Generative AI Lead

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

The Generative AI Lead will serve as a trusted advisor and internal consultant, guiding the implementation and operationalization of AI solutions across Empower AI. This role focuses on designing and building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) platforms, including prompt engineering, vector databases, and implementing robust MLOps pipelines for Generative AI models. The Lead will automate machine learning tasks using best practices, such as CI/CD pipelines and containerization tools like Docker and Kubernetes, and develop production-grade AI solutions for both cloud and on-prem environments. They will ensure data quality, perform exploratory data analysis, and align AI initiatives with clinical and operational protocols. Additionally, the role involves managing ML engineers, overseeing vendor partnerships, creating end-to-end database-to-deployment pipelines using languages like R, Python, and SQL, and communicating project progress to stakeholders while driving comprehensive data science modeling tasks. This position is located in Reston, Virginia and it is a hybrid role. 
 
Highlights of Responsibilities:

• Act as a trusted advisor and an internal Gen AI consultant to functional stakeholders and internal business units across Empower AI.  

• Serve as a Lead for Gen AI use cases and operationalization on complex projects with diverse scope, including primary contact as internal liaison  

• Design and build RAG service platform orchestrations including prompt engineering, guardrails, vector databases. 

• Design, develop, and implement MLOps pipelines for Generative AI models, covering data ingestion, preprocessing, training, deployment, and monitoring. 

• Automate ML tasks utilizing best practices incorporating CI/CD pipelines, and containerization tools such as Docker and Kubernetes. 

• Design and drive the development of models, analytical tools, and other AI/ML related intellectual property  

• Productionize AI solutions within cloud or on premises environments  

• Creates database-to-deployment pipelines for models using the necessary programming languages (primarily R, Python, SQL) and related tools  

• Creates database-to-deployment pipelines for models using the necessary programming languages (primarily R, Python, SQL) and related tools  

• Monitor and communicate project progress to stakeholders including use of project status reports and tracking tools/metrics. 

• Manage ML engineers and vendors partnerships responsible for building and maintaining ML Pipeline solutions. 

• Performs other work-related duties as assigned. 

Requirements: 

• Bachelor's degree in Technical Disciplines (Computer Science, Data Science, Information Technology, Economics, Physics, Mathematics or equivalent). 

• 8+ years of experience in data, business insights and ML experience in Life Sciences. 
• US Citizenship 

• Deep understanding of modern data technologies, data architecture principles, and AI/machine learning, GenAI and similar technologies. 

• Experience with Generative AI, including transformers or LLM project work with frameworks, including Huggingface, LangChain, or GPT 

• 2+ years of experience applying large language and generative AI models, including transformers and GPT models. 

• Experience of building chatbots, retrieval augmented generation, and finetuning LLMs. 

• Experience in building production-grade ML/automation pipelines from scratch (model versioning, lineage, monitoring, deployment, optimization, scalability, orchestration, continuous learning). 

• Proficient in Python, SQL, Git, and Jenkins and in frameworks such as scikit-learn, Keras, PyTorch, Tensorflow, etc. 

• Experience in using MLOps frameworks like Kubeflow, MLFlow, and DataRobot. 

• Experience with DataBricks, Dataiku AWS SageMaker, Azure, and data pipeline management tools like Airflow. 

• Minimum 4 - 5 years of experience automating ML build, train, evaluate, and deploy ML models. 

• Minimum 4 to 5 years of experience designing and implementing cloud solutions (AWS, Azure, or GCP). 

• Self-starter with the ability to work independently. 

• Strong team player with excellent communication skills. 

• Exceptional troubleshooting and problem-solving abilities. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's or PhD degree highly preferred with 5 to 6 years of Machine Learning or Data Science experience in Technology companies. 
   

Physical Requirements:

This position requires the ability to perform the below essential functions:

• Sitting for long periods
• Standing for long periods
• Ambulate throughout an office
• Ambulate between several buildings

It is the policy of Empower AI to provide equal opportunity in recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting individuals in all job categories without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected class or category as may be defined by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. In addition, we affirm that all compensation, benefits, company-sponsored training, educational assistance, social, and recreational programs are administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It is our firm intent to support equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in keeping with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.