Principal AI Software Developer

About the role

The Senior Principal Software Engineer/Developer will serve as a lead enterprise architect and AI engineering authority, responsible for defining and delivering large-scale, mission-critical AI-enabled systems for HUD and the AIR platform. This role goes beyond hands-on development to include enterprise-wide technical strategy, cross-program architecture leadership, executive-level stakeholder engagement, and AI governance and innovation leadership in federal environments.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary technical authority across multiple programs, defining AI and application architecture strategy at the enterprise level
• Establish long-term modernization roadmaps for federal systems, aligning AI adoption with mission outcomes and compliance requirements
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior federal stakeholders (SES-level and above) on AI strategy, system modernization, and technology risk
• Drive technical decision-making across portfolios, ensuring scalability, interoperability, and long-term sustainability
• Own end-to-end enterprise architecture across multiple interconnected systems, platforms, and programs
• Lead design of complex, distributed AI-enabled architectures, including multi-cloud and hybrid environments
• Define and enforce architecture standards, reference architectures, and reusable frameworks across teams
• Lead development of advanced AI solutions, including RAG systems at scale, agentic workflows and orchestration frameworks, and AI-driven automation across mission workflows
• Evaluate and lead adoption of emerging AI technologies, guiding pilots into production-ready capabilities
• Drive innovation initiatives tied to AIR platform growth and differentiation
• Oversee multiple concurrent development efforts, ensuring alignment with architecture, security, and delivery goals
• Ensure delivery of high-availability, production-grade systems supporting federal missions
• Establish and oversee organization-wide responsible AI frameworks, including model evaluation and validation, bias mitigation strategies, and explainability and auditability
• Ensure full compliance across programs with FISMA, FedRAMP, NIST 800-53, privacy, accessibility (Section 508), and security mandates
• Lead large-scale legacy modernization initiatives, including enterprise COBOL-to-Python transformations, migration to cloud-native, and microservices-based architectures
• Define repeatable modernization frameworks and accelerators
• Oversee implementation of enterprise-grade DevSecOps pipelines and platform engineering practices
• Drive adoption of, advanced CI/CD automation, Zero-trust architectures, and secure supply chain practices (SBOM, scanning, policy enforcement)
• Mentor senior engineers, architects, and technical leads
• Build and scale high-performing engineering teams
• Lead technical hiring, workforce planning, and capability development
• Contribute to thought leadership (whitepapers, architecture frameworks, innovation roadmaps)

Qualifications

• US Citizenship is required
• Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field
• 12-15+ years of software engineering experience, including 6-8+ years in AI-enabled systems (LLMs, generative AI, applied ML in production)
• Proven ability to operate as an Enterprise architect, chief engineer, or technical director-level leader
• Strong executive communication skills with demonstrated success influencing C-suite or federal senior leadership
• Deep expertise in scaling engineering organizations and delivering across complex programs
• Expert-level proficiency in Python and modern backend frameworks and Full-stack architectures and modern front-end technologies
• Extensive experience with Cloud-native platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) at scale and Multi-environment deployments in FedRAMP-authorized environments
• Deep experience with AI/ML platforms (OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex AI, etc.) and Advanced AI architectures (RAG, orchestration, agents)
• Proven track record of leading large modernization programs (COBOL-to-modern stack transformation) and delivering mission-critical federal systems
• Deep knowledge of NIST AI RMF and federal AI governance frameworks and secure software development in federal environments
• Strong experience with Microservices, APIs, distributed systems design and DevSecOps and platform engineering leadership
• Prior experience serving as Lead Architect, Chief Engineer, or Technical Director on federal programs
• Active clearance (Public Trust, Secret, or higher strongly preferred)
• Prior HUD or federal civilian agency leadership experience
• Experience contributing to organizational AI strategy or product platforms (e.g., AIR-like platforms)

Pay

USD $166,091.00/Yr. USD $210,000.00/Yr.