AI Solutions Architect

At Cloudera, we empower people to transform complex data into clear and actionable insights. With as much data under management as the hyperscalers, we’re the preferred data partner for the top companies in almost every industry. Powered by the relentless innovation of the open source community, Cloudera advances digital transformation for the world’s largest enterprises.

As an AI Solutions Engineer within Cloudera’s Public Sector Consulting team, you will be the technical architect and execution lead for agencies moving from “data chaos” to “agentic autonomy.” You will work directly with government organizations to design, build, and deploy mission‑critical AI applications on the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP). This is not a theoretical role; you will be on the front lines of Phase 2 and Phase 3 adoption journeys—helping customers clean legacy data silos, select the right model architectures, and industrialize MLOps pipelines in highly secure, often air‑gapped or hybrid‑cloud environments.

• AI Model Strategy, Selection and Implementation.
• Evaluate and select optimal model architectures (LLMs, SLMs, or traditional ML) based on mission requirements, balancing accuracy, latency, and cost.
• Guide customers on “Build vs. Buy vs. Fine‑tune” decisions, prioritizing open‑source models (Llama, Mistral, Falcon) that can run securely within a sovereign data perimeter.
• Experience building Agentic Workflows—AI agents that can execute API calls and multi‑step tasks.
• End‑to‑End Data Engineering: design and implement robust data pipelines within CDP to transform messy legacy data into AI‑ready formats.
• Develop and optimize Vector Databases and Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures to ground AI responses in verified agency facts.
• Build data pipelines with Spark, Nifi, Kafka or other ETL tools.
• Optimization & Performance Tuning: optimize model inference for production environments using quantization, pruning, and hardware acceleration (NVIDIA GPU orchestration).
• Implement LLMOps to monitor model performance, detect hallucination rates, and manage model versioning and drift.
• Public Sector Advisory & Governance: collaborate with the customer’s AI Center of Excellence (CoE) to establish automated guardrails for ethics, bias mitigation, and FedRAMP/IL5 compliance.
• Translate complex technical AI concepts into mission‑value briefings for GS‑level stakeholders and agency leadership.

• 5+ years in Data Engineering, Machine Learning, or Software Engineering, with at least 2 years focused on Generative AI or Deep Learning.
• Proficiency in Python and deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, Tensor Flow, Hugging Face).
• Hands‑on experience with Cloudera (CDP), Spark, or similar big data ecosystems.
• Proficiency in orchestration tools like Lang Chain, Llama Index, or Haystack.
• Experience developing visual data representations and dashboards (Django, React, or Angular).
• Proficiency in a compiled JVM language (Java, Scala, etc).
• Proven ability to build ETL/ELT pipelines and work with SQL and No
  
  SQL/Vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, or PGVector).
• Understanding of government security frameworks (NIST AI RMF, FedRAMP, SRGs, STIGs).
• Active Top Secret Security Clearance.

• Fine‑tuning of foundational models using techniques such as PEFT (Parameter‑Efficient Fine‑Tuning) and LoRA to adapt AI to domain‑specific government nomenclature.
• Training specialized models on proprietary datasets while ensuring strict adherence to data privacy and sensitivity labels.
• Experience installing and operating Cloudera Data Platform.
• Experience installing and operating Kubernetes.
• Experience in Air‑Gapped deployments and managing AI workloads in disconnected environments.
• Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field.
• Active Counterintelligence (CI) or Full Scope (FS) Poly is highly preferred.

• Generous PTO Policy.
• Support work life balance with Unplugged Days.
• Flexible WFH Policy.
• Mental & Physical Wellness programs.
• Phone and Internet Reimbursement program.
• Access to Continued Career Development.
• Comprehensive Benefits and Competitive Packages.
• Paid Volunteer Time.
• Employee Resource Groups.

This role is not eligible for immigration sponsorship.

EEO/VEVRAA.