AI Engineer

Location & Position Summary

Fort George G. Meade Complex, MD

Pay Plan: GG, Grade: 07/1 to 15/10

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At NSA, AI Engineering is a specialized discipline that intersects data science, software engineering, data engineering, and systems engineering, focusing specifically on the unique challenges of building, deploying, and maintaining artificial intelligence (AI) systems  Engineers combine expertise from each of these domains to address the entire AI lifecycle, including infrastructure management, efficient model training, production deployment, performance monitoring, and continuous optimization.

As an AI Engineer, you will help design and implement mission‑critical AI systems that keep NSA at the cutting edge of intelligence collection, processing, and reporting.

• Lead or contribute to cross‑functional teams to develop and operationalize AI solutions that help solve our most challenging problems.
• Apply modern engineering techniques to design, develop, deploy, and maintain end‑to‑end AI workflows spanning model training, inference, and performance monitoring.
• Adapt and integrate diverse AI model architectures including computer vision systems, natural language processors, audio processors, large language models (LLMs), and multi‑modal frameworks to address complex mission‑critical challenges.
• Monitor and maintain AI products through systematic identification of performance degradation and computational inefficiency and address these challenges through regular retuning and fine‑tuning to ensure continued alignment with evolving mission needs and organizational goals.
• Maintain knowledge of current AI research and adapt emerging techniques to intelligence applications.
• Test and evaluate AI solutions against mission requirements and produce actionable recommendations.

As a newly hired AI Engineer you may, depending on the skill‑sets currently in demand, be assigned to a mission office, or alternatively enrolled in the three‑year Data Science Development Program (DSDP) in which you will both broaden and specialize your AI Engineering skills by taking courses and touring with a variety of mission offices (each for several months). In either case you will work with NSA experts in AI Engineering, related technical domains, and specialized subject areas.

You will have opportunities to participate in internal technical round tables, and to attend technical conferences with experts from industry and academia.

Please attach a copy of your resume and all transcripts (unofficial are fine) as part of your application when given the opportunity to do so to speed application processing.

The qualifications listed are the minimum acceptable to be considered for the position. Applicants will be asked to complete the Data Science Examination (DSE) which evaluates their knowledge of statistics, mathematics, and computer science topics that pertain to data science work. Passing this examination at a local testing site is a requirement in order to be considered for selection into a data scientist position.

Upon passing the examination, applicants will be evaluated for the minimum qualifications outlined in this ad. Transcripts for each academic institution are required prior to being invited to interview with Agency data science professionals and should be submitted as part of the online application. Unofficial transcripts are fine at this stage.

ENTRY (U) Note that different degree fields have different requirements as described below. For degrees in Computer Science or Engineering, entry is with an Associate's degree plus 2 years of relevant experience, or a Bachelor's degree and no experience, or a Master's degree and no experience. For degrees in Information Systems, Information Technology, Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Applied Statistics, Operations Research, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, or Physical or Biological Sciences, entry is with an Associate's degree plus 3 years of relevant experience, or a Bachelor's degree and 1 year of relevant experience.

Relevant experience must be in one or more of the following: implementing production scale…