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# SME AI/ML Engineer

- **Company:** Agile Defense
- **Location:** Fort Meade, MD, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $200,000.0 - $215,000.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** LangGraph Framework, AI Evaluation, Artificial Intelligence, Rapid Prototyping Process, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, Large Language Models, Agentic-AI, Ollama, LiteLLM, Nim (Programming Language), Model Context Protocol, VLLM, Model Inference, Cyber Warfare
- **Published:** October 8, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.clearancejobs.com/jobs/9227279/sme-aiml-engineer

## About the Role

Ready for a challenge that puts you at the center of AI innovation for cyber operations? Are you an experienced AI/ML engineer who thrives in a fast-paced environment, enjoys turning research and prototypes into real mission capability, and wants to help shape how AI is built and delivered across a national mission?, * Master's degree and 8+ years of relevant experience

 * Experience supporting mission environments
 * Experience with frameworks such as LangGraph, Agno, or the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit
 * Experience with model inference/serving platforms (NVIDIA NIM, vLLM, Ollama, LiteLLM)
 * Experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar tool-broker/integration standards
 * Experience with AI evaluation frameworks, model benchmarking, and observability (logs/metrics/traces) for AI workloads
 * Active TS/SCI w/ polygraph

## Description

* Provide embedded operations support, capability integration, and rapid prototyping for AI/ML-enabled tools in support of our customer. Design and integrate LLM/agent orchestration workflows using agentic frameworks such as LangGraph, Agno, and the NVIDIA NeMo Agent Toolkit.
 * Tune model gateway routing logic to select, evaluate, and optimize across multiple frontier and open-weight models for cost, performance, and mission fit.
 * Develop and integrate RAG pipelines, vector databases, and memory services to give agents access to mission knowledge and context.
 * Implement MCP (Model Context Protocol)-based tool-broker integrations so agents can safely and securely access enterprise tools and data.
 * Evaluate, benchmark, and tune models and agent behaviors; build automated evaluation pipelines to track quality, safety, and performance over time.
 * Partner with data scientists and mission analysts to translate research and prototypes into production-grade AI capabilities for the command.
 * Implement AI governance guardrails - content/safety filters, policy enforcement, and approval gates - for agentic workflows, and document model/agent architectures and evaluation results for reuse.
 * Research and evaluate emerging LLM, agent, and AI tooling to keep the command's AI capability current and adaptable., * Happy - Be Infectious. Happiness multiplies and creates a positive and connected environment where motivation and satisfaction have an outsized effect on everything we do.
 * Helpful - Be Supportive. Being helpful is the foundation of teamwork, resulting in a supportive atmosphere where collaboration flourishes, and collective success is celebrated.
 * Honest - Be Trustworthy. Honesty serves as our compass, ensuring transparent communication and ethical conduct, essential to who we are and the complex domains we support.
 * Humble - Be Grounded. Success is not achieved alone, humility ensures a culture of mutual respect, encouraging open communication, and a willingness to learn from one another and take on any task.
 * Hungry - Be Eager. Our hunger for excellence drives an insatiable appetite for innovation and continuous improvement, propelling us forward in the face of new and unprecedented challenges.
 * Hustle - Be Driven. Hustle is reflected in our relentless work ethic, where we are each committed to going above and beyond to advance the mission and achieve success.