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About This Role
Deloitte's Government \& Public Services practice helps clients address complex mission needs through data, analytics, and emerging technologies. As an AI and Data Science Engineer III, you will serve as a technical leader supporting advanced analytics initiatives in a government environment, helping translate mission challenges into scalable data science solutions. This role combines analytical study design, model development, production pipeline oversight, and client\-facing technical advisory to deliver measurable impact.
Work you'll do
As an AI and Data Science Engineer III on the Government \& Public Services AI \& Data team, you will be responsible for...
- Lead the technical direction of analytical projects, including defining research problems, developing execution plans, assigning work across junior team members, and reviewing models and code for quality and rigor
- Advise government stakeholders on the feasibility of analytical solutions, evaluate technical approaches, and own model validation, testing, and performance assessment methodologies for assigned workstreams
- Design, build, and maintain production\-grade extract, transform, and load (ETL) and DataOps pipelines, predictive models, and anomaly detection solutions supporting mission\-critical trade and border data platforms
- Apply machine learning, statistical modeling, feature engineering, natural language processing (NLP), regression, classification, anomaly detection, and causal analysis techniques to develop tools for trade enforcement, risk detection, and operational efficiency
- Represent the data science function in client\-facing forums by translating quantitative findings into actionable recommendations for audiences ranging from frontline analysts to executive leadership
- Mentor junior data scientists and analysts, escalate risks and blockers to program leadership, and partner with cross\-functional teams in Agile environments to prioritize backlog items, define acceptance criteria, and deliver solutions that meet technical and mission requirements
A successful candidate would possess these skills:
- Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
- Effective written and verbal communication skills
- Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
- Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
- Ability to lead projects or workstreams
- Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast\-paced and dynamic environment
- Strong interpersonal skills and professional demeanor
- Ability to meet deadlines
- Ability to provide clear guidance to others
The team
Deloitte's Government \& Public Services (GPS) practice \- our people, ideas, technology and outcomes \- is designed for impact. Serving federal, state, \& local government clients as well as public higher education institutions, our team of professionals brings fresh perspective to help clients anticipate disruption, reimagine the possible, and fulfill their mission promise.
Our AI \& Data offering provides a full spectrum of solutions for designing, developing, and operating cutting\-edge Data and AI platforms, products, insights, and services. Our offerings help clients innovate, enhance and operate their data, AI, and analytics capabilities, ensuring they can mature and scale effectively with organizational intelligence programs and differentiated strategies to win in their chosen markets.
Qualifications
Required:
- Bachelor's degree
- 5\+ years of experience in data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, or software engineering
- 3\+ years of experience with Python and Structured Query Language (SQL)
- 2\+ years of experience developing, validating, and deploying machine learning models
- 1\+ year of experience with a cloud platform environment such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Active Top Secret security clearance
- Ability to travel 30%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve.
- Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.
Preferred:
- Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Engineering, or Mathematics
- 2\+ years of experience with MLOps, model monitoring, or continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD)
- 2\+ years of experience with natural language processing, generative artificial intelligence, or large language model applications
- 1\+ year of experience supporting public sector, government, or regulated environments
For individuals assigned and/or hired to work in Virginia, Deloitte is required by law to include a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role. This compensation range is specific to Virginia and takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. At Deloitte, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $131,000 to $218,300\.
You may also be eligible to participate in a discretionary annual incentive program, subject to the rules governing the program, whereby an award, if any, depends on various factors, including, without limitation, individual and organizational performance.
Salary Context
This $131K-$218K range is below the median for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $175K across 2162 roles with salary data).
View full AI/ML Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Day-to-day, you're writing training pipelines, debugging data quality issues, setting up evaluation frameworks, and figuring out why your model performs differently in staging than it did on your dev set. The best ML engineers are obsessive about reproducibility and measurement. They instrument everything. They know that a model is only as good as the data feeding it and the infrastructure serving it.
Across the 4,317 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Deloitte, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week might include: debugging a data pipeline that's silently dropping 3% of training examples, running A/B tests on a new model version, writing documentation for a feature flag system that lets you roll back model deployments, and reviewing a junior engineer's PR for a new evaluation metric. Meetings tend to be cross-functional since ML touches product, engineering, and data teams.
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
Skills Required
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Compensation Benchmarks
AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $214,900 based on 6,420 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $194,400. This role's midpoint ($174K) sits 19% below the category median. Disclosed range: $131K to $218K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($287,500) and Research Engineer ($272,100). By seniority level: Entry: $110,000; Mid: $194,400; Senior: $227,400; Director: $274,554; VP: $241,000.
Deloitte AI Hiring
Deloitte has 59 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, AI Architect, Data Engineer, Research Engineer. Positions span Rosslyn, VA, US, Baltimore, MD, US, Morristown, NJ, US. Compensation range: $140K - $379K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 15% (635 positions) offer remote work, while 3,657 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,650 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (1,335 roles, $265,000 median); Los Angeles (708 roles, $214,112 median).
Career Path
Common paths into AI/ML Engineer roles include Data Scientist, Software Engineer, Research Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Architect, AI Engineering Manager, Principal ML Engineer.
The fastest path into ML engineering is through software engineering with a self-directed ML education. A CS degree helps, but production engineering skills matter more than academic credentials. Build something that works, deploy it, and measure it. That portfolio project is worth more than a Coursera certificate. For career growth, the fork comes around the senior level: go deep on technical complexity (staff/principal track) or move into managing ML teams.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,317 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 138 entry-level, 2,071 mid-level, 1,655 senior, and 453 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 15% of the market (635 positions). The remaining 3,657 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $266,300. The 90th percentile reaches $320,790. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($287,500 median, 34 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 227 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($244,000 median, 23 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,317 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (3,004), Data Scientist (345), AI Software Engineer (309). 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 (138) are outnumbered by mid-level (2,071) and senior (1,655) 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 453 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 15% of all AI roles (635 positions), with 3,657 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 $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $266,300, and the 90th percentile reaches $320,790. 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 $287,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $145,000. 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 (2,249 postings), Aws (1,224 postings), Azure (938 postings), Rag (915 postings), Gcp (660 postings), Pytorch (640 postings), Prompt Engineering (624 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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