Applied AI Engineer – Agentic Systems

Springfield, VAfull timeRemote

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mid

$149k–$201k

H1B: no

Defenseunicorns Applied AI Engineer at Defense Unicorns designs and builds agentic AI applications integrating LLMs, tools, APIs, and enterprise data to support mission workflows. Works in secure, classified environments with government and commercial partners.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain agentic AI applications that integrate LLMs, tools, APIs, and enterprise data to support mission workflows.
Develop AI agents capable of executing multi-step tasks, interacting with external services, and coordinating actions across existing systems.
Implement agent orchestration, tool calling, workflow state management, error handling, and appropriate human oversight.
Build and integrate RAG pipelines, semantic search, embeddings, and vector-based retrieval to provide relevant context for AI applications.
Develop backend services and APIs using Python and modern software engineering practices.
Integrate agentic AI capabilities into existing applications, software delivery workflows, and enterprise platforms.
Establish testing, evaluation, monitoring, and reliability practices for AI agents and LLM-powered applications.
Collaborate with data engineers to ensure agents can access reliable, relevant, and appropriately governed enterprise data.
Work with platform engineers to deploy and operate AI applications within Kubernetes/OpenShift environments and integrate them into CI/CD workflows.
Troubleshoot end-to-end issues involving agent behavior, tool execution, APIs, data access, application services, and infrastructure.
Work directly with government engineers and commercial technology partners to resolve integration challenges and remove blockers to mission delivery.
Develop documentation, reusable components, and operational standards that make successful AI implementation patterns repeatable.

Qualification

Experience with RAG$148

Preferred

Experience with agentic AI frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, or comparable technologies.
Experience developing multi-agent systems, autonomous workflows, or AI-enabled software development tools.
Experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP), function calling, or other tool integration patterns.
Experience with RAG, embeddings, vector databases, semantic search, or knowledge graphs.
Make trusted data available where AI needs it, while establishing the repeatable, secure data patterns required to move from experimentation to operational capability.
Full compensation packages are based on candidate experience. Compensation ranges are established using national benchmarking data and apply across all geographic locations within the United States.
$148,750—$201,250 USD
Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.