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About This Role
At Accenture Federal Services, nothing matters more than helping the US federal government make the nation stronger and safer and life better for people. Our 13,000\+ people are united in a shared purpose to pursue the limitless potential of technology and ingenuity for clients across defense, national security, public safety, civilian, and military health organizations.
Join Accenture Federal Services, a technology company within global Accenture. Recognized as a Glassdoor Top 100 Best Place to Work, we offer a collaborative and caring community where you feel like you belong and are empowered to grow, learn and thrive through hands\-on experience, certifications, industry training and more.
Join us to drive positive, lasting change that moves missions and the government forward!
Job Description:
We are looking for an experienced Senior AI/ML and Data Engineer to develop, implement, and maintain sophisticated machine learning, LLM, and enterprise AI solutions for our federal client. The ideal candidate combines strong hands on engineering talent with architectural leadership—capable of shaping mission aligned AI strategy, designing scalable pipelines, and delivering production\-grade ML and Generative AI capabilities in secure environments. This role will partner with cross functional teams \- including data engineering, cloud engineering, cybersecurity, and mission SMEs \- to architect end\-to\-end AI systems that are reliable, compliant, and impactful.
The work you'll do:
- AI/ML Engineering:
+ Design, develop, and deploy machine learning models, LLM applications, retrieval augmented generation (RAG) pipelines, and agentic AI systems.
+ Build data preprocessing, training, fine tuning, inference, and evaluation workflows.
+ Develop scalable ML pipelines using modern toolchains (SageMaker, Bedrock, Azure ML, Databricks, Ray, HuggingFace).
+ Implement MLOps solutions including CI/CD for ML, model versioning, monitoring, logging, and drift detection.
+ Shape AI system design decisions including vector DB selection, embedding strategies, prompt architecture, and model selection.
+ Define target state architectures for LLM enabled applications, AI microservices, RAG pipelines, and knowledge retrieval systems.
- Data \& Cloud Engineering:
+ Design, build, and maintain scalable automated data pipelines (ETL/ELT) to support both batch and real\-time data processing.
+ Architect data lakes and warehouses (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery) to ensure high availability and performance for ML workflows.
+ Implement rigorous data quality checks and validation frameworks to ensure "garbage\-in, garbage\-out" never applies to our models.
- Delivery \& Stakeholder Engagement:
+ Work closely with program leadership, technical SMEs, and mission stakeholders to define requirements and AI roadmaps.
+ Translate business problems into technical AI solutions and communicate tradeoffs to mixed audiences.
+ Produce architecture diagrams, interface specifications, deployment patterns, and integration plans.
Here's what you'll need:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or related field.
- 5\+ years of experience in one or more of the following areas:
+ AI/ML engineering, cloud\-native development, or data engineering.
+ Strong proficiency in Python and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Scikit\-learn).
+ Hands on experience with LLM development (OpenAI, Anthropic, Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, HuggingFace Transformers).
+ Experience architecting ML pipelines using AWS, Azure, or GCP.
+ Familiarity with DevSecOps and IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, Jenkins, GitLab, etc.).
+ Experience implementing microservices, APIs, and containerized workloads (Docker, Kubernetes, ECS/EKS/AKS).
+ Understanding of security frameworks (FedRAMP, NIST 800 53, Zero Trust) for ML systems.
Bonus points if you have:
- Experience building RAG pipelines with vector databases (Pinecone, FAISS, Weaviate, Milvus).
- Experience designing agentic workflows and multi agent AI systems.
- Experience with graph databases, knowledge graphs, or semantic search.
- Certifications such as AWS Architect, AWS ML Specialty, Azure AI Engineer, Security\+.
- Ability to translate complex technical concepts for non\-technical audiences.
- Strong problem\-solving abilities with a product focused mindset.
- Strong communication and client facing consulting skills.
- Ability to work across cross\-functional teams in a fast\-paced environment.
Security clearance:
- Active TS security clearance is required.
*What We Believe**As a company wholly dedicated to serving the US federal government, we bring together the best talent to help reinvent how federal agencies operate and deliver greater value for their mission and the American people. We have an unwavering commitment to creating a culture in which all our people are respected, feel a sense of belonging, and have equal opportunity. As a business imperative, every person at Accenture Federal Services has the responsibility to create and sustain a culture where everyone feels welcomed and included. This is grounded in our core values and our experience that hiring and developing great people who reflect different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds is key to driving innovation and delivering the results that our clients and the country count on.*
*Equal Employment Opportunity Statement*
*We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities. For details, view a copy of the* *Accenture Federal Services Equal Opportunity Policy Statement.*
*Accenture Federal Services is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Additionally, as an Affirmative Action Employer for Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities, Accenture Federal Services is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.*
*Requesting An Accommodation*
*Accenture Federal Services is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities or religious observances, including reasonable accommodation when needed. If you are hired by Accenture Federal Services and require accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you will be asked to participate in our reasonable accommodation process. Accommodations made to facilitate the recruiting process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired.*
*If you**are being considered for employment opportunities with Accenture Federal Services and need an accommodation for a disability or religious observance during the interview process or for the job you are interviewing for, please speak with your recruiter.*
*Other Employment Statements*
*Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.*
*Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture Federal Services or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.*
*Job candidates will not be obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest as part of the hiring process.*
*The Company will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. Additionally, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the Company's legal duty to furnish information.*
*California requires additional notifications for applicants and employees. If you are a California resident, live in or plan to work from Los Angeles County upon being hired for this position, please* *click here* *for additional important information.*
Salary Context
This $100K-$203K range is below the median for Data Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $160K across 37 roles with salary data).
