Junior AI Engineer

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Synergy ECP is a leading provider of cybersecurity, software and systems engineering and IT services to the U.S. intelligence and defense communities. The company leverages its expertise in data transport solutions, software and systems engineering, and other solutions to deliver critical and innovative capabilities to high-level decision makers that enhance our nation’s security.

In an ultra-competitive environment, Synergy ECP has thrived by adhering to our name, making sure excellence is displayed by our employees, to our customers and by Improving Performance (ECP). It’s what sets us apart, enabling us to be an autonomous yet agile business that delivers huge results—showing we’re ready to meet our customers’ evolving demands. Synergy ECP has earned a client list that includes numerous Fortune 100 companies, in addition to multiple branches of the US government and military services.

Location: Hybrid (Remote/On-Site)

Clearance: TS (TS/SCI will be required within 6 months of hire)

Employment Type: Full-Time

Reports To: COO/CTO

Synergy ECP is seeking a motivated AI Engineer to support the design, development, and deployment of AI/ML solutions in mission-driven government environments. This role is ideal for an early-career engineer who wants hands‑on experience building production‑grade AI systems while working within secure, compliance‑driven federal ecosystems.

The Junior AI Engineer will contribute to model development, data engineering workflows, experimentation, and AI system integration under the guidance of senior engineers and architects.

• Support development, training, and evaluation of machine learning and AI models
• Assist in building data pipelines to support model training and inference
• Work with structured and unstructured datasets (text, logs, documents, etc.)
• Contribute to experimentation frameworks and model benchmarking
• Support integration of AI capabilities into production systems and APIs
• Write clean, maintainable, and well‑documented Python code
• Participate in code reviews and collaborative engineering processes
• Assist in MLOps activities (model versioning, monitoring, CI/CD integration)
• Ensure compliance with security and governance requirements in federal environments
• Document technical approaches and support customer briefings as needed

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or related technical field
• 0–3 years of experience in AI/ML, software engineering, or data engineering
• Proficiency in Python
• Experience with one or more ML libraries (e.g., PyTorch, Tensor Flow, scikit‑learn)
• Familiarity with:
• Data preprocessing and feature engineering
• Model evaluation metrics
• Git‑based version control
• Understanding of basic statistics and machine learning concepts
• Strong problem‑solving skills and willingness to learn
• Ability to work in a collaborative team environment
• U.S. Citizenship (if required for federal work)

• Experience working with NLP, LLMs, or generative AI systems
• Familiarity with vector databases or embeddings
• Exposure to MLOps tools (MLflow, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines)
• Experience in AWS, Azure, or Gov Cloud environments
• Knowledge of data governance and secure development practices
• Prior internship or project experience in AI/ML
• Active security clearance (if applicable)

Within 6–12 months, the Junior AI Engineer will:

• Contribute meaningfully to at least one production AI deployment
• Demonstrate ability to independently build and evaluate ML models
• Follow secure development and data governance best practices
• Collaborate effectively with senior engineers and stakeholders
• Support mission‑driven AI solutions aligned with federal customer needs

• Work on high‑impact AI solutions supporting national mission priorities
• Gain hands‑on experience in secure, production AI environments
• Collaborate with senior AI and data engineering professionals
• Opportunity for rapid growth into mid‑level AI Engineer roles
• Competitive compensation and benefits