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About This Role
Description
Please note: This role is contingent upon a contract award. While it is not an immediate opening, we are actively conducting interviews and extending offers in anticipation of the award.
The Work
At ICF our Digital Modernization Division is an information technology and management consulting organization that delivers integrated, strategic solutions to federal clients. We bring expertise in cloud, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, data modernization, and digital transformation to support mission-critical government programs.
Join a team accelerating the modernization of a large federal agency's enterprise data and analytics ecosystem. This cloud-based platform provides data storage, analytics, governance, and AI/ML capabilities that enable thousands of users to transform data into actionable insights. As demand continues to grow, the team is focused on migrating legacy workloads, streamlining onboarding and support, expanding platform capabilities, and helping organizations across the enterprise adopt modern data and AI solutions at scale.
The ML Ops Engineer will develop and maintain machine learning pipelines, model registries, deployment frameworks, monitoring solutions, and automated workflows that support enterprise AI initiatives. Working closely with data scientists, data engineers, cloud architects, platform engineers, and Trustworthy AI stakeholders, this role enables the successful operationalization of machine learning capabilities across cloud-based environments.
Job Location: Remote, however, strong preference for candidates who live in the Washington DC Metro Area. There will be occasional onsite meetings on the client site in Washington, DC.
- If you accept this position, you should note that ICF does monitor employee work locations, blocks access from foreign locations/foreign IP addresses, and prohibits personal VPN connections.
What You'll Do
- Design, build, and maintain production-grade MLOps pipelines for model training, evaluation, validation, registration, deployment, monitoring, retraining, rollback, and retirement.
- Develop reusable MLOps and LLMOps patterns using Azure Databricks, Databricks ML, MLflow, Unity Catalog, Azure Machine Learning, Python, and approved Azure AI services.
- Implement experiment tracking, model versioning, model registries, lineage, quality metrics, model cards, and approval workflows using MLflow and Unity Catalog to ensure models are discoverable, reusable, and auditable.
- Build automated CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Databricks Asset Bundles, and Terraform to promote models, code, configurations, and supporting infrastructure consistently across development, test, and production environments.
- Deploy and maintain scalable model-serving infrastructure for batch, streaming, real-time, and API-based inference workloads using Databricks Model Serving, Azure Machine Learning, Databricks compute, serverless capabilities, and GPU-enabled configurations, as applicable.
- Establish automated testing and evaluation gates for model performance, data quality, fairness, safety, explainability, robustness, privacy, and release readiness.
- Implement model and feature monitoring, drift and bias detection, logging, tracing, alerting, and operational dashboards using MLflow Model Monitoring, Lakehouse Monitoring, and the broader platform monitoring stack.
- Develop automated retraining, champion/challenger promotion, rollback, and model-retirement workflows that prevent performance degradation and support reliable production operations.
- Integrate ML workflows with source control, infrastructure provisioning, secrets management, identity and access controls, environment management, and enterprise release processes.
- Implement Trustworthy AI controls, including model documentation, impact assessments, audit logging, content safeguards, human oversight, and evaluation evidence aligned with Government-approved standards and the NIST AI Risk Management Framework.
- Partner with data scientists, AI engineers, data engineers, platform engineers, DevSecOps, Security, and Governance personnel to make models repeatable, testable, deployable, and operationally supportable.
- Monitor compute and serving utilization, tune cluster and endpoint configurations, apply tagging conventions, and implement cost-optimization strategies for training and inference workloads.
- Troubleshoot failed pipelines, deployment issues, model-serving incidents, performance degradation, and monitoring alerts while supporting root-cause analysis and corrective actions.
- Create and maintain deployment templates, reusable repositories, operational runbooks, model documentation, release evidence, and technical standards that accelerate responsible AI/ML adoption across the enterprise.
Basic Qualifications
- U.S. Citizenship is required due to federal contract requirements.
- Candidate must reside in the U.S., be authorized to work in the U.S., and all work must be performed in the U.S.
- Candidate must have lived in the U.S. for three (3) full years out of the last five (5) years.
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Data Science, Engineering, or a related field or a high school diploma with four (4) additional years of relevant experience in lieu of a bachelor's degree.