Role Details
About This Role
Data Engineers build the pipelines that feed AI models. They design ETL workflows, manage data lakes, and ensure training and inference data is clean, timely, and accessible. Without good data engineering, AI projects fail. It's that simple.
The AI era has expanded the data engineer's scope far beyond batch ETL jobs. You're building real-time embedding pipelines for RAG systems, managing vector databases, ensuring training data quality at scale, and building the infrastructure that lets ML teams iterate on data as fast as they iterate on models. Data quality is the biggest predictor of model quality, and you're the person responsible for it.
Across the 3,963 AI roles we're tracking, Data Engineer positions make up 1% of the market. At Accenture Federal Services, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week includes: debugging a data pipeline that's producing stale embeddings for the RAG system, optimizing a Spark job that processes training data, building a data quality monitoring dashboard, meeting with the ML team to understand their next data requirements, and writing dbt models that transform raw event data into ML-ready features. The work is deeply technical and high-impact.
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
Skills Required
SQL, Python, and distributed systems (Spark, Airflow, dbt) are core. Cloud data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift) are increasingly standard. Many AI-focused roles also want familiarity with vector databases and embedding pipelines. Understanding data modeling, pipeline orchestration, and data quality frameworks covers the essentials.
AI-specific data engineering skills include: building feature stores, managing training data versioning, implementing data lineage tracking, and building real-time embedding pipelines. Experience with streaming systems (Kafka, Flink) is valuable for real-time AI applications. Understanding ML data requirements (balanced datasets, data augmentation, evaluation set construction) makes you much more effective working with ML teams.
Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
Compensation Benchmarks
Data Engineer roles pay a median of $208,300 based on 261 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($151K) sits 27% below the category median. Disclosed range: $100K to $203K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($290,000) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,760; Mid: $163,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $244,800; VP: $250,000.
Accenture Federal Services AI Hiring
Accenture Federal Services has 8 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Engineer, Data Scientist. Positions span Tampa, FL, US, Chantilly, VA, US, Alexandria, VA, US. Compensation range: $184K - $276K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (593 positions) offer remote work, while 3,349 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,585 roles, $210,300 median); San Francisco (2,103 roles, $253,000 median); Los Angeles (1,764 roles, $190,500 median).
Career Path
Common paths into Data Engineer roles include Backend Engineer, Database Administrator, Analytics Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward Senior Data Engineer, ML Engineer, Data Platform Lead.
Master SQL and Python first. Then learn a distributed processing framework (Spark or its modern alternatives) and a pipeline orchestrator (Airflow, Dagster, Prefect). Build a portfolio project that demonstrates end-to-end pipeline construction: ingest, transform, validate, serve. If you want to specialize in AI data engineering, add vector databases and embedding pipelines to your skill set.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect SQL deep-dives (query optimization, partitioning strategies, data modeling), Python coding focused on data pipeline patterns, and system design questions about building scalable ETL workflows. Companies with ML teams will ask about feature stores, embedding pipelines, and training data management. Be ready to discuss data quality monitoring, pipeline orchestration, and how you'd handle schema evolution in a production data lake.
When evaluating opportunities: Strong postings specify the data stack, mention ML pipeline work, and describe the scale of data you'll be working with. Look for companies that understand the connection between data quality and model quality. Avoid roles that conflate data engineering with data analysis.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 3,963 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 116 entry-level, 1,875 mid-level, 1,532 senior, and 440 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (593 positions). The remaining 3,349 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $253,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($290,000 median, 39 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 52 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 421 roles).
Data Engineer demand in AI contexts is strong and growing. Every company building AI needs clean, reliable data pipelines. The shift toward real-time AI applications (chatbots, recommendation engines, agent systems) means data engineering is more critical than ever. Companies are willing to pay premium salaries for data engineers with AI/ML pipeline experience.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 3,963 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,783), Data Scientist (297), AI Software Engineer (279). 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 (116) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,875) and senior (1,532) 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 440 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (593 positions), with 3,349 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 $200,000. Top-quartile roles start at $253,000, and the 90th percentile reaches $307,500. 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 Engineering Manager roles lead at $290,000 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 (2,043 postings), Aws (1,241 postings), Azure (934 postings), Rag (886 postings), Gcp (774 postings), Pytorch (614 postings), Prompt Engineering (614 postings), Claude (564 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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