Distinguished AI Software Engineer

FTI Defense is a company delivering mission-focused solutions to the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. They are seeking a Distinguished AI Software Engineering Lead to provide technical vision and architectural oversight while contributing directly to the design and development of secure, scalable, and modernized solutions.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and deploy secure, distributed platforms supporting modular, multi-service software environments
• Design and integrate APIs, microservices, and data pipelines that enable interoperability across mission, simulation, and analytical systems
• Define and enforce architectural principles, modularity standards, and software best practices across development teams
• Engineer solutions that bridge cloud, on-prem, and classified enclaves, ensuring interoperability and compliance
• Engineer cloud-native solutions in AWS GovCloud or hybrid IL4–IL6 environments with strict security and accreditation requirements
• Implement Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK) to automate provisioning, configuration, and accreditation workflows
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines that embed security, compliance, and automated testing from development through deployment
• Ensure all platform designs support zero-trust principles, multi-enclave deployment, and repeatable accreditation (ATO) processes
• Design or oversee large-scale data ingestion, transformation, and orchestration environments (Kafka, Airflow, Spark, or Databricks)
• Shape data architectures that balance throughput, latency, and cost across distributed mission environments
• Enable secure and efficient data access and synchronization across analytical, AI-enabled, and simulation workloads
• Transition software and platforms from prototype to production, ensuring maintainability, observability, and configuration consistency
• Establish automated testing, release governance, and performance monitoring standards for ongoing sustainment
• Partner with program and product leadership to align delivery with mission lifecycle requirements
• Engineer architectures for redundancy and resilience under degraded or disconnected operational conditions
• Design and maintain secure enclave architectures, boundary controls, and cross-domain integration solutions
• Collaborate with cybersecurity and ISSM teams to support ATO and ongoing accreditation automation
• Integrate emerging technologies, open standards, and modern frameworks into operational systems
• Collaborate with AI/ML, data, and simulation teams to enable model integration and inference services within production software (familiarity with MLOps concepts preferred)
• Evaluate new tools and frameworks to improve developer productivity, performance, and automation efficiency
• Lead by example as a hands-on technical authority, guiding design and implementation decisions
• Mentor software engineers and architects to raise technical standards, code quality, and architectural maturity
• Partner with fellow Distinguished Engineers and organizational leaders to align platform strategy with enterprise innovation goals
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both executive and engineering stakeholders

Requirements:

• Active Secret clearance required; TS/SCI strongly preferred
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
• 10–15 years of progressive software engineering experience, with at least 5 years in a technical leadership or architecture role
• Proven success architecting and deploying secure, distributed, cloud-native software platforms
• Deep experience with AWS GovCloud or IL4–IL6 hybrid environments
• Hands-on proficiency with Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or CDK) and CI/CD automation
• Strong understanding of DevSecOps, zero-trust principles, and mission accreditation (ATO/RMF) processes
• Demonstrated ability to operationalize software systems from prototype through accreditation in secure environments
• Strong coding experience in one or more core languages (Python, Java, C++, TypeScript)
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
• Experience developing developer-facing APIs, SDKs, or enablement platforms for enterprise-scale interoperability
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, or Rancher)
• Awareness of MLOps and AI solution integration practices — capable of collaborating with AI/ML teams on model deployment and sustainment
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and influence enterprise-level software design decisions
• Recognized for contributions advancing automation, performance, and platform modernization within secure environments
• Comfortable balancing architecture, coding, and stakeholder engagement in fast-paced mission contexts