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About This Role
Job Description:
IntelliGenesis is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of production\-grade AI systems supporting mission\-critical intelligence operations. This role focuses on transitioning AI/ML capabilities from concept to operational environments, including classified and resource\-constrained settings.
A day in the life includes architecting scalable AI pipelines, deploying models to edge and cloud environments, integrating AI into cybersecurity workflows, and mentoring junior engineers. You will work closely with cyber operators, software engineers, and infrastructure teams to deliver impactful, real\-world AI capabilities—not just research prototypes.
The team dynamic is highly collaborative and mission\-driven, consisting of AI engineers, cyber SMEs, and platform engineers working in agile sprints. This role serves as a technical leader and mentor, guiding best practices in MLOps, DevSecOps, and secure AI deployment.
- Lead end\-to\-end AI system design, development, and deployment
- Architect and implement scalable MLOps pipelines for training, validation, and deployment
- Deploy AI/ML models to cloud, on\-prem, and edge environments
- Integrate AI capabilities into cybersecurity tools and operational workflows
- Ensure system security, including adversarial robustness and secure model deployment
- Collaborate with cross\-functional teams (cyber, infrastructure, software engineering)
- Mentor mid\-level engineers and provide technical oversight
- Rapidly prototype AI solutions and transition them into production systems
- Ensure compliance with DoD Risk Management Framework (RMF) requirements
Required Qualifications:* Must be a U.S. Citizen
- Active TS/SCI Clearance and Polygraph required
- 8\+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering, software engineering, or related field
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
- Strong experience deploying AI/ML models into production environments
- Expertise in Python and at least one additional language (e.g., C\+\+, Go)
- Experience with MLOps tools (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, MLflow, Kubeflow, VMWare, Tanzu)
- Experience with cloud and hybrid infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or DoD cloud environments)
- Knowledge of DevSecOps and infrastructure\-as\-code (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
- Experience with model serving, monitoring, and lifecycle management
- Familiarity with cybersecurity concepts and secure system design
- Experience working in classified or regulated environments (DoD/IC preferred)
Desired Qualifications:* Master's degree
- Experience with adversarial machine learning and AI security
- Background in cyber operations or network traffic analysis
- Experience deploying models in edge or disconnected environments
- Familiarity with large language models (LLMs) and generative AI systems
- Knowledge of secure enclaves and confidential computing
- Prior experience supporting DoD or Intelligence Community missions
- Relevant certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, Security\+, CISSP)
Compensation Range: $215,000 \- $245,000
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*Compensation ranges encompass a total compensation package and are a general guideline only and not intended as a guaranteed and/or implied final compensation or salary for this job opening. Determination of official compensation or salary relies on several different factors including, but not limited to: level of position, complexity of job responsibilities, geographic location, candidate’s scope of relevant work experience, educational background, certifications, contract\-specific affordability, organizational requirements and alignment with local market data.*
*Our compensation includes other indirect financial components designed to support employees’ total well\-being, which should be considered when evaluating our competitive benefits package. These monetary benefits include medical insurance, life insurance, disability, paid time off, maternity/paternity leave, 401(k) company match, training/education reimbursements and other work/life programs.*
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IntelliGenesis is committed to providing equal opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment. The Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE), and as such, does not tolerate discrimination, retaliation, or harassment of its employees or applicants based upon race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or any other protected characteristic under local, state, or federal law in any employment practice. Such employment practices include, but are not limited to: hiring, promotion, demotion, transfer, recruitment, or recruitment advertising, selection, disciplinary action layoff, termination, rates of pay, or other forms of compensation and selection of training.
IntelliGenesis is committed to the fair and equal employment of individuals with disabilities. It is the Company’s policy to reasonably accommodate qualified individuals with disabilities unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the organization. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as amended, reasonable accommodations will be provided to qualified individuals with disabilities, when such accommodations are necessary, to enable them to perform the essential functions of their jobs or to enjoy the equal benefits and privileges of employment. This policy applies to all applicants for employment and all employees.
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Salary Context
This $215K-$245K range is above the 75th percentile 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 Intelligenesis, 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. Senior-level AI roles across all categories have a median of $227,400. This role's midpoint ($230K) sits 7% above the category median. Disclosed range: $215K to $245K.
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.
Intelligenesis AI Hiring
Intelligenesis has 1 open AI role right now. They're hiring across AI/ML Engineer. Based in Reston, VA, US. Compensation range: $245K - $245K.
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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