Senior AI Systems Architect
B&A · Ashburn, VA
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Jul 20, 2026
Ashburn, VA
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level architecture role embedded within a federal government client's AI Enablement Center, focused on designing and operationalizing enterprise AI ecosystems — including generative AI, computer vision, NLP, and agentic frameworks — as shared, reusable services across mission applications. The position spans cloud infrastructure (AWS and Google Cloud), MLOps pipelines, secure AI governance, and event-driven data architectures, and requires an active Top Secret or CBP Background Investigation clearance.
Senior level · 12+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · Bachelor's required · Top Secret clearance · Contract
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
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 $160,085 (middle half $128,934–$179,584).
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 role is titled 'Senior AI Systems Architect' on a federal government contract. The primary day-to-day work spans enterprise AI architecture, AI/ML engineering, and cloud platform design — a genuine hybrid. 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is used because 'AI Systems Architect' does not map cleanly to any single BLS SOC; 15-1252 (Software Developers) is the closest runner-up given the heavy engineering and pipeline-building responsibilities.
Clearance stated as 'Active TS or CBP BI' — this is a hard gate on an active Top Secret (or equivalent Background Investigation) clearance; mapped to TopSecret. TS/SCI is not explicitly required.
The 12-year overall experience requirement is the role-level gate. A separate 5-year requirement is stated specifically for AI/ML or Gen-AI solutions design; this is a technology-domain sub-requirement rather than a named tool, so it is captured in the overall years minimum (12) with the 5-year AI-specific gate noted here.
AWS and Google Cloud are listed together as 'AWS and/or Google Cloud AI ecosystems' in the Required Skills section; AWS is the primary name with Google Cloud as an alternative.
Amazon Bedrock, AWS SageMaker, Vertex AI, and Databricks appear in the responsibilities narrative (stack description) rather than the Required Skills section, so they are marked preferred.
NIEM appears in the responsibilities section as an interoperability standard used in the role's design work, not in the Required Skills block, so it is marked preferred.
Agentic AI frameworks are called out in the responsibilities section as a design deliverable but do not appear in the Required Skills block; marked preferred.
MBA/Master's Degree is listed as preferred; Bachelor's in CS, IT Management, or Engineering is the hard-required minimum degree.
No compensation figures are provided in the posting.
Requires a Top Secret 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.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
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