{"id":4047893,"url":"https://alion.io/job/expression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead","title":"AI Architect (Technical Lead)","company":{"id":24004,"name":"Expression Networks","domain":"expr.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/expr","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Breezy","truth_index":null},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":12,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AutoGen","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Databricks","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"ElasticSearch","optional":false},{"name":"Explainable AI","optional":false},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":false},{"name":"Hallucination","optional":false},{"name":"Helm","optional":false},{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"LangChain","optional":false},{"name":"LangGraph","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"LLMOps","optional":false},{"name":"Multi-Agent Systems","optional":false},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"Semantic Kernel","optional":false},{"name":"Structured Outputs","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"Asyncio","optional":true},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":true},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":true},{"name":"Pydantic","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-11T00:33:02Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-11","last_verified_at":"2026-11-11T00:44:01Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Expression is seeking an experienced AI Architect to serve as Technical Lead designing and technically integrating advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities supporting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).\nThis role will support the development and integration of secure, mission-focused AI agents within the DHS AI environment. The selected candidate will lead the adaptation of multi-agent AI capabilities, including intelligent workflow orchestration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), model evaluation, and governed enterprise data integration, to enhance investigative analysis, information retrieval, report generation, and human decision support.\nThe ideal candidate is a hands-on AI architect and technical leader with extensive experience designing and delivering enterprise AI applications. You are equally comfortable defining system architecture, developing and reviewing production-quality software, integrating LLMs with enterprise data systems, and mentoring engineers through complex technical challenges.\nThis position requires a strong understanding of modern AI engineering, distributed application architectures, secure API development, and responsible AI deployment within highly regulated environments. You will work closely with AI engineers, data engineers, program leadership, and Government stakeholders to deliver reliable, explainable, secure, and scalable AI capabilities.\nSecurity Clearance: Top Secret/SCI required\nLocation: Shirlington, VA\nKey Responsibilities\nLead the technical architecture, design, and implementation of enterprise AI and agentic AI solutions within the Government's existing AI environment, emphasizing reuse of approved infrastructure, services, and model endpoints.\nDefine scalable, secure, and maintainable software architectures integrating LLMs, specialized AI agents, enterprise data services, APIs, and human-in-the-loop workflows.\nDesign and implement multi-agent orchestration frameworks, including Responder-Evaluator-Reporter workflows, model selection, prompt management, tool invocation, and structured output validation.\nLead the integration of Government-approved frontier AI models through authorized endpoints, ensuring appropriate model configuration, version management, performance evaluation, and controlled execution.\nArchitect retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solutions that integrate authorized enterprise data sources while preserving source attribution, access controls, data lineage, and traceability.\nGuide integration with Palantir, Databricks, Elasticsearch, and other approved Government data services through secure APIs and governed interfaces.\nDesign secure AI agent execution frameworks incorporating identity propagation, role-based and purpose-based access controls, bounded tool permissions, approval checkpoints, execution limits, and safe failure mechanisms.\nDevelop and review production-quality backend services, APIs, and orchestration components using Python and modern software engineering practices.\nLead architecture and code reviews, resolve complex integration challenges, and establish engineering standards for maintainability, reliability, security, and performance.\nDesign evaluation and testing approaches for LLM and multi-agent applications, including factual accuracy, consistency, explainability, latency, scalability, and computational cost.\nEstablish observability, logging, prompt and model version tracking, and auditability across AI workflows, ensuring AI-generated outputs can be traced to supporting sources and reviewed by authorized personnel.\nCollaborate with cybersecurity, DevSecOps, privacy, and Government stakeholders to align system designs with approved deployment pipelines, security controls, authorization requirements, and release processes.\nSupport the adaptation of existing AI algorithms, prompts, and software components into Government-approved investigative workflows, documenting technical lineage, modifications, and integration requirements.\nProduce solution architecture documents, system design specifications, interface control documents, data-flow diagrams, technical evaluations, and engineering implementation guidance.\nSupport technical demonstrations, prototype evaluations, user acceptance activities, and Government design reviews.\nProvide technical leadership and mentorship to AI engineers and data engineers while maintaining meaningful hands-on involvement in architecture, development, debugging, and integration.\nEvaluate proposed third-party AI tools, frameworks, and software components for technical suitability, security implications, integration complexity, and reuse of existing Government capabilities, coordinating recommendations through established approval processes.\nRequired Qualifications\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field, or equivalent relevant professional experience.\n12+ years of professional experience in software engineering, AI engineering, data engineering, or enterprise application development, including 3+ years in software architecture or technical leadership roles.