Senior AI/ML Engineer

Columbia, MD Job Description X8 is seeking a Senior AI/ML Engineer to support the U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) AI Enterprise capability. Help mission teams transition AI prototypes into secure, governed, enterprise-scale services by engineering production-ready models, agents, and workflows.

This role combines advanced Python development, LLM/agent orchestration, model evaluation, and enterprise integration to deliver measurable mission impact in a fast-paced cyber operations environment.

What You'll Be Doing

• Provide embedded mission support, rapid prototyping, and integration of AI/ML-enabled capabilities.
• Design LLM and agent orchestration workflows using LangGraph, Agno, NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit, or similar frameworks.
• Optimize model gateway routing across frontier and open-weight models for mission fit, performance, and cost.
• Develop RAG pipelines, vector databases, and memory services for mission-grounded agent context.
• Integrate MCP-based tool brokers for secure agent access to enterprise tools and data.
• Build automated model/agent evaluations, benchmarks, monitoring, and performance reporting.
• Partner with data scientists and mission analysts to produce research and prototypes.
• Implement AI governance guardrails, policy enforcement, safety filters, and approval gates.

WHAT REQUIRED SKILLS YOU'LL BRING

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Data Science, or related discipline with 10+ years of experience; 4 additional years may substitute for a degree.
• Active TS/SCI clearance with CI polygraph.
• Advanced Python proficiency for AI/ML application development.
• Demonstrated experience building or integrating production LLM/agent-based systems.
• Hands-on experience with RAG, vector databases, and prompt/context engineering.
• Ability to prioritize competing mission requirements and identify/escalate operational risks.
• Experience designing, testing, and integrating software capabilities in secure enterprise environments.

What Desired Skills You'll Bring

• Master's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience.
• USCYBERCOM, NSA, DoD cyber operations, or related AI mission experience; LangGraph, Agno, NeMo, NVIDIA NIM, vLLM, Ollama, LiteLLM, MCP, AI observability or benchmarking.

WHY JOIN X8?

• Build mission-relevant AI capabilities for USCYBERCOM.
• Help shape a secure enterprise AI platform with high-visibility technical impact.

Minimum Clearance Required

• Active TS/SCI with CI polygraph required.

Compensation

• $200,000+ (depending on education and experience)
• Bonus potential
• 401K Match - 10%
• Paid time off - 24 PTO Days, 13 Holidays
• Medical Benefits - 100% Employee, 80% Dependent, $1000 company paid HSA Contribution