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About This Role
- Job ID: 10558BR
- Location: US (Remote), US\-Herndon\-VA
- Work Setup: Remote
- Job Category: Engineering
- Posting Date: May 21, 2026
About the Role
We’re building an enterprise ERP system from scratch where AI isn’t a feature—it’s the foundation.
Join Deltek’s Engineering and Technology team to create the first truly AI\-native SMB ERP. Users will chat with their system instead of clicking through forms. Intelligent agents will handle routine tasks autonomously. And you’ll use AI to write better code faster.
This is a greenfield project. No legacy constraints. No technical debt. Just the opportunity to reimagine what enterprise software can be when designed for AI from day one.
As a principal engineer, you’ll solve the hardest technical problems, create reference implementations that set the standard, and mentor engineers in a development paradigm that’s still emerging. You’ll prove that AI\-native enterprise software isn’t just possible—it’s superior.
Key Responsibilities
- Implement the most technically challenging features of the AI\-powered ERP platform, serving as the go\-to expert for complex integration and performance challenges
- Develop reference implementations and coding patterns that other engineers follow when building AI\-enhanced features
- Implement sophisticated prompt engineering and LLM integration solutions, ensuring security, performance, and cost\-effectiveness
- Build production\-ready ML integration code utilizing infrastructure provided by the dedicated AI/ML infrastructure team
- Provide deep technical expertise on critical implementation challenges affecting multiple teams, offering solutions based on extensive hands\-on experience
- Collaborate with architects to validate technical approaches through proof\-of\-concepts and prototypes
- Champion code quality, comprehensive testing, security best practices, and operational excellence
- Identify and resolve complex technical debt that impacts multiple teams
- Serve as technical advisor to architects and engineering leadership on implementation feasibility and development best practices
- Mentor and develop senior engineers, elevating implementation capabilities across the engineering organization
- Drive innovation through hands\-on proof\-of\-concepts exploring novel approaches to ERP challenges
Education \& Experience
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, Data Science, or related field
- 10\+ years of professional software engineering experience with extensive hands\-on AI/ML systems implementation
- Demonstrated history of technical leadership through exceptional implementation quality on large\-scale, business\-critical systems
- Proven track record of solving complex implementation challenges that enabled significant business outcomes
- Experience providing technical guidance and mentoring senior engineers
- Deep expertise in implementing enterprise software and AI/ML integrations with production deployments at scale
Technical Skills
- Programming Languages: Master\-level expertise in Java, Python, and ability to work effectively in multiple languages
- Implementation Expertise: Deep expertise in implementing distributed systems, microservices, event\-driven patterns, and domain\-driven design
- Database: Expert\-level implementation skills with PostgreSQL including performance optimization, complex query development, and multi\-tenant data patterns
- AI/ML Integration: Comprehensive expertise in implementing LLM systems, prompt engineering at scale, RAG architectures, and model integration
- Development Best Practices: Experience establishing coding standards, testing patterns, and development workflows that improve team productivity
- Cloud \& Infrastructure: Expert knowledge of implementing cloud solutions and working with managed services across AWS/Azure/OCI
- API \& Integration: Deep expertise in implementing robust APIs, integration patterns, and extensible features
- Observability \& Reliability: Expert in leveraging comprehensive monitoring, logging, and error handling
- Security: Strong understanding of implementing security controls, authentication/authorization, and data protection
- Leadership \& Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts and influence development approaches through collaboration
- Pragmatic Thinking: Ability to balance code quality with delivery timelines, provide practical technical guidance, and align development work with business goals
AI\-First Mindset
This role requires embracing an AI\-first approach where GenAI and agentic AI tools are essential collaborators, not optional supplements. We expect team members who naturally think in AI\-enhanced workflows and proactively integrate intelligent automation to solve ERP development challenges more efficiently.
The ideal candidate has strong interest in prompt engineering techniques and conversational AI systems, with understanding of how to craft effective prompts for business contexts. You should be curious about natural language processing and how AI enhances user experiences, along with basic awareness of AI ethics and prompt safety considerations.
We’re looking for someone who approaches ERP feature development by first asking: “How can AI help me build this functionality faster and better?” This includes being comfortable with rapid AI tool evolution, eager to experiment with new AI capabilities for prompt engineering and ERP optimization, and committed to sharing AI\-enhanced approaches with the team.
