PenFed Credit Union is actively hiring for 2 AI and machine learning positions, concentrated in AI Agent Developer (1) and AI Product Manager (1) roles. Posted salary ranges span $146K - $146K. The median posted ceiling sits at $146K. Positions are based in McLean, VA, US, Tysons Corner, VA. The most frequently requested skills across these postings are Javascript, Mulesoft, Prompt Engineering, Python, Salesforce. Mid-level roles account for 100% of openings.
Skills & Technologies
Locations
McLean, VA, US, Tysons Corner, VA
Hiring by Role Category
Open Positions (2)
Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Agentic Delivery
AI Product Manager
What PenFed Credit Union's hiring tells you
With 2 active AI role(s), this company is in the early exploration phase. That can mean either a pilot project being staffed up or a small embedded AI function inside a larger team. Worth investigating directly: ask the recruiter how the AI work is funded and who it reports to. Posted compensation range ($146K - $146K) suggests transparent and competitive pay practices.
The skill mix here leans toward Javascript in AI Agent Developer roles. That is a clue about what PenFed Credit Union is building: teams hire for the work in front of them, not the work they wish they were doing.
Questions worth asking in the PenFed Credit Union interview loop
The signals above come from public job postings. The signals you actually need come from the conversation. A few questions calibrated to this company's tier:
- Is this AI work funded for at least 18 months, or is it tied to a specific project deadline?
- Will I be the only person doing this, or are there others I will collaborate with day to day?
- What does success look like at six months? At eighteen months?
PenFed Credit Union AI and ML Hiring
PenFed Credit Union has 2 active AI and ML roles in our dataset. Open positions span AI Agent Developer, AI Product Manager. Compensation ranges from $146K - $146K across disclosed roles. Roles are based in McLean, VA, US, Tysons Corner, VA.
Salary Benchmarks
The market median for AI roles is $213,480. AI Agent Developer roles pay a median of $215,000 across the market. AI Product Manager roles pay a median of $220,200 across the market. Top-quartile AI compensation starts at $264,000.
Skills PenFed Credit Union Looks For
Deep experience with LLM APIs and agent frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen). Strong understanding of prompt engineering, function calling, and error handling for non-deterministic systems. Python is standard. Experience with orchestration patterns, state management, and workflow engines adds significant value.
The best agent developers think like systems engineers. They design for failure modes, build observability into every step, and understand that agent reliability is the product. Expertise in evaluation methodology for non-deterministic systems is the differentiator. Can you measure whether your agent works 'well enough'? Can you find the edge cases where it breaks?
AI Role Categories
AI Agent Developer
AI Agent Developers build autonomous systems that can reason, plan, and take actions. They design multi-step workflows, tool-use frameworks, and orchestration layers that let LLMs interact with external systems. This is the frontier of applied AI engineering.
Deep experience with LLM APIs and agent frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen). Strong understanding of prompt engineering, function calling, and error handling for non-deterministic systems. Python is standard. Experience with orchestration patterns, state management, and workflow engines adds significant value.
Market compensation for AI Agent Developer roles: $215,000 median across 212 positions with disclosed pay.
AI Product Manager
AI Product Managers define what AI features get built and why. They translate business problems into ML-solvable tasks, work with engineering to scope model requirements, and own the metrics that determine if an AI feature is working. The role requires a rare combination of technical fluency and product instinct.
Technical fluency with ML concepts is essential, though you won't be writing models. Expect to understand training data, evaluation metrics, model limitations, and responsible AI practices. SQL and basic Python are increasingly expected. Experience with A/B testing, data analysis, and product analytics is baseline. Understanding LLM capabilities and limitations is now a core requirement.
Market compensation for AI Product Manager roles: $220,200 median across 993 positions with disclosed pay.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 11,520 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (8,769), AI Software Engineer (586), AI Product Manager (511). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (140) are outnumbered by mid-level (5,630) and senior (4,176) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 1,574 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (708 positions), with 10,737 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $213,480. Top-quartile roles start at $264,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $318,400. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $266,050 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $140,000. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,267 postings), Aws (1,178 postings), Azure (972 postings), Rag (924 postings), Gcp (715 postings), Pytorch (586 postings), Claude (572 postings), Kubernetes (559 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 11,520 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 140 entry-level, 5,630 mid-level, 4,176 senior, and 1,574 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (708 positions). The remaining 10,737 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,480. Top-quartile compensation starts at $264,000. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($266,050 median, 70 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($253,461 median, 58 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 476 roles).
AI Agent Developer is one of the newest and fastest-growing AI role categories. The market is early but accelerating as companies move beyond simple chatbots toward AI systems that can take real actions. Compensation is high because the skill set is rare and the business impact is potentially enormous.
What to Expect in Interviews
Interviews focus on systems thinking and reliability engineering. Expect questions about agent architecture: how you'd design a multi-step workflow with error recovery, how you'd evaluate agent performance, and how you'd prevent agents from taking destructive actions. Coding exercises often involve building a simple agent with tool use and evaluating its behavior across different scenarios. Discussion of safety and guardrails is increasingly common.
When evaluating opportunities: Look for roles that describe specific agent use cases, mention evaluation methodology, and talk about production deployment. Early-stage companies exploring agents can be exciting, but be prepared for ambiguity. The most valuable roles are at companies that have already shipped a v1 and need to make it reliable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
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