SOFTWARE DATA ENGINEER - AI/ML/LLM - 2+ yrs of Experience - TS/SCI w/Poly clearance is required - ES - 062526-4 at Halogen Engineering Group, Inc
Fort George G Meade, MD
$142,000–$146,000
Jul 22, 2026
Fort George G Meade, MD
Jul 29, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role centers on building and maintaining AI/ML systems for a government customer at Fort Meade, MD, requiring an active TS/SCI with polygraph. Day-to-day work involves developing and deploying machine learning models and large language model solutions — including prompt engineering and retrieval-augmented generation — and translating mission requirements into working technical implementations. It suits engineers with a background in software development and hands-on AI/ML experience.
Mid level · 2+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · TS/SCI clearance · Full-time
Pay in the description: $142,000–$146,000
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.
What the occupation pays Median $158,337 (middle half $126,441–$180,105). This posting is about at that midpoint.
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 (6)
The title says 'Software Data Engineer – AI/ML/LLM', blending software engineering and data/ML work; the body emphasizes building and deploying AI/ML models and tools, so 15-1252 Software Developers is the primary fit, with 15-2051 Data Scientists as a plausible runner-up.
A TS/SCI with polygraph is explicitly required — candidates must hold a current one.
The degree requirement is flexible: 2 years of experience with a Bachelor's, 0 years with a Master's/PhD, or 3 years with a high school diploma/GED. No single degree is a hard gate, so the degree requirement is set to None.
Prompt Engineering and RAG appear under the 'Required' capabilities section and are hard gates. AI/ML frameworks and LLM fine-tuning/deployment appear under 'Desired' and are marked preferred.
The role is fully onsite at Fort Meade, MD (no remote option stated).
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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