{"id":2926703,"url":"https://alion.io/job/general-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer","title":"Senior AI Software Engineer","company":{"id":4418,"name":"General Dynamics Information Technology","domain":"gdit.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/gdit","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":96,"open_postings":37,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.378,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":10,"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Sterling, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":128039,"max":173229,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":173229},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Docling","optional":false},{"name":"Embeddings","optional":false},{"name":"Function Calling","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"LLM","optional":false},{"name":"Model Context Protocol","optional":false},{"name":"Multimodal AI","optional":false},{"name":"Ollama","optional":false},{"name":"Open WebUI","optional":false},{"name":"OpenAI","optional":false},{"name":"pgvector","optional":false},{"name":"Podman","optional":false},{"name":"PostgreSQL","optional":false},{"name":"Prompt Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Pytest","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RAG","optional":false},{"name":"Redis","optional":false},{"name":"Reranking","optional":false},{"name":"Rest API","optional":false},{"name":"Splunk","optional":false},{"name":"Transformers","optional":false},{"name":"vLLM","optional":false},{"name":"CUDA","optional":true},{"name":"FastAPI","optional":true},{"name":"Hugging Face","optional":true},{"name":"Pydantic","optional":true},{"name":"Red Hat","optional":true},{"name":"Windows","optional":true},{"name":"Windows Server","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-13T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-13","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T08:05:52Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":11,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":11},"description":"Type of Requisition:\nPipelineClearance Level Must Currently Possess:\nSecretClearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain:\nTop SecretPublic Trust/Other Required:\nNoneJob Family:\nData Science and Data EngineeringJob Qualifications:\nSkills:\nAgile Software Development, Back-End Development, Microservices ArchitectureCertifications:\nNoneExperience:\n7 + years of related experienceUS Citizenship Required:\nYesJob Description:\nGDIT is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Senior AI Software Engineer to support the development, modernization, integration, and sustainment of our on-premises, AI-powered enterprise chatbot platform supporting the U.S. Department of State in Sterling, VA.\nThe selected candidate will design, develop, and integrate software solutions leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, document processing technologies, and modern AI inference frameworks.\nThis role requires a strong foundation in software engineering, Python development, API integration, containerization, and AI application architecture. The engineer will help transition existing AI services toward a scalable, containerized architecture while introducing new capabilities that enhance system performance, reliability, security, and user experience.\nThe ideal candidate is a hands-on software engineer who can work across the AI application stack, from backend development and model serving integration to data processing, automated testing, and deployment.\nThe individual will collaborate with AI/ML engineers, data engineers, infrastructure specialists, cybersecurity teams, and government stakeholders to deliver secure, reliable AI capabilities in highly controlled, classified, and air-gapped environments.\nKey Responsibilities\n1. AI Application Development & Integration\nDesign, develop, test, and maintain Python-based applications, microservices, and APIs supporting an on prem chatbot.\nExtend, configure, and integrate OpenWebUI with enterprise AI services and backend systems.\nDevelop custom OpenWebUI Functions, Tools, and integrations to support mission-specific use cases.\nIntegrate approved LLMs into chatbot using OpenAI-compatible APIs and inference frameworks such as vLLM and Ollama.\nDevelop reusable software components for AI model access, prompt management, response processing, and application workflows.\nCollaborate with AI/ML engineers to improve model inference performance, response quality, and application reliability.\nSupport multimodal AI use cases, including document understanding, optical character recognition, and vision-language model integration.\nDevelop backend capabilities to support secure enterprise AI workflows.\n2. Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) & Document Processing\nDesign, implement, and optimize RAG workflows for enterprise document search and question answering.\nIntegrate document processing technologies such as Docling, Tesseract, and vision-language models into automated ingestion pipelines.\nDevelop document chunking, metadata extraction, embedding generation, and retrieval workflows.\nIntegrate embedding models and reranking models to improve retrieval accuracy and relevance.