Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Steampunk is a Change Agent in federal contracting, partnering with clients across Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health, and DoD sectors. In this hybrid role in McLean, VA, you will help build and ship production AI systems across the full machine learning lifecycle, combining rigorous data science with engineering discipline to deliver mission-ready capabilities.

The projected compensation range for this position is $140,000 to $190,000. Steampunk also notes that salary is determined by factors that may include geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. Annual salary is one aspect of the company’s total compensation package.

Responsibilities

• Develop end-to-end ML/AI solutions spanning predictive models, LLM-powered applications, multi-agent workflows, and RAG pipelines using structured and unstructured datasets.
• Conduct exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, and data visualization to inform model design and validate assumptions.
• Apply deep learning methods and modern libraries/frameworks to build, evaluate, and improve models.
• Integrate AI/ML models with enterprise systems, including APIs, data platforms, vector databases, and cloud-native services to support scalable mission outcomes.
• Design and implement advanced prompt strategies, context management layers, retrieval systems, and LLM orchestration logic.
• Build scalable inference services, optimize model performance, and partner with MLOps/LLMOps to enable deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
• Create and execute comprehensive test plans for AI/ML models, including functional, regression, and edge case testing.
• Develop test cases to evaluate performance, accuracy, bias, fairness, and robustness; conduct adversarial and stress testing to assess resilience.
• Track and document quality metrics such as precision, recall, F1 score, false positives/false negatives, and usability metrics; report defects and unexpected behaviors.
• Validate compliance with data privacy, security, and ethical AI standards, including safety guardrails, input sanitization, and content filtering.
• Support an Agile development lifecycle by contributing reusable AI components, libraries, and APIs.
• Collaborate with product managers, data architects, designers, and mission stakeholders to translate mission needs into intuitive, reliable AI-powered features.
• Mentor junior developers, conduct code reviews, and support engineering excellence across multi-disciplinary AI delivery teams.
• Stay current with emerging AI techniques, libraries, foundation models, and agent frameworks, assessing applicability to client missions.
• Contribute to the growth of the AI & Data Exploitation Practice.

Requirements

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Engineering, or a related scientific/technical discipline.
• 7+ years of total experience.
• 3-5 years of industry experience developing ML/AI solutions, including hands-on experience with generative AI or LLM-driven application development.
• Demonstrated experience manipulating structured and unstructured data, including data modeling and data solution development.
• Strong programming skills in Python and modern AI frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, or LlamaIndex.
• Experience implementing RAG architectures, embeddings, vector stores, and context retrieval patterns, plus familiarity with multi-agent orchestration and prompt engineering.
• Experience with big data systems including Hadoop and Spark, and additional proficiency in SQL, R, Scala, or Java.
• Data visualization skills in Tableau, Power BI, D3, ArcGIS, or similar.
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), including compute, serverless services, and security fundamentals for AI workloads, with tools such as AWS SageMaker or Azure HDInsight.
• Working knowledge of Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD pipelines for AI-based systems.
• Experience with Git, Bash, and Unix commands, and familiarity with DevSecOps, MLOps, and LLMOps practices.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, including safety, fairness, privacy, bias mitigation, and model risk management.
• Strong analytical and communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across engineering, design, and mission domains.
• Proven experience mentoring teammates and raising the technical bar of development teams.
• Familiarity with Flask, Solr, or Elasticsearch is a plus.

About Steampunk

• Steampunk relies on several factors to determine salary, including geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience.
• The projected compensation range is $140,000 to $190,000, and annual salary is only one part of the overall total compensation package.
• As part of the application process, you are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments, and Steampunk reserves the right to take your picture to verify identity and prevent fraud.
• Steampunk participates in the E-Verify program.
• Steampunk is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to protected characteristics under law.
• Through a Human-Centered delivery methodology, Steampunk is changing shared accountability expectations for federal clients’ mission challenges.

Technologies

Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain, LlamaIndex, RAG architectures, embeddings, vector stores, Hadoop, Spark, SQL, R, Scala, Java, Tableau, Power BI, D3, ArcGIS, AWS, Azure, GCP, AWS SageMaker, Azure HDInsight, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, Git, Bash, Unix commands, DevSecOps, MLOps, LLMOps, Flask, Solr, Elasticsearch, vector databases, APIs, data platforms, cloud-native services