- 6+ years of experience designing and supporting production machine learning solutions in cloud environments.
- Master's degree may substitute for two (2) years of relevant experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with machine learning operations (MLOps), automated deployment pipelines, and model lifecycle management.
- Proficiency in Python and modern software development practices.
- Experience with source control systems and CI/CD frameworks.
- Hands-on experience with Azure Machine Learning, Databricks, MLflow, or comparable ML platforms.
- Experience implementing model monitoring, automated retraining, and performance tracking solutions.
- Knowledge of cloud-native architecture, containerization, and scalable model serving patterns.
- Experience supporting Responsible AI, AI governance, or Trustworthy AI initiatives.
- Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and automated environment provisioning.
- Strong understanding of cloud cost optimization practices for AI/ML workloads.
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Bot and Third-Party Applications
Please note that this application must be submitted directly by the applicant for consideration. Failure to do so may result in the application being excluded for consideration. Applicants needing an accommodation for disability or religious purposes in connection with the application process should contact [email protected] for assistance.
Working at ICF
ICF is a global advisory and technology services provider, but we’re not your typical consultants. We combine unmatched expertise with cutting-edge technology to help clients solve their most complex challenges, navigate change, and shape the future. We can only solve the world's toughest challenges by building a workplace that allows everyone to thrive. We are an equal opportunity employer. Together, our employees are empowered to share their expertise and collaborate with others to achieve personal and professional goals. For more information, please read our EEO policy.
We will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Reasonable Accommodations are available, including, but not limited to, for disabled veterans, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with sincerely held religious beliefs, in all phases of the application and employment process. To request an accommodation, please email [email protected] and we will be happy to assist. All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.
Read more about workplace discrimination rights or our benefit offerings which are included in the Transparency in (Benefits) Coverage Act.
Candidate AI Usage Policy At ICF, we are committed to ensuring a fair interview process for all candidates based on their own skills and knowledge. As part of this commitment, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate or assist with responses during interviews (whether in-person or virtual) is not permitted. This policy is in place to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the interview process.
However, we understand that some candidates may require accommodation that involves the use of AI. If such an accommodation is needed, candidates are instructed to contact us in advance at [email protected]. We are dedicated to providing the necessary support to ensure that all candidates have an equal opportunity to succeed.
Pay Range - There are multiple factors that are considered in determining final pay for a position, including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and competencies that align to the specified role, geographic location, education and certifications as well as contract provisions regarding labor categories that are specific to the position.
The pay range for this position based on full-time employment is:
$98,614.00 - $167,644.00 Nationwide Remote Office (US99)
Salary Context
This $98K-$167K range is below the median for MLOps Engineer roles in our dataset (median: $172K across 12 roles with salary data).
View full MLOps Engineer salary data →Role Details
About This Role
MLOps Engineers build the infrastructure that keeps ML models running in production. They own CI/CD pipelines for model deployment, monitoring for data drift and model degradation, and the tooling that lets data scientists ship faster. If ML Engineers build the models, MLOps Engineers build the roads those models travel on.
The job is fundamentally about reliability and velocity. Data scientists want to iterate fast. Product teams want stable predictions. Your job is to make both happen simultaneously. That means building deployment pipelines that catch regressions before they hit production, monitoring systems that alert on data drift before it degrades model performance, and self-service tooling that lets data scientists deploy without filing a ticket.
Across the 9,079 AI roles we're tracking, MLOps Engineer positions make up 1% of the market. At ICF, this role fits into their broader AI and engineering organization.
MLOps demand tracks closely with production ML adoption. As more companies move models from notebooks to production, the need for MLOps grows. The role is well-established at large tech companies and growing fast at mid-stage startups that are hitting the 'our models work in notebooks but break in production' phase.
What the Work Looks Like
A typical week involves: debugging a model deployment that's serving stale predictions, building a new monitoring dashboard for a feature team, writing Terraform for GPU-enabled inference clusters, reviewing pull requests for the ML platform's CI/CD pipeline, and meeting with data scientists to understand their pain points. You're the bridge between ML and infrastructure.
MLOps demand tracks closely with production ML adoption. As more companies move models from notebooks to production, the need for MLOps grows. The role is well-established at large tech companies and growing fast at mid-stage startups that are hitting the 'our models work in notebooks but break in production' phase.