\nWork with PostgreSQL and pgvector to support vector search, semantic retrieval, and document indexing.\nDevelop APIs and background processing services for document ingestion and knowledge base management.\nCollaborate with data engineers to ensure accurate storage, indexing, and retrieval of enterprise information.\nImplement testing and evaluation approaches to measure RAG accuracy, retrieval relevance, and answer quality.\n3. AI Model Serving & Inference Integration\nIntegrate and maintain AI inference services using vLLM, Ollama, and compatible model-serving frameworks.\nSupport the deployment and configuration of approved open-weight LLMs, embedding models, rerankers, and vision-language models.\nDevelop software integrations using OpenAI-compatible REST APIs.\nAssist in optimizing inference configurations, including context length, GPU memory utilization, concurrency, and model serving performance.\nSupport the transition from existing inference frameworks to improved architectures as technologies mature.\nCollaborate with AI/ML engineers to troubleshoot inference errors, model loading issues, and integration failures.\nDevelop benchmarking and performance-testing utilities for AI workloads.\n4. Containerization & Platform Modernization\nSupport the migration of DS Chat components from traditional deployments into containerized services.\nDevelop, configure, and maintain container images using Podman or Docker.\nCreate and maintain Podman Compose configurations defining application services, networking, volumes, and environment variables.\nIntegrate services such as OpenWebUI, vLLM, Docling, PostgreSQL, pgvector, PgBouncer, and Redis.\nDevelop scripts and automation for repeatable installation, deployment, upgrades, and recovery.\nImplement health checks, readiness checks, logging, and service dependency management.\nTroubleshoot container networking, authentication, storage, GPU access, and service connectivity.\nCollaborate with infrastructure and cybersecurity teams to improve deployment consistency and security.\n5. Agentic AI & Future Capabilities\nResearch, prototype, and develop agentic AI capabilities for future DS Chat releases.\nImplement controlled tool-calling and multi-step AI workflows.\nDevelop integrations that allow approved AI models to interact with authorized enterprise APIs and services.\nExplore emerging technologies involving AI orchestration, workflow automation, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).\nDesign secure execution boundaries, permissions, audit logging, and approval mechanisms for AI-driven actions.\nCollaborate with stakeholders to evaluate new AI capabilities for mission relevance, security, and operational feasibility.\nImplement safeguards to support human oversight and prevent unauthorized actions by AI-enabled systems.\n6. Software Engineering, Testing & DevSecOps\nApply software engineering best practices, including modular architecture, code reviews, documentation, and version control.\nDevelop automated unit, integration, regression, and performance tests using frameworks such as pytest.\nBuild integration tests validating communication between OpenWebUI, inference services, document processing components, and databases.\nSupport CI/CD processes appropriate for disconnected and classified environments.\nTroubleshoot production issues through application logs, metrics, traces, and system diagnostics.\nIntegrate operational logging and monitoring capabilities with tools such as Splunk.\nAssist with vulnerability remediation, dependency management, software supply chain reviews, and container security assessments.\nProduce technical documentation, deployment procedures, architecture diagrams, and operational runbooks.\nParticipate in Agile development activities, including sprint planning, technical design reviews, and demonstrations.\n7. Security & Classified Environment Support\nDesign software solutions suitable for secure, on-premises, air-gapped government environments.\nImplement secure authentication integration, role-based access controls, API authorization, and data protection measures.\nEnsure AI services communicate only through authorized internal network paths.\nSupport software packaging and offline deployment using preapproved dependencies, container images, and model artifacts.\nCollaborate with cybersecurity personnel to address security findings and support Risk Management Framework (RMF) activities.\nAssist with technical documentation and evidence required for TRB/CCB reviews and Authority to Operate (ATO) processes.\nFollow approved procedures for handling sensitive and classified information.\nRequired Qualifications\nMinimum Secret Clearance, no sponsorship\nBachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.\n5+ years of professional software engineering experience, including backend application development.\nStrong proficiency in Python and experience developing production-quality software.\nExperience developing RESTful APIs and integrating distributed application services.\nHands-on experience integrating LLMs or generative AI capabilities into software applications.\nUnderstanding of transformer-based models, inference APIs, prompt engineering, and LLM application development.\nExperience with RAG concepts, including document ingestion, embeddings, vector search, and retrieval pipelines.