We value those who apply prompt engineering to solve real\-world ERP business problems and see AI as a productivity multiplier for strategic development decisions, rather than a replacement for human expertise.
The U.S. salary range for this position is $91,000\.00\-$160,750\.00\. This range is subject to change as Deltek takes a number of factors into consideration when determining individual base pay, such as location, job\-related knowledge, skills and experience. Certain roles are eligible for additional rewards, including incentive compensation and equity.
Benefits and perks listed here may vary depending on the nature of employment with Deltek. Employees have access to healthcare benefits, a 401(k) plan and company match, paid vacation time and holidays, well\-living programs, short\-term and long\-term disability coverage, basic life insurance and tuition reimbursement.
10%
As the recognized global standard for project\-based businesses, Deltek delivers software and information solutions to help organizations achieve their purpose. Our market leadership stems from the work of our diverse employees who are united by a passion for learning, growing and making a difference. At Deltek, we take immense pride in creating a balanced, values\-driven environment, where every employee feels included and empowered to do their best work. Our employees put our core values into action daily, creating a one\-of\-a\-kind culture that has been recognized globally. Thanks to our incredible team, Deltek has been named one of America’s Best Midsize Employers by Forbes, a Best Place to Work by Glassdoor, a Top Workplace by The Washington Post and a Best Place to Work in Asia by World HRD Congress. www.deltek.com
The Deltek Engineering and Technology team builds best\-in\-class solutions to delight customers and meet their business needs. We are laser\-focused on software design, development, innovation and quality. Our team of experts has the talent, skills and values to deliver products and services that are easy to use, reliable, sustainable and competitive. If you’re looking for a safe environment where ideas are welcome, growth is supported and questions are encouraged – consider joining us as we explore the limitless opportunities of the software industry.
Certain roles may have additional privacy, security and compliance requirements to the extent they support Costpoint GCCM or similar product offerings.
*Deltek, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.*
Deltek, Inc., utilizes the E\-Verify program with every potential new hire. This makes it possible for us to make certain that every employee who works for Deltek is eligible to work in the United States. To learn more about E\-Verify you can call 1\-800\-255\-7688 or visit their website by clicking the logo below. E\-Verify® is a registered trademark of the United States Department of Homeland Security.
*Deltek is committed to the protection and promotion of your privacy. In connection with your application for employment with us at Deltek, it is necessary for us to collect, store and use information about you (“Personal Data”) to administer and evaluate your application. We are the “controller” of the Personal Data you provide us and will process any such Personal Data in accordance with applicable law and the statements contained in this* *Employment Candidate Privacy Notice**. Additionally, we have not sold and do not sell Personal Data you provide to us through the job application process.*
Salary Context
This $91K-$160K range is in the lower quartile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $180K across 1841 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 3,708 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 70% of the market. At Deltek, 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 $218,750 based on 3,817 positions with disclosed compensation. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $230,000. This role's midpoint ($125K) sits 42% below the category median. Disclosed range: $91K to $160K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($300,000) and Research Engineer ($280,000). By seniority level: Entry: $120,000; Mid: $200,000; Senior: $230,000; Director: $272,150; VP: $250,000.
Deltek AI Hiring
Deltek has 4 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist. Based in Herndon, VA, US. Compensation range: $111K - $219K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 14% (508 positions) offer remote work, while 3,180 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (1,045 roles, $220,000 median); San Francisco (810 roles, $277,088 median); Los Angeles (397 roles, $215,000 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 3,708 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 102 entry-level, 1,705 mid-level, 1,469 senior, and 432 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 14% of the market (508 positions). The remaining 3,180 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $217,500. Top-quartile compensation starts at $272,100. The 90th percentile reaches $325,000. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($300,000 median, 21 roles); Research Engineer ($280,000 median, 147 roles); AI Architect ($254,798 median, 67 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 3,708 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,605), Data Scientist (310), AI Software Engineer (259). 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 (102) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,705) and senior (1,469) 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 432 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 14% of all AI roles (508 positions), with 3,180 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 $217,500. Top-quartile roles start at $272,100, and the 90th percentile reaches $325,000. 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 $300,000 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 (1,890 postings), Aws (1,103 postings), Azure (877 postings), Rag (855 postings), Gcp (631 postings), Prompt Engineering (560 postings), Pytorch (545 postings), Claude (498 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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