iAdeptive is looking for an AI engineer who is already building the systems that others are still talking about. You deeply embed with federal clients as their technical AI lead — owning the full arc from ideation to prototype to production to scale — while simultaneously driving iAdeptive's AI practice, governance standards, and technical reputation forward.
HANDS-ON FIRST
You ship code every week — no exceptions. Production LLM pipelines, agentic workflows, RAG systems, and evaluation harnesses are your daily output. You own problems end-to-end and pick up whatever knowledge you're missing to get the job done.
AI-AUGMENTED, NOT AI-DEPENDENT
You use Cursor, Copilot, Claude Code, and frontier tools to move fast. You also know exactly why a vibe-coded black box is a liability in federal production. You can read the diff, explain the logic, own the deployment — and write the Architecture Decision Record that documents why.
TREND LEADER
You have a point of view on what OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and Mistral shipped last week. You know where LangGraph, CrewAI, and the agentic framework ecosystem are heading. You brief iAdeptive leadership proactively and position the company ahead of the curve.
What You Will Do
- Deeply embed with federal agency clients as the technical AI lead — from ideation through prototype, production, and scale
- Work with senior stakeholders to identify the highest-value GenAI applications and build a comprehensive, prioritized AI backlog to support their roadmap
- Design, build, and deploy production-grade LLM, RAG, and agentic AI systems using LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, and OpenAI/Anthropic APIs
- Design and implement multi-step autonomous task execution architectures and secure multi-agent workflows for federal mission use cases
- Define AI architecture standards, reference architectures, and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) aligned with federal technology frameworks (NIST AI RMF, FedRAMP)
- Lead AI risk assessments and Algorithmic Impact Assessments (AIAs) — identifying and mitigating bias, privacy harms, and unintended consequences
- Apply privacy-preserving AI techniques including federated learning and differential privacy where mission requirements demand them
- Build model evaluation harnesses, observability tooling, model cards, system cards, and AI use-case inventories
- Ensure AI systems support data lineage, model versioning, audit logging, and reproducibility for federal compliance
- Integrate privacy-by-design and security-by-design throughout the AI system development lifecycle
- Synthesize and deliver high-signal feedback on model capabilities and platform gaps to iAdeptive leadership
- Mentor engineers on AI tooling, prompt engineering, and responsible deployment; codify best practices and publish reusable resources
What We're Looking For
- 7+ years of software or ML engineering with 3+ years building production AI/ML systems
- Deep hands-on experience with LLM APIs, vector databases, embedding pipelines, and retrieval architectures
- Proficiency in Python; strong grasp of AI/LLM best practices; JavaScript/TypeScript a plus
- Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks: LangChain, LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, or equivalent
- Experience with MLOps: experiment tracking, model versioning, CI/CD for ML, monitoring and observability
- Working knowledge of responsible AI: bias detection, explainability, audit trails, algorithmic impact assessment
- Familiarity with privacy-preserving techniques (federated learning, differential privacy) for regulated environments
- Proven ability to drive multiple concurrent projects and prioritize ruthlessly in fast-moving environments
- Effective, polished communicator — translates AI concepts to engineers, executives, and federal clients equally well
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred
- We offer remote flexibility, with a preference for candidates local to Maryland.
Bonus Points
- Federal contracting, government IT, or public sector implementation experience (U.S. federal preferred)
- Active security clearance or ability to obtain one (TS/SCI a significant plus)
- Experience with NLP, computer vision, or generative AI in regulated industries (healthcare, defense, finance)
- Familiarity with federal AI policy frameworks: NIST AI RMF, OMB AI guidance, Executive Orders on AI
- Founding engineer or startup experience — people who have built something from zero
- Contributions to open-source AI projects or published applied research
Competencies & What They Look Like at iAdeptive
Competency
What It Looks Like at iAdeptive
Technical Credibility
Earns trust from engineers and scientists through depth of knowledge — demonstrates mastery by shipping, not presenting.
Strategic Thinking
Translates federal mission objectives into actionable AI architecture strategies, roadmaps, and prioritized backlogs.
Responsible Innovation
Proactively identifies ethical, equity, and safety considerations; champions responsible AI before clients ask for it.
Stakeholder Influence
Builds consensus across diverse stakeholders; communicates effectively with engineers, executives, and agency partners.
Accountability
Takes ownership of architecture decisions and outcomes; maintains clear ADRs, documentation, and decision rationale.
Adaptability
Rapidly assimilates emerging AI technologies and policy changes; adjusts iAdeptive's approach before the market catches up.
Collaboration
Partners effectively across iAdeptive teams, federal clients, systems integrators, and implementation partners.
Why iAdeptive
We are a federal technology company building AI systems at the intersection of mission impact and engineering excellence. You will have the autonomy of a founding engineer with the stability of the federal contracting market. The problems are hard. The data is real. The stakes matter.
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: From $140,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Vision insurance
Education:
Experience:
- software or ML engineering : 7 years (Required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Columbia, MD 21046
