AI First Software Designer​/Agentic Systems Builder

Career Opportunities: AI First Software Designer / Agentic Systems Builder (76051)

Requisition
76051
-Posted
- Columbus

- OH

Battelle delivers when others can’t. We conduct research and development, manage national laboratories, design and manufacture products and deliver critical services for our clients—whether they are a multi‑national corporation, a small start‑up or a government agency.

We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.

Battelle is hiring a
non‑traditional software designer
whose primary development workflow is
AI‑driven
. This role is for someone who treats large language models, agentic coding systems, and automated tooling as theirdefault way of building software—using human effort for design judgment, system thinking, and direction rather than manual implementation.

This position supports fast‑moving, IRAD‑style projects where the goal is to explore how far AI‑assisted software development can be pushed to rapidly deliver internal tools, prototypes, and operational systems with meaningful impact.

• Design and ship software primarily through AI tools (LLMs, coding agents, copilots), moving from concept to working systems in days—or hours—rather than weeks.
• Translate ambiguous ideas and mission needs into clear prompts, agent workflows, and system architectures that produce high‑quality code.
• Rapidly prototype and deploy internal tools that support research, analysis, and mission programs (often under aggressive timelines).
• Exercise strong software design judgment—recognizing good architecture, maintainability, and failure modes even when code is AI‑generated.
• Iterate quickly: generate, test, refine, discard, and rebuild without attachment to traditional development rituals.
• Collaborate with technical teams who are already using AI heavily and help raise the organization’s ceiling on agentic and AI‑accelerated development practices.

• You are not expected to write most code by hand.
• Your value comes from:
• Prompt engineering and task decomposition.
• System‑level thinking.
• Taste and judgment about software quality.
• Knowingwhen
  
  AI output is good enough—and when it isn’t.
• You may ship “simple” tools that nonetheless deliver outsized impact because they’re deliveredfastandused immediately.

• Demonstrated experience using
  
  AI tools as your primary coding interface (LLMs, copilots, agentic coding systems, or similar).
• Strong intuition for software design, even if your background is non‑traditional (research, linguistics, data science, physics, ops, etc.).
• Ability to move from idea → deployed tool extremely quickly (on the order of tens of hours, not months).
• Comfort working in ambiguous problem spaces with minimal upfront specification.
• Willingness to experiment, fail fast, and iterate.

• Experience with agentic coding workflows or autonomous coding systems.
• Prior work shipping internal tools, research software, or mission‑driven systems under tight deadlines.
• Familiarity with government, defense, or applied research environments.
• Active U.S. security clearance (or eligibility to obtain one).

• You help Battelle demonstrate what’s possible when AI‑first development is taken seriously.
• Small teams ship multiple useful tools in short time frames.
• Others begin adopting your workflows because they work.
• Leadership can clearly point to concrete examples where AI‑driven software delivery changed speed, cost, or capability.

Benefits:
Live an Extraordinary Life
We care about your well-being, not just on the job. Battelle offers comprehensive and competitive benefits to help you live your best life.

• Balance life through a compressed work schedule:
  Most of our team follows a flexible, compressed work schedule that allows for every other Friday off—giving you a dedicated day to accomplish things in your personal life without using vacation time.
• Enjoy enhanced work flexibility, including a hybrid arrangement: You have options for where and when you work. Our Together with Flexibility model allows you to…