AI Architect

Requirements (Please Read) Local and comfortable with the on-site requirements. Candidates must have experience in government/sector and candidates who have current or recent Public Trust are ideal. Candidates must work W-2 only Candidate must obtain and maintain Public Trust Suitability Clearance from DHS. Please read the Job Description Carefully Local Candidates are required Job Title: AI Architect Contract Duration: 6 Month Contract to Hire Location: Fairfax, VA (4-5 days' on-site, 3 days' on-site at minimum) Client wants a hands-on AI architect who can set AI strategy, design secure cloud-based AI systems, lead teams, and navigate federal compliance-someone who can operate at both technical depth and program leadership level. Senior Architecture and Hands-On AI Leader Experience specifically in AI/ML architecture and engineering Has designed end-to-end AI solutions, not just models Can define AI strategy, reference architectures, and roadmaps, then guide teams to implement them Still hands-on enough to prototype in Python, evaluate models, and guide engineering decisions Federal / Government-Focused Technologist Direct experience delivering AI or advanced analytics solutions to U.S. federal agencies Comfortable operating under FISMA, NIST RMF, FIPS, GovCloud security constraints Understands policy, compliance, and ethical AI considerations in government environments Ideally has worked on large ($50M+) federal programsCloud-Centric AI Architect (AWS First) Strong AWS architecture background, ideally AWS GovCloud Experience with: SageMaker, Glue, Databricks, Elastic, S3, EC2, IAM Hybrid or self-hosted AI platforms Can balance performance, scalability, cost, and security in cloud AI designs AI Generalist (Not Niche) They want breadth more than deep specialization in one area: Machine Learning & Deep Learning NLP & Generative AI Some exposure to Computer Vision Data engineering fundamentals (Pandas, NumPy, pipelines, APIs) This is not a pure GenAI prompt engineer or research scientist. Program-Level Leader & Communicator Acts as AI SME for the entire program Can: Define AI governance and usage policies Educate non-AI engineers and stakeholders Mentor junior AI/ML engineers Strong written and verbal skills for architecture documents, briefings, and leadership reviews Security-Aware AI Architect Experience embedding security-by-design into AI solutions Familiar with: DevSecOps pipelines Secure model deployment Data governance and access controls Bonus if familiar with DHS CDM, cyber mission space, or security analytics

Created: 2026-04-02