AI Engineer

Description

At Leidos,you'llcontribute to AI solutions that serve critical national and global missions-ranging from defense and intelligence tohealthcare, energy, and space exploration. Our work emphasizes Trusted Mission AI: systems that are transparent, ethical, resilient, andaccountable.You'llcollaborate with multidisciplinary teams to transition AI research into operational environments where accuracy, security,and reliability are non-negotiable. Joining Leidos means applying yourexpertiseto solve some of the most complex and meaningfulchallenges of our time.

We are looking for a motivated AI engineer who wants to work on challenging problems in a variety of domains - including enterpriseIT, health, defense, intelligence, and energy - to get results that apply and go beyond the state of the art for measurably better outcomes.

We apply our knowledge, capabilities, and experience to develop and deploy Trusted Mission AI - AI that deserves to be trusted by systemowners, end users, and the public - to behelpful, harmless, and honest.We are looking for a researcher that is expert inenvisioning, developing, and securing AI agents using generative AI and LLM-based tools to transform and add value to human workflows.

Primary Responsibilities

The AI Engineer will collaborate closely with Agentic AI Scientists and product teams to design, build, and deploy agentic AI systems that automate andoptimizelabor-intensive workflows while enabling the human workforce with new, AI-powered capabilities.As a member of the Leidos AI Accelerator, this rolewill span both research and development and customer-facing delivery, accelerating the transition of applied research and prototype solutions into operational impact on contract.

The AI Engineer willbe responsible fordeveloping andmaintainingfull-stack software that supports agentic AI workflows. This includes building user-facing interfaces and tools, implementing backend services and APIs, and writing application logic that enables agent communication, orchestration, and tool use. The role will involve integrating AI models and agents with external systems and services via APIs, supportingtestingand debugging, deploying solutions into target environments, configuringmonitoringand logging, and ensuring reliable, secure execution of agentic AI systems inproduction.

The engineer will work with a mix of open-source models, agentic frameworks, and proprietary commercial AI services. They will contribute to the development of approaches for securing agentic workflows and for evaluating system behavior with respect to accuracy, performance, reliability, and mission impact. They will also help ensure that AI systems adhere to ethical guidelines and principles of transparency, accountability, and fairness.

Depending on project needs, the Agentic AI Engineer may conduct applied research, develop prototypes, and evaluate and document results, including contributing to technical reports, publications, or conference presentations. They may also be part of teams delivering solutions for deployment into operational environments or integrating AI capabilities into existing mission systems.
This role requires a self-motivated engineer who can take ownership of complex features while collaborating effectively within a multidisciplinary team. The engineer is expected to actively share discoveries, seek feedback, and contribute to a culture of continuous learning and innovation across the AI Accelerator.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field with 2+ years of relevant professional experience, or aMaster'sdegree with relevant experience.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals with hands-on experience building production systems.

• Proficiencyin modern programming languages, including TypeScript/JavaScript for application development and Python for AI integration and prototyping.

• Experience building full-stack applications, including frontend development (React) and backend services/APIs (Node.js/ python).

• Practical understanding of large language models (LLMs) and experience using agent frameworks such asLangChain,LangGraph,CrewAI,AutoGen, A2A, or MCP.

• Ability to design and implement tool-using AI agents, including API integration, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and memory/context management.

• Experience integrating AI systems with external services, data sources, and mission systems via secure APIs.

• Familiarity with deploying and operating applications in virtualized and containerized environments (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes, VMware).

• Experience with logging, monitoring, testing, and debugging distributed systems.

• Self-starter with strong problem-solving skills, intellectual curiosity, and the ability to collaborate effectively within a multidisciplinary team.

• Ability to obtain a Secret clearance.

Preferred qualifications (nice to have)

• Strong understanding and hands-on experience with generative AI techniques, including prompt engineering, tool orchestration, and common NLP tasks such as summarization, entity extraction, and semantic search.

• Experience with the full Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), includingDevSecOpspractices and CI/CD pipelines.

• Hands-on experience integrating commercial and government AI services such as Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, or similar platforms.

• Familiarity with modern frontend tooling and frameworks (e.g., Next.js,componentlibraries, state management, and frontend testing).

• Experience with MCP Toolbox or buildingmcpservers viafastmcpor similar frameworks.

• Experience with evaluation, observability, and telemetry for AI systems and agents (e.g.,LangSmith, OpenAI Evals, custom monitoring solutions).

• Experience developing and deploying agentic AI solutions, including autonomous planning-execution-reflection loops and multi-agent collaboration.

• Familiarity with cloud-native architectures, event-driven systems, streaming data pipelines, and real-time decision-making workflows.

• Experience designing and implementing AI safety, security, and guardrail mechanisms, including access control, auditability, and bias mitigation.

• Hands-on experience with GPU-accelerated ML workloads (e.g.,PyTorch, TensorFlow, CUDA) for teams that require custom model training or optimization.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline onlyand not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

About Leidos

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $16.7 billion for the fiscal year ended January 3, 2025. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.

Pay and Benefits

Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available at www.leidos.com/careers/pay-benefits.

Securing Your Data

Beware of fake employment opportunities using Leidos' name. Leidos will never ask you to provide payment-related information during any part of the employment application process (i.e., ask you for money), nor will Leidos ever advance money as part of the hiring process (i.e., send you a check or money order before doing any work). Further, Leidos will only communicate with you through emails that are generated by the Leidos.com automated system - never from free commercial services (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail) or via WhatsApp, Telegram, etc. If you received an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment-related information or any other personal information (e.g., about you or your previous employer), and you are concerned about its legitimacy, please make us aware immediately by emailing us at LeidosCareersFraud@leidos.com.

If you believe you are the victim of a scam, contact your local law enforcement and report the incident to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Commitment to Non-Discrimination

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

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