AI/Cloud Engineer – Architect

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in Illinois.

📋 Description

• Create and develop secure AI-driven knowledge assistants tailored for mission-critical and operational applications.

• Construct retrieval workflows that link approved AI functionalities with authoritative enterprise content and data sources.

• Design multi-step AI agents with established tools, permissions, operational boundaries, escalation procedures, and human approval requirements.

• Build AI applications and ancillary services utilizing Python or other Government-sanctioned programming languages.

• Design and execute secure APIs, microservices, application interfaces, and integration methodologies.

• Implement authentication, authorization, identity propagation, and role-based access controls.

• Establish permissions and safeguards at the tool level for AI agents.

• Implement source citations and traceable references for responses generated by AI.

• Develop mechanisms for grounding, retrieval, and validation.

• Integrate human review and approval checkpoints for sensitive or significant actions.

• Implement exception handling, retries, timeouts, escalation pathways, and safe failure protocols.

• Create comprehensive audit logs that capture user activities, data access, retrieval outcomes, agent actions, tool invocations, approvals, exceptions, and results.

• Develop automated unit, integration, API, regression, security, and workflow tests.

• Validate requirements related to functionality, security, performance, traceability, and usability.

• Design secure cloud architectures for AI applications, data pipelines, retrieval services, model access, integration, monitoring, and operations.

• Integrate AI capabilities with cloud infrastructures, applications, databases, data warehouses, identity services, APIs, and business processes.

• Facilitate secure data pipelines and architectures optimized for AI.

• Collaborate with data teams to guarantee the use of approved, accurate, governed, and secured data.

• Support monitoring of retrieval quality, application performance, model behavior, security incidents, and operational anomalies.

• Establish technical frameworks for prompt management, retrieval configuration, agent orchestration, version control, testing, deployment, and rollback.

• Evaluate architectural alternatives and document decisions, constraints, risks, dependencies, and recommendations.

• Produce architecture diagrams, interface specifications, data-flow diagrams, security documentation, operating procedures, and implementation guidance.

• Coordinate with cybersecurity teams regarding application security, cloud security, data protection, authorization, vulnerabilities, and inspection readiness.

• Assist in code and architecture reviews while providing technical expertise.

• Troubleshoot failures related to AI applications, retrieval, APIs, authentication, data access, and cloud integration.

• Support release readiness, implementation, technical validation, operational handoff, and knowledge transfer.

⛳️ Requirements

• Active Secret clearance or higher is required.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, information technology, or a related field, or an acceptable equivalent.

• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience is required.

• Experience in designing or implementing cloud architectures.

• Strong practical experience with Python or other approved application development languages.

• Experience in designing, developing, securing, and integrating APIs.

• Experience in designing or implementing retrieval workflows.

• Familiarity with secure application integration.

• Experience in designing or implementing AI agents or multi-step AI workflows.

• Ability to create knowledge assistants, retrieval-enabled applications, and bounded agentic functionalities.

• Experience with application authentication and authorization controls.

• Proficiency in developing automated tests for applications, APIs, integrations, or AI workflows.

• Capability to implement source citations, tool permissions, exception handling, audit logging, and human approval steps.

• Understanding of cloud security, application security, identity and access management, data protection, and secure integration patterns.

• Ability to translate mission and operational needs into secure, scalable, testable, and maintainable technical solutions.

• Capability to prepare and maintain architecture diagrams, interface documentation, technical designs, and operational guidance.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to convey technical architecture, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Relevant cloud architecture certification, CISSP/CSSLP certification, experience with federal or Department of Defense programs, and other preferred qualifications are advantageous but not mandatory.

🏝️ Benefits

• Part-time position requiring approximately 0.5 full-time-equivalent effort.

• Flexible remote work arrangement.

• Preference is given to candidates located in the Chicago area.