\nDemonstrated hands-on experience architecting, developing, and deploying enterprise LLM-powered and generative AI applications, including agentic AI workflows, multi-agent orchestration, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).\nExperience designing and implementing multi-agent AI systems using frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, or equivalent technologies, including Responder-Evaluator-Reporter workflows, model comparison, and AI output verification.\nExperience with LLM prompt engineering, prompt version management, structured generation, tool/function calling, agent execution controls, and human-in-the-loop workflows.\nStrong Python software engineering skills, including RESTful API development, asynchronous programming, modular application design, and modern software development practices.\nExperience designing distributed applications, microservices, or event-driven architectures and integrating AI capabilities with structured and unstructured enterprise data through secure APIs and retrieval architectures.\nExperience implementing secure, permission-aware enterprise data integrations, including authentication, authorization, identity propagation, data governance, source traceability, and auditability.\nExperience designing and evaluating reliable, explainable AI systems, including factual grounding, source citations, hallucination mitigation, model performance evaluation, and responsible human oversight.\nExperience with LLMOps and AI assurance practices, including automated regression testing, prompt-injection defenses, model/prompt version tracking, application observability, and performance monitoring.\nExperience with cloud-native architectures and containerized application deployment using Docker, AWS or Azure, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, or comparable technologies.\nExperience implementing CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, version control, and software configuration management to support secure, reliable application delivery.\nDemonstrated ability to translate technical and mission requirements into scalable system architectures, implementation plans, interface specifications, and engineering deliverables.\nExperience leading technical design and code reviews, troubleshooting complex software integrations, mentoring engineers, and providing hands-on technical guidance throughout the software development lifecycle.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills, including experience producing technical documentation, presenting architectural decisions, and supporting technical demonstrations, Government acceptance testing, and operational pilot deployments.\nPreferred Qualifications\nAdvanced degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Software Engineering, or a related technical discipline.\nExperience integrating enterprise AI applications with Palantir, Databricks, Elasticsearch, or similar governed data and analytics platforms.\nExperience developing Python backend services using FastAPI, Pydantic, asyncio, or comparable frameworks.\nExperience supporting secure software development and deployment in Federal Government, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, or Department of Homeland Security environments.\nFamiliarity with Government cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, and software authorization processes.\nExperience adapting existing AI research, algorithms, prototypes, or software components into operational enterprise applications.\nExperience supporting AI-enabled document processing, intelligent search, case management, investigative analytics, or automated report generation.\nBenefits:\nExpression offers competitive salaries and benefits, such as:\n401k matching\nPPO and HDHP medical/dental/vision insurance\nEducation reimbursement up to $10,000/yr\nComplimentary life insurance\nGenerous PTO and 11 days of holiday leave\nCommuter Benefits Plan\nAbout Expression:\nFounded in 1997 and headquartered in Washington DC, Expression provides data fusion, data analytics, AI/ML, software engineering, information technology, and electromagnetic spectrum management solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, Department of State, and national security community. Expression’s culture focuses on creating immediate and sustainable value for our clients via agile delivery of tailored solutions built through constant engagement with our clients. Expression was ranked #1 on the Washington Technology 2018's Fast 50 list of fastest-growing small business Government contractors and a Top 20 Big Data Solutions Provider by CIO Review.\nWe make sure to provide everyone with the tools and opportunities to grow while working on some of the newest technologies in the industry. We get excited about celebrating our professionals' milestones, accomplishments, promotions, overcoming challenges, and many other aspects that make an engaging collaborative environment.\nEqual Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled\nExpression is an Equal Opportunity Employer. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please submit your request to our Human Resources department through the application portal.","description_format":"text","description_chars":10384,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":12,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan","Life insurance","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["National Security","C4ISR","Electronic Warfare","Defense AI"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-11T00:44:01Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":46,"reasons":["conf:1","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-11-11T02:41:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/expression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/expression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-11T02:41:15Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1090,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-12T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":24004},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=24004"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fexpression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fexpression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fexpression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/expression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fexpression-networks-ai-architect-technical-lead"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4047893}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"expr.ai","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4047893},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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