Artificial Intelligence Engineer

Position: AI Engineer Location: Washington, DC (remote work with onsite requirement ~1x per week) About the Opportunity ThunderYard Solutions is seeking experienced AI Engineers to support a long-standing FDA program entering an exciting phase of modernization. This role will support the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). As part of the modernization effort, the team is expanding its use of artificial intelligence to streamline complex, document-intensive workflows. AI Engineers will help design and implement AI-enabled solutions that can assist with processing and analyzing large regulatory submissions—some containing thousands of documents—so information is better organized and prepared for FDA reviewers. This position blends applied AI/ML, software engineering, cloud technologies, and AI-assisted development practices to deliver secure, reliable, mission-focused solutions. What You’ll Do Design, build, deploy, and maintain AI-enabled applications that improve mission delivery and automate complex workflows. Develop solutions leveraging large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic AI workflows . Design and implement AI agents capable of structured task execution, document processing, information retrieval, and measurable workflow automation. Apply AI technologies to help streamline the intake, organization, analysis, and preparation of complex regulatory submissions. Develop and integrate APIs and AI services into existing and modernized applications. Work with embedding models, vector databases, and semantic search to enable intelligent information retrieval across large document collections. Build and support AI solutions within cloud environments, particularly AWS , including compute, storage, and data pipeline services. Apply modern software engineering and secure development practices throughout the AI application lifecycle. Evaluate AI models, frameworks, and approaches based on performance, reliability, security, and mission requirements. Collaborate with software engineers, architects, product teams, and other cross-functional stakeholders to integrate AI capabilities into broader modernization efforts. Clearly communicate AI/ML concepts, capabilities, limitations, and technical recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Contribute to AI-assisted SDLC practices that improve development efficiency, software quality, and delivery speed. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field. 5+ years of professional software engineering, AI/ML, or related development experience. Strong programming experience with Python . Hands-on experience with common AI/ML frameworks such as PyTorch and/or TensorFlow . Experience developing and deploying AI-enabled applications using technologies such as LLMs and RAG . Experience designing and implementing agentic AI workflows for structured task execution and workflow automation. Understanding of embedding models, vector databases, and semantic search . Experience building APIs and integrating AI/ML components into enterprise applications. Experience working with cloud platforms, particularly AWS , including compute, storage, and data pipelines. Strong understanding of software engineering principles and secure development practices. Ability to collaborate effectively across technical and functional teams. Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to explain complex AI/ML concepts to diverse stakeholders. Ability to successfully complete the FDA Public Trust clearance and onboarding process . Preferred Qualifications Hands-on experience with LangChain and/or LangGraph . Experience developing AI agents for document processing, summarization, classification, extraction, or knowledge retrieval . Experience applying AI within large-scale enterprise modernization programs. Experience working with large or complex document repositories and unstructured data. Familiarity with AI governance, model evaluation, observability, security, and responsible AI practices. Previous experience supporting federal government or regulated environments . Compensation This role is budgeted at an annual salary of $130,000-$150,000, plus benefits including medical, dental, vision coverage, PTO, and partial 401(k) match Vetting Candidates selected will be subject to a background investigation for clearance eligibility by our government client. ThunderYard Solutions is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We don’t just accept difference – we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our employees, our community, and our customers. All applicants will be considered for employment without discrimination of race, color, religion, or belief, national, social, or ethnic origin, sex, age, physical, mental, or sensory disability, HIV status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital, civil union, or domestic partnership status, protected veteran status, family medical history or genetic information. Show more Show less