Lead Generative AI Engineer

Job Title: Lead Generative AI Engineer

Job Category: Engineering

Time Type: Full time

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: Secret

Employee Type: Regular

Percentage of Travel Required: Up to 10%

Type of Travel: Local

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The Opportunity:

Join CACI’s AI Enablement Team as a Lead Generative AI Engineer delivering rapid, high‑impact AI solutions across 1–2 month rotational engagements. You’ll build and deploy RAG pipelines, conversational AI platforms, and multi‑agent systems; guide programs on best practices; and transfer knowledge to ensure teams become fully operational. Between engagements, you’ll evolve our solution catalog, mentor engineers, and help shape AI standards and adoption across CACI’s federal programs. Ideal for engineers who thrive on variety, mentorship, and driving practical AI implementation across diverse mission environments.
 

Responsibilities:

• Lead technical architecture and decision‑making for complex GenAI engagements.
• Deliver production‑ready AI applications—including RAG, conversational AI, and agentic systems—under tight timelines.
• Implement advanced GenAI patterns using vector databases, orchestration frameworks, and managed AI services with strong observability, security, and optimization.
• Integrate LLM APIs and AI services into existing workflows across cloud and on‑prem environments; design responsible AI guardrails and evaluation frameworks.
• Conduct hands‑on training, documentation, and mentorship to ensure sustainable knowledge transfer.
• Maintain and expand reusable AI solution templates and technical standards.
• Validate program team readiness for independent AI operations.
• Experiment with emerging AI tools and share findings through demos, documentation, and discussions.

Qualifications:

Required:

• 10+ years software engineering with expert Python and strong JavaScript; experience building and maintaining complex production systems using modern development workflows.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related major.
• Must currently hold an active Secret clearance.
• Deep experience developing LLM applications, including agentic patterns, RAG, context engineering, vector databases, observability, evaluation, and cost/quality optimization.
• Proven ability to architect complex AI systems, make build‑vs‑buy decisions, and balance cost, latency, quality, and security.
• Strong AI operations skills: monitoring, mitigating failure modes, and implementing responsible AI practices.
• Expert API integration skills and distributed system design.
• Proficiency with major cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/GCP), containerization, CI/CD, IaC concepts, and security best practices.
• Solid ML fundamentals, especially as applied to LLM systems.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, mentorship, and ability to operate in ambiguous, fast‑paced environments.
• Exceptional communication, documentation, and knowledge‑transfer capabilities.
• Pragmatic delivery mindset with strong architectural judgment.
• High fluency with AI tools and continuous learning in GenAI advancements.
• Expertise with GitLab, Jira, and agile workflows.

Desired:

• Experience leading production agentic systems using frameworks like Agno, LangGraph, CrewAI, or OpenAI Agents; strong familiarity with observability platforms and vector DBs.
• Depth in AWS/Azure AI services, Kubernetes, Terraform, and CI/CD automation.
• Full‑stack proficiency for building end‑to‑end AI applications.
• Consulting or multi‑project delivery experience with strong client‑facing capabilities.
• Federal/DoD experience with security and compliance frameworks.
• Community leadership through open‑source, writing, or speaking.
• Relevant certifications (Security+, AWS, etc.).

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What You Can Expect:

 A culture of integrity.

At CACI, we place character and innovation at the center of everything we do. As a valued team member, you’ll be part of a high-performing group dedicated to our customer’s missions and driven by a higher purpose – to ensure the safety of our nation.

An environment of trust.

CACI values the unique contributions that every employee brings to our company and our customers - every day. You’ll have the autonomy to take the time you need through a unique flexible time off benefit and have access to robust learning resources to make your ambitions a reality.

A focus on continuous growth.

Together, we will advance our nation's most critical missions, build on our lengthy track record of business success, and find opportunities to break new ground — in your career and in our legacy.

Pay Range:

There are a host of factors that can influence final salary including, but not limited to, geographic location, Federal Government contract labor categories and contract wage rates, relevant prior work experience, specific skills and competencies, education, and certifications. Our employees value the flexibility at CACI that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives. We offer competitive compensation, benefits and learning and development opportunities. Our broad and competitive mix of benefits options is designed to support and protect employees and their families. At CACI, you will receive comprehensive benefits such as; healthcare, wellness, financial, retirement, family support, continuing education, and time off benefits.

Since this position can be worked in more than one location, the range shown is the national average for the position.

The proposed salary range for this position is:

$114,600-$252,100

CACI is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected characteristic.