AI Engineer - Top Secret
Sunayu · Rockville, MD
$131,300–$237,350
Jul 16, 2026
Rockville, MD
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior AI engineering role focused on building and deploying AI and agentic AI systems in production environments for defense and intelligence community customers. Day-to-day work spans LLMOps/MLOps, RAG architectures, AI orchestration, Kubernetes-based deployments, and GPU inference optimization, in collaboration with cross-functional teams of analysts and engineers. An active Top Secret clearance and 12+ years of relevant experience are required.
Senior level · 12+ years · National · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $122,874 (middle half $87,544–$162,374).
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (11)
The posting is titled 'AI Engineer' but categorized as 'Data Scientist'; the role spans both ML/AI production engineering and data science (statistical analysis, predictive analytics, entity resolution, graph analytics), making it a genuine hybrid. 15-2051 (Data Scientists) was chosen as primary given the quantitative/analytical framing and the 'Data Scientist' category label, with 15-1252 (Software Developers) as a close runner-up given the heavy production engineering emphasis.
The clearance requirement is stated as 'Active Top Secret clearance and eligibility for TS/SCI with Polygraph' — this is treated as a hard gate on TS/SCI (with polygraph eligibility).
The degree requirement explicitly accepts 'equivalent graduate degree' and states 'Additional/Relevant experience may be substituted for a degree,' so no minimum degree is hard-required.
The 12+ years figure applies to candidates without a Master's; 4+ years is accepted with a Master's. The 12-year figure is recorded as the stated role-level minimum; the Master's pathway is a significant alternative track.
No work location or metro area is specified in the posting beyond 'Hybrid.' The role likely sits in the DC/Northern Virginia area given the Defense and Intelligence community focus, but this is not stated explicitly.
No compensation figures are provided despite a mention of a salary range policy.
'AI orchestration frameworks' is retained as a required skill because it appears in the required experience list, though no specific framework is named there (LangGraph and Semantic Kernel appear only under Preferred).
LangGraph and Semantic Kernel are listed together under Preferred as interchangeable examples of AI orchestration frameworks; they are captured as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
vLLM and Ollama are listed together under Preferred as GPU inference/serving tools; captured as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): GPU inference optimization.
Requires a TS/SCI clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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