Guidehouse · 14 hours ago
AI / ML Engineer
US - AL, Huntsville
Full-time
Onsite
Lead/Staff
8+ years expGuidehouse is seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to join their Technology / AI and Data team, supporting mission-critical initiatives for Defense and Security clients. In this role, you will help design and operationalize advanced AI solutions that leverage large language models and collaborate with various stakeholders to enhance operational effectiveness.
AdviceConsultingManagement Consulting
No H1B
Security Clearance RequiredU.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Serves as the lead AI/ML engineer responsible for developing, optimizing, and operationalizing advanced LLM-driven workflows for the FBI adjudication platform. Drives design and implementation of inference pipelines, RAG workflows, retrieval systems, prompt architectures, and model lifecycle processes
Leads development of dual-path model operations supporting self-hosted open‑weight LLMs in AWS GovCloud and FedRAMP‑High managed endpoints. Engineers GPU-based inference infrastructure, model containerization, distributed inference strategies, and performance‑optimized reasoning workflows
Designs and maintains continuous learning systems including SFT, LoRA/QLoRA adapters, dataset curation, automated evaluation suites, hallucination detection, bias evaluation, and model drift monitoring. Ensures models are safe, accurate, reliable, and aligned to SEAD‑4 adjudication criteria
Ensures all model operations adhere to FedRAMP High, RMF, CJIS, and FBI ATO requirements, including controls for logging, access, explainability, evidence provenance, and data protection
Develop and maintain LLM inference pipelines supporting long‑document reasoning, multi‑document fusion, entity extraction, anomaly detection, SEAD‑4 scoring, and structured memo generation
Build and manage advanced prompt architectures including system prompts, instruction sets, retrieval‑augmented prompts, multi-step reasoning flows, and output‑schema enforcement to ensure accuracy and stability
Implement distributed GPU inference frameworks (vLLM, TGI, DeepSpeed, Sagemaker) and optimize workloads with KV caching, tensor parallelism, dynamic batching, and memory efficiency strategies
Develop output‑validation routines enforcing schema correctness, key‑evidence referencing, structured scoring, and quality controls for all model‑generated adjudicative content
Implement RAG architectures including embedding generation, vector indexing, long‑context retrieval, and retrieval scoring to support evidence‑grounded outputs for 300–400‑page investigative files
Optimize chunking strategies, ranking models, hybrid search pipelines, and retrieval heuristics to ensure accurate and contextually aligned LLM output
Develop retrieval pipelines that reduce hallucination risk, enforce evidence provenance, and provide structured citation‑linked responses consistent with adjudication standards
Lead development of supervised fine‑tuning (SFT) pipelines using adjudicator examples, SEAD‑4 scoring decisions, historical memos, and SME‑curated datasets
Build LoRA/QLoRA fine‑tuning workflows for secure GovCloud environments, enabling high‑fidelity model specialization without full retraining cycles
Design evaluation suites measuring guideline adherence, evidence alignment, factual consistency, hallucination probability, and reasoning stability across adjudicative categories
Implement model drift detection, scoring distribution monitoring, and automated retraining triggers tied to analyst feedback and dataset evolution
Ensure ML operations align with FedRAMP High and RMF requirements, including encryption, boundary isolation, identity controls, inference logging, and auditable model‑output trails
Establish secure input‑validation flows, restricted‑context enforcement, prompt sanitization, and runtime protections to mitigate security and data‑integrity risks
Develop telemetry pipelines capturing query metadata, retrieval context, response confidence, scoring variances, and override patterns for audit and monitoring
Integrate LLM inference services with backend APIs, scoring engines, memo‑generation modules, entity‑resolution tools, and analyst‑facing UI workflows
Develop supporting microservices for prompt routing, retrieval assembly, evaluation probes, model profiling, and inference orchestration
Collaborate with backend engineers to optimize throughput, latency, concurrency, and reliability for high‑volume adjudication workflows
Work with the AI Solutions Architect to maintain coherence between ML pipelines and system‑wide architecture
Collaborate with adjudicators, SEAD‑4 SMEs, and mission stakeholders to translate adjudicative logic into prompts, features, and structured model outputs
Mentor junior engineers, lead experimentation cycles, participate in design reviews, and contribute to Guidehouse AI/ML engineering best practices
Qualification
Required
An ACTIVE and MAINTAINED 'TOP SECRET' Federal or DoD security clearance and obtained and maintain TS/SCI clearance
Minimum of Eight (8) years of experience in AI/ML engineering with 4+ years focused on NLP, LLMs, or MLOps
Bachelor's Degree or Four (4) additional Years of experience in lieu of degree
Expertise in PyTorch, HuggingFace Transformers, vLLM, DeepSpeed, or equivalent frameworks
Strong background in retrieval systems, embeddings, RAG pipelines, vector databases, and long‑context optimization
Experience implementing MLOps workflows, evaluation frameworks, drift detection, and responsible‑AI safeguards
Experience delivering ML systems in secure federal environments subject to FedRAMP High or RMF controls
Preferred
Experience supporting adjudication, continuous vetting, background investigations, or SEAD‑4 scoring workflows
Experience deploying open‑weight LLMs in GovCloud or secure enclaves
Experience with citation‑grounding pipelines, evidence‑verification workflows, or structured model‑output evaluation
AWS Machine Learning Specialty, Solutions Architect Professional, or GPU Compute certifications
Experience with explainability tooling, guardrails, reasoning verification, or adversarial evaluation
Benefits
Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
Parental Leave
401(k) Retirement Plan
Group Term Life and Travel Assistance
Voluntary Life and AD&D Insurance
Health Savings Account, Health Care & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Transit and Parking Commuter Benefits
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development, Certifications & Learning Opportunities
Employee Referral Program
Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
Care.com annual membership
Employee Assistance Program
Supplemental Benefits via Corestream (Critical Care, Hospital Indemnity, Accident Insurance, Legal Assistance and ID theft protection, etc.)
Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
Company
Guidehouse
Guidehouse offers consulting services for public and commercial markets with expertise in management, technology, and risk consulting.
10001+ employees
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$0.75MKey Investors
Mission Daybreak
2023-11-06Acquired
2023-02-16Grant· $0.75M
Leadership Team
Scott McIntyre
Chairman and CEO
Alicia Harkness
Partner
Recent News
Washington Technology
2025-11-20
Washington Technology
2025-11-19
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