Senior AI Engineer

About Cogent Infotech

Cogent Infotech is a technology and talent solutions company headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. We support clients across commercial, federal, state, and local markets with services in digital transformation, application development, cloud, cybersecurity, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and workforce solutions.

Job Title: Senior AI Engineer

Experience: 5+ Years

Location: Fairfax, VA | Knoxville, TN | Lafayette, LA | Hybrid

Salary- $113k- $223k per annum

Job Summary

We are looking for a Senior AI Engineer to shape architecture, standards, frameworks, and execution for an agentic AI platform, AI model governance, AI cost management, and enterprise platform integrations. The ideal candidate will partner with security, infrastructure, and business leaders to establish a scalable AI operