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About This Role
Job Title: Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Engineer, Junior Overview:
EverWatch is a government solutions company providing advanced defense, intelligence, and deployed support to our country’s most critical missions. We are a full\-service government solutions company. Harnessing the most advanced technology and solutions, we strengthen defenses and control environments to preserve continuity and ensure mission success.
EverWatch employees are focused on tackling the most difficult challenges of the US Government. We offer the best salaries and benefits packages in our industry \- to identify and retain the top talent in support of our critical mission objectives.
Commitment to Non\-Discrimination:
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, status as a protected veteran or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, local, or international law.
Responsibilities:
Cyber and intelligence analysts rely on multi\-step workflows that are time\-sensitive, detail\-rich, and critical to national security. As an AI/ML Engineer at EverWatch Solutions, you will work directly with mission users to develop and deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions that enhance operational workflows, improve data accessibility, and support rapid decision\-making in secure environments.
You will collaborate with operators, analysts, software developers, and mission leadership to capture operational needs and translate them into effective AI\-enabled capabilities. Your work may include developing LLM\-powered workflows, agent\-based automation, and other AI/ML solutions that streamline analytical tasks and improve mission effectiveness.
You will support the integration of AI capabilities into existing operational systems while ensuring solutions are reliable, scalable, and compliant with security and governance requirements in classified environments. Additionally, you will contribute to data pipeline development, model evaluation, workflow optimization, and operational testing to support production\-ready AI solutions.
Join us. The world can’t wait.
Qualifications: You Have:* 1\-4 years of experience with Python for data analysis and machine learning tasks through academic, internship, or project\-based work
- Knowledge of machine learning concepts including supervised learning, model evaluation, and data preprocessing
- Familiarity with standard data science libraries and development tools
- Ability to think analytically, solve problems effectively, and learn quickly in a fast\-paced, mission\-oriented environment
- Ability to collaborate within a team and communicate technical concepts clearly
- TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Data Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, Statistics, or a related technical field or master’s degree with limited experience
Nice If You Have:* Experience with academic coursework, thesis work, or capstone projects involving machine learning, natural language processing, or data science applications
- Experience with version control tools such as Git and collaborative development environments
- Knowledge of deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
- Knowledge of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI concepts
- Knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Knowledge of containerization technologies such as Docker or Kubernetes
- Knowledge of agentic AI, retrieval\-augmented generation (RAG), or other applied NLP techniques
- Prior internship, co\-op, research, or project experience supporting government, defense, or intelligence community environments
Clearance:
Applicants selected will be subject to a security investigation and may need to meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information; TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph is required.
Compensation at EverWatch is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract\-specific affordability and organizational requirements. The projected compensation range for this position is $55\.28 to $72\.11 per hour. The estimate displayed represents the typical compensation range for this position and is just one component of EverWatch’s total compensation package for employees.
Clearance Level: TS/SCI CIP Job Locations: US\-MD\-Annapolis Junction Skills: AI/ML, LLM, API, Python
Salary Context
This $114K-$149K range is in the lower quartile for AI/ML Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $184K across 1486 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 2,799 AI roles we're tracking, AI/ML Engineer positions make up 71% of the market. At Everwatch, 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 $175,000 based on 11,128 positions with disclosed compensation. Entry-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $97,760. This role's midpoint ($132K) sits 25% below the category median. Disclosed range: $114K to $149K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $252,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Engineering Manager ($293,500) and AI Safety ($274,200). By seniority level: Entry: $97,760; Mid: $159,385; Senior: $227,500; Director: $242,000; VP: $250,000.
Everwatch AI Hiring
Everwatch has 2 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Based in Annapolis Junction, MD, US. Compensation range: $149K - $193K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 16% (460 positions) offer remote work, while 2,318 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (2,241 roles, $208,300 median); San Francisco (1,822 roles, $252,000 median); Los Angeles (1,611 roles, $188,900 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 2,799 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 98 entry-level, 1,283 mid-level, 1,092 senior, and 326 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 16% of the market (460 positions). The remaining 2,318 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $200,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $252,000. The 90th percentile reaches $307,500. Highest-paying categories: AI Engineering Manager ($293,500 median, 30 roles); AI Safety ($274,200 median, 43 roles); Research Engineer ($260,000 median, 387 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 2,799 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (1,978), AI Software Engineer (197), Data Scientist (195). 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 (98) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,283) and senior (1,092) 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 326 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 16% of all AI roles (460 positions), with 2,318 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 $252,000, 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 $293,500 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $142,800. 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 (1,433 postings), Aws (840 postings), Rag (663 postings), Azure (639 postings), Gcp (537 postings), Pytorch (445 postings), Prompt Engineering (418 postings), Claude (396 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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