Data Engineer SME (AI/ML & LLM Engineering)
Location: Hybrid (Up to 4 days in office) 1790 Ash St SE, Washington, DC 2003
Clearance: Ability to Obtain Public Trust (U.S. Citizenship Required)
Position Type: Contractor
Salary Range: $160,000 – $170,000
Position Overview
World Services LLC, an IT engineering, solutions, and management consulting firm, is seeking an experienced Data Engineer SME (AI/ML & LLM Engineering) to support a federal agency on an enterprise-wide digital CI/CD initiative.
This position will serve as a technical leader and applied Ai specialist, responsible for developing and operationalizing advanced analytics, machine learning, and large language model (LLM) solutions across secure, enterprise-scale data ecosystems. The role combines data science, data engineering, and Ai architecture disciplines to ensure mission-aligned outcomes that adhere to Responsible Ai, governance, and compliance standards. This engineer will design, build, and maintain secure, high-performance data pipelines that integrate diverse systems into the agency’s Integrated Data Environment. This role emphasizes expertise in ETL orchestration, cloud-native architectures, and metadata governance to enable enterprise-scale analytics and AI. The position offers the opportunity to work with modern platforms such as Databricks, Apache Spark, Enlighten BDP, and Collibra, directly contributing to the agency’s digital modernization, compliance readiness, and mission support.
This position requires a blend of technical acumen, strategic insight, and the ability to collaborate effectively with engineers, automation specialists, and agency stakeholders to advance Data, Analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (DAAI) initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
- AI/ML and LLM Development
- Design, train, and validate predictive, prescriptive, and generative models using Python, R, and modern ML frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn).
- Develop and fine-tune LLMs and natural language processing (NLP) applications using platforms such as AWS Bedrock, Hugging Face, and MLflow.
- Apply Responsible AI practices to ensure bias mitigation, explainability, and auditability.
- Implement end-to-end model pipelines integrating data ingestion, transformation, and deployment using Databricks, Spark, and cloud-native services.
Data Engineering & Integration
- Design and maintain secure, compliant data pipelines to support AI and analytics workloads.
- Integrate models and analytics workflows into agency systems via APIs, ETL pipelines, and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Support data ingestion, transformation, and storage across structured, unstructured, and semi-structured datasets.
- Collaborate with the data architecture team to ensure data quality, lineage, and accessibility within Collibra-governed environments.
Analytics & Decision Support
- Analyze and interpret complex datasets from the Integrated Data Environment to deliver mission-critical insights.
- Develop dashboards, visualizations, and KPI applications in Qlik to communicate analytical results to technical and executive audiences.
- Document workflows and model outputs in Jupyter Notebooks for transparency and reproducibility.
Governance, Compliance & Security
- Ensure model and dataset governance aligned with FISMA, FedRAMP, Section 508, and A&A processes, including eMASS security assessments and POA&M tracking.
- Implement metadata management, version control, and access policies consistent with federal data strategy requirements.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree (Master’s preferred) in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, or a related field.
- 10+ years of experience in data science, AI/ML development, or data engineering in a secure or regulated environment.
- Proficiency in Python, R, SQL, and advanced use of Jupyter notebooks and ML libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn).
- Experience designing and maintaining data pipelines and analytical environments using Databricks, Spark, MLflow, or AWS Sagemaker.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical findings to both executive and non-technical audiences.
- U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with LLMs and Generative AI frameworks (AWS Bedrock, Hugging Face, LangChain, or OpenAI API).
- Prior experience supporting federal government programs or regulated industries.
- Familiarity with Collibra, Enlighten BDP, and IDE data environments.
- Understanding of Responsible AI, model transparency, data ethics, and federal data governance policies.
- Experience working within FedRAMP, DoD IL4/IL5, or CMMC compliant environments.
Pay: $160,000.00 - $170,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Washington, DC 20032
