Guidehouse

AI / Data Engineer

Guidehouse$106K — $176K *
Information Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • US Citizenship required
  • Active and maintained 'Secret' Federal or DoD security clearance
  • Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
  • Experience with AI-enabled applications, analytic tools, decision-support systems, or machine learning solutions
  • Strong fundamentals in software engineering, APIs, backend services, data pipelines, and deployment practices
  • Applied experience with generative AI, large language models, and relevant technologies like embeddings and vector databases
  • Experience in deploying applications in cloud or enterprise environments using CI/CD and secure development practices

Responsibilities

  • Design, build, and deploy AI applications for operational decision-making
  • Develop application logic integrating AI models, APIs, data pipelines, and systems
  • Implement retrieval-augmented generation and semantic search strategies
  • Integrate structured and unstructured data sources into AI applications
  • Build workflows connecting machine learning services and secure environments
  • Develop frameworks to evaluate AI output quality and accuracy
  • Implement guardrails and human review points for reliable AI behavior

Benefits

  • Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
  • Discretionary variable incentive bonus eligibility
  • Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Basic Life & Supplemental Life Insurance
  • Health Savings Account and Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Short-Term & Long-Term Disability coverage
  • Student Loan PayDown program
  • Tuition Reimbursement and Professional Development opportunities
  • Employee Referral Program
  • Community Outreach and Corporate Sponsored Events
  • Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
  • Mobility Stipend
Full Job Description
Job Family:
Data Science Consulting

Travel Required:
Up to 25%

Clearance Required:
Active Secret

Guidehouse is seeking an AI Engineer to support the design, development, validation, and deployment of production-grade AI-enabled applications for DoW Federal clients. This role will translate operational workflows, mission needs, and enterprise data assets into secure, scalable, and reliable AI systems.

The AI Engineer will work closely with functional SMEs, architects, data scientists, product managers, and technical delivery teams to build AI-enabled applications, retrieval workflows, evaluation frameworks, and decision-support capabilities. This role is focused on delivering working systems, not research prototypes, and must support explainable, auditable, and operationally reliable AI outputs in regulated and mission-sensitive environments.

What You Will Do
  • Design, build, and deploy AI-enabled applications that support real operational workflows and decision-making for DoW, federal, and enterprise environments.
  • Develop application logic that integrates AI models, APIs, data pipelines, user interfaces, and enterprise systems.
  • Implement retrieval-augmented generation, semantic search, embeddings, vector databases, prompt strategies, and agent-based workflows where appropriate.
  • Integrate structured and unstructured enterprise data sources into AI-enabled applications.
  • Build orchestration workflows that connect foundation models, machine learning services, tools, APIs, and secure enterprise environments.
  • Develop evaluation frameworks to measure AI output quality, grounding, accuracy, traceability, and failure modes.
  • Implement guardrails, validation checks, fallback logic, and human-in-the-loop review points to support reliable AI behavior.
  • Support training, tuning, evaluation, and validation of AI or machine learning models using enterprise data while ensuring outputs remain defensible, explainable, and aligned to approved methodologies.
  • Develop secure APIs, backend services, dashboards, visualizations, and integration components for AI-enabled analytic tools and decision-support platforms.
  • Implement monitoring, logging, observability, model performance tracking, and cost controls for AI systems in operation.
  • Advise on model transparency, explainability, auditability, data governance, information assurance, and access controls required for secure DoW and federal deployment.
  • Collaborate with functional SMEs to translate business needs, mission requirements, workflow requirements, review expectations, and operational constraints into technical requirements.
  • Contribute reusable AI components, accelerators, reference architectures, and delivery patterns for future enterprise and federal AI implementations.
  • Support demonstrations, pilots, proofs of value, testing, deployment readiness, and user acceptance activities with internal and client stakeholders.


What You Will Need
  • US Citizenship Required
  • An ACTIVE and MAINTAINED "SECRET" Federal or DoD security clearance.
  • Bachelor's degree obtained or equivalent practical experience.
  • Experience designing, building, or deploying AI-enabled applications, analytic tools, decision-support systems, or machine learning solutions.
  • Strong software engineering fundamentals, including APIs, backend services, data pipelines, system integration, and production deployment practices.
  • Applied experience with machine learning, generative AI, large language models, retrieval-augmented generation, embeddings, vector databases, semantic search, or prompt engineering.
  • Experience deploying applications or analytic services in cloud or enterprise environments using CI/CD, version control, testing, and secure development practices.


What Would Be Nice To Have
  • Experience supporting DoW, federal, national security, or large enterprise technology modernization programs.
  • Experience developing or deploying AI-enabled applications in secure DoW or federal cloud environments.
  • Experience with AI-enabled analytics, predictive modeling, forecasting, scenario analysis, workflow automation, or decision-support platforms.
  • Experience implementing model transparency, explainability, auditability, and traceability controls for AI-generated recommendations or analytic outputs.
  • Experience designing dashboards, visualizations, or user-facing applications for complex analytical workflows.
  • Understanding of information assurance, cybersecurity, access controls, and secure deployment considerations for DoW, federal, or enterprise environments.
  • Experience with Python, FastAPI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Azure AI, AWS, Databricks, Snowflake, vector databases, containerized deployments, or related AI engineering tools.
  • Experience contributing reusable components, accelerators, or reference architectures for enterprise AI delivery.
  • Prior experience supporting demonstrations, pilots, proofs of value, testing, deployment readiness, or user acceptance activities with DoW or federal client stakeholders.
  • Ability to move AI solutions from concept or prototype into production-ready services.
  • Understanding of evaluation approaches for AI systems, including accuracy testing, grounding, validation, failure analysis, and human review workflows.
  • Familiarity with data quality challenges, structured and unstructured data integration, and enterprise data governance.
  • Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to functional SMEs, product owners, architects, and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Strong structured problem-solving skills and ability to design systems that are reliable, explainable, secure, and operationally usable.
  • Comfort operating in regulated, audit-sensitive, federal, or DoW environments.


Estimated Support Level

Full-time support, approximately 1.0 FTE during solution design, data integration, AI application development, evaluation, testing, deployment, and user acceptance. Support level may flex based on delivery phase, with heavier involvement during architecture, build, evaluation, and production readiness activities.

The annual salary range for this position is $106,000.00-$176,000.00. Compensation decisions depend on a wide range of factors, including but not limited to skill sets, experience and training, security clearances, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs.

What We Offer:

Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package that reflects our commitment to creating a diverse and supportive workplace.

Benefits include:
  • Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
  • Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
  • Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
  • Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
  • 401(k) Retirement Plan
  • Basic Life & Supplemental Life
  • Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
  • Student Loan PayDown
  • Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
  • Skills Development & Certifications
  • Employee Referral Program
  • Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
  • Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
  • Mobility Stipend


About Guidehouse

Guidehouse is a management consulting firm headquartered in Washington, D.C. The firm provides consulting services to clients in the public and commercial sectors, with a focus on energy, financial services, healthcare, national security, and aerospace and defense. Guidehouse was founded in 2018 as a spin-off from PwC. The firm has over 7,000 employees and operates in more than 50 locations worldwide.
Learn more about Guidehouse
Size
8,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2018

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