AI Engineer (Python/LLM) - 50% telework

If you've built something real with LLMs, not just a demo, and want to do it on hardware you can actually touch, keep reading.

Linchpin Software is a small, growing company, and we're hiring AI Engineers in Chantilly, VA (50% telework). You'll build AI-powered analytic workflows that run entirely on-prem: locally hosted models on GPU servers, in air-gapped and cross-domain environments, with no calls out to a public API. The work is hands-on engineering: parsing messy documents, extracting entities, building retrieval pipelines, and turning model output into structured, traceable results that analysts can trust.

We'll be honest: this is a new and growing scope of work, which means you'll help shape how it gets built, not just pick up tickets.

Here's what we care about, and we hire for it:
- Be helpful. Answer the question, share what you know, and leave things better than you found them.
- Take care of the customer. Our customers have hard missions. We listen, follow through, and make their day easier.
- Be a good teammate. Review the code, jump in on the tough bug, cover for each other, and celebrate the wins together.

We also build software differently. Our engineers use AI-assisted development tools (Claude Code, Codex, GitLab Duo) every day to design, code, test, and debug faster.

What You'll Do:
- Build and integrate on-prem LLM and multi-model workflows (reasoning, retrieval, tool use, structured output)
- Engineer document and data parsing pipelines for complex structured and unstructured data
- Implement named entity recognition, entity extraction, and entity resolution
- Build retrieval systems with vector and graph databases, with source citation and traceable outputs
- Write production Python services and APIs (FastAPI) and integrate them with UIs and data platforms
- Deploy and run models and services on Kubernetes and locally hosted GPU servers

Required:
- Active Top Secret, TS/SCI, or Intel Agency clearance
- Bachelor's degree
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, including hands-on AI / ML or LLM work
- Strong Python
- Experience building LLM applications: RAG, prompt and output engineering, structured output, or agents
- Experience with data parsing, ETL, or NLP (NER, entity extraction)
- Experience with containers and Kubernetes, Git, and CI/CD
- Clear communication and a genuine willingness to help customers and teammates

Preferred:
- Self-hosting open models on GPUs (vLLM, Ollama, Hugging Face, or similar)
- Vector and graph databases (LanceDB, pgvector, Neo4j, or similar)
- Computer vision, geospatial, or temporal AI
- Workflow orchestration (Temporal.io or similar)
- Air-gapped, multi-enclave, or cross-domain environments
- Experience mentoring engineers or leading AI design efforts

The Honest Details:
- Location: Chantilly, VA, 50% telework. You'll be on site about half the time, and we mean it.
- Pay: $150,000 - $230,000, based on experience and what you bring.
- Clearance: active Top Secret, TS/SCI, or Intel Agency clearance required. We can't sponsor one for this role.

What You'll Gain:
- Real, production AI engineering on a mission that matters
- A chance to shape a new program area from the ground up
- A small team where your work is seen and your opinion counts
- Competitive compensation and benefits

If you like building AI systems that actually work in the real world, apply. A real person on our team reads every application.