\nExperience working with relational databases such as PostgreSQL.\nFamiliarity with container technologies such as Podman or Docker.\nExperience with Linux-based development and application deployment.\nProficiency with Git, automated testing, debugging, and software development best practices.\nExperience troubleshooting applications across multiple interconnected services.\nStrong analytical, problem-solving, communication, and technical documentation skills.\nAbility to work effectively with cross-functional teams and government stakeholders.\nPreferred Qualifications\nExperience with OpenWebUI, including configuration, integration, custom Functions, Tools, or application extensions.\nHands-on experience with vLLM, Ollama, Hugging Face Transformers, or other LLM inference technologies.\nExperience serving or integrating open-weight LLMs in on-premises environments.\nExperience with NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA, GPU memory management, and AI inference optimization.\nExperience with PostgreSQL pgvector, vector similarity search, and semantic retrieval.\nFamiliarity with embedding models, rerankers, and cross-encoder architectures.\nExperience with Docling, Tesseract, or document intelligence technologies.\nExperience implementing production RAG pipelines and evaluation frameworks.\nFamiliarity with agentic AI frameworks, tool calling, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).\nExperience developing or maintaining containerized microservice architectures.\nFamiliarity with Redis, PgBouncer, and asynchronous background processing.\nExperience with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows Server.\nExperience with FastAPI, Pydantic, pytest, and related Python technologies.\nExperience using Splunk for application monitoring and troubleshooting.\nFamiliarity with software supply chain security, vulnerability scanning, and container hardening.\nExperience supporting federal government systems, classified networks, or air-gapped deployments.\nKnowledge of federal cybersecurity requirements, RMF, and ATO processes.\nThe likely salary range for this position is $128,039 - $173,229. This is not, however, a guarantee of compensation or salary. Rather, salary will be set based on experience, geographic location and possibly contractual requirements and could fall outside of this range.Scheduled Weekly Hours:\n40Travel Required:\nLess than 10%Telecommuting Options:\nOnsiteWork Location:\nUSA VA SterlingAdditional Work Locations:\nTotal Rewards at GDIT:\nOur benefits package for all US-based employees includes a variety of medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts, dental plan options, a vision plan, and a 401(k) plan offering the ability to contribute both pre and post-tax dollars up to the IRS annual limits and receive a company match. To encourage work/life balance, GDIT offers employees full flex work weeks where possible and a variety of paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time, holidays, paid parental, military, bereavement and jury duty leave. To ensure our employees are able to protect their income, other offerings such as short and long-term disability benefits, life, accidental death and dismemberment, personal accident, critical illness and business travel and accident insurance are provided or available. We regularly review our Total Rewards package to ensure our offerings are competitive and reflect what our employees have told us they value most.O...","description_format":"text","description_chars":13190,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Fraud Detection","National Security","Digital Government","IT Consulting & Digital Transformation"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-20T13:41:36Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 21 · green card filings: 4","filings_12m":21,"filings_prev_12m":30,"green_card_filings_12m":4,"median_offered_wage_usd":154900,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":17}],"liveness":{"score":44,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.803,"p_room":0.55,"age_days":11,"expected_fill_days":10,"reasons":["conf:2","velocity","win:tail","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-24T06:02:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":173229,"is_top_pay":false},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/general-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/general-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T16:04:48Z","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":23152,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-25T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"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":4418},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=4418"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fgeneral-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"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%2Fgeneral-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"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%2Fgeneral-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer"},{"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/general-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fgeneral-dynamics-information-technology-senior-ai-software-engineer"}]}