
• Expertise with AI/ML frameworks, LLMs, vector databases, retrieval systems, and distributed systems.
• Proven experience designing production grade AI systems and microservice architectures.
• Proficiency in Python, backend engineering, and API design.
• Familiarity with MLOps, DevOps, and platform engineering practices.
• Understanding of agentic AI, tool calling, and multi agent orchestration.
• Experience applying responsible AI, governance, and enterprise security frameworks.

Unique Skills / Technical Requirements

• Air-gapped hybrid cloud and on?premises operational environments, including complex multi?enclave ecosystems
• AWS GovCloud/SC2S/C2S and GCP cloud platforms Nutanix host and cluster configuration, management with Prism Central, and NDFS configuration/management
• Cisco switching, routing, firewalling, and site-to-site functionality (such as IPSEC,

DMVPN, and SD-WAN)

• Locally hosted GPU servers
• Multi-tenant Cross-Domain Solutions (CDS)
• Infrastructure?as?Code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, OpenShift)
• Cloud?native security implementation and security accreditation processes
• Advanced GitLab CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps practices
• Enterprise database services (RDS, RDS Aurora, DynamoDB)
• Serverless architectures (Lambda)
• Cloud networking and VPC configuration
• Monitoring, logging, and data platforms (Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Splunk)
• Microservices architecture and API Gateway implementation
• Development experience with Python, .NET/C#, and related languages
• Identity and access services (Microsoft Active Directory, LDAP / OpenLDAP, Entra ID,

Keycloak)

• High?assurance cross?domain and encryption solutions (TACLANE, NCAP)
• Cloud cost?optimization techniques
• Operating Systems: Linux (e.g., Rocky, RedHat, Amazon, Ubuntu), Windows, and Mac

OS Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in federal, defense, or highly regulated environments.
• Knowledge of GPU acceleration, scalable model serving, or distributed training.
• Experience with enterprise scale design systems, event-driven architectures, or service meshes.
• Cloud certifications in AWS, Azure, or GCP. Clearance

Applicants selected will be subject to a security investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information; Top Secret clearance required Compensation and Benefits
Salary Range: (Compensation is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, work experience, skills, education, certifications, seniority, and business needs. This range may be modified in the future.) Benefits: Gridiron offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision insurance, HSA, FSA, 401(k), disability & ADD insurance, life and pet insurance to eligible employees. Full-time and part-time employees working at least 30 hours per week on a regular basis are eligible to participate in Gridiron’s benefits programs. Gridiron IT Solutions is an

Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran status or disability status. Gridiron IT is a Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) headquartered in the Washington, D.C. area that supports our clients' missions throughout the United States. Gridiron IT specializes in providing comprehensive IT services tailored to meet the needs of federal agencies.

Our capabilities include IT Infrastructure & Cloud Services, Cyber Security, Software Integration & Development, Data Solution & AI, and Enterprise Applications. These capabilities are backed by Gridiron IT's experienced workforce and our commitment to ensuring we meet and exceed our clients' expectations.