Skills Required
Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud infrastructure are baseline. Most roles want experience with ML-specific tooling: MLflow, Kubeflow, Weights & Biases, or similar. Strong DevOps fundamentals matter more than ML theory. You need to understand model serving (TorchServe, Triton, vLLM), monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana), and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi).
GPU infrastructure knowledge is increasingly valuable as LLM inference becomes a major cost center. Understanding GPU scheduling, multi-node training setups, and inference optimization (quantization, batching, caching) puts you in the top tier. Experience with model registries and feature stores rounds out the profile.
Good MLOps postings specify their ML stack, infrastructure scale, and the problems they're solving (deployment velocity, cost optimization, monitoring gaps). Red flag: companies that want MLOps but don't have any models in production yet. You'll end up doing general DevOps instead.
Compensation Benchmarks
MLOps Engineer roles pay a median of $204,000 based on 162 positions with disclosed compensation. Mid-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $193,200. This role's midpoint ($133K) sits 35% below the category median. Disclosed range: $98K to $167K.
Across all AI roles, the market median is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. For comparison, the highest-paying categories include AI Safety ($256,000) and Research Engineer ($252,000). By seniority level: Entry: $111,000; Mid: $193,200; Senior: $229,300; Director: $272,300; VP: $235,830.
ICF AI Hiring
ICF has 7 open AI roles right now. They're hiring across MLOps Engineer, AI Product Manager, Data Scientist, AI/ML Engineer. Positions span Reston, VA, US, Montgomery, AL, Rockville, MD, US. Compensation range: $125K - $184K.
Location Context
Across all AI roles, 6% (531 positions) offer remote work, while 8,478 require on-site attendance. Top AI hiring metros: New York (3,078 roles, $221,000 median); San Francisco (2,646 roles, $261,000 median); Los Angeles (1,486 roles, $210,000 median).
Career Path
Common paths into MLOps Engineer roles include DevOps Engineer, Platform Engineer, Data Engineer.
From here, career progression typically leads toward ML Platform Lead, Infrastructure Architect, Engineering Manager.
DevOps engineers with ML curiosity have the shortest path. You already understand deployment, monitoring, and infrastructure. Add ML-specific knowledge (model serving, data pipelines, experiment tracking) and you're competitive. The career ceiling is high: ML Platform Lead roles at top companies pay well because the infrastructure complexity is enormous.
What to Expect in Interviews
Interviews emphasize infrastructure and reliability. Expect questions about CI/CD for ML models, monitoring for data drift, and how you'd design a model serving platform that handles 10K requests per second. Coding rounds focus on Python and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Helm). Be ready to discuss tradeoffs between different model serving frameworks and how you'd handle rollback when a new model degrades performance.
When evaluating opportunities: Good MLOps postings specify their ML stack, infrastructure scale, and the problems they're solving (deployment velocity, cost optimization, monitoring gaps). Red flag: companies that want MLOps but don't have any models in production yet. You'll end up doing general DevOps instead.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 9,079 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 106 entry-level, 4,384 mid-level, 3,343 senior, and 1,246 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 6% of the market (531 positions). The remaining 8,478 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $213,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $263,911. The 90th percentile reaches $318,400. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($256,000 median, 66 roles); Research Engineer ($252,000 median, 457 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($251,622 median, 55 roles).
MLOps demand tracks closely with production ML adoption. As more companies move models from notebooks to production, the need for MLOps grows. The role is well-established at large tech companies and growing fast at mid-stage startups that are hitting the 'our models work in notebooks but break in production' phase.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 9,079 open positions across 16 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (6,862), AI Product Manager (453), AI Software Engineer (451). 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 (106) are outnumbered by mid-level (4,384) and senior (3,343) 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 1,246 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 6% of all AI roles (531 positions), with 8,478 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 $213,000. Top-quartile roles start at $263,911, 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 $256,000 median, while Prompt Engineer roles sit at $141,440. 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 (1,649 postings), Aws (898 postings), Azure (723 postings), Rag (671 postings), Gcp (536 postings), Pytorch (434 postings), Claude (410 postings), Kubernetes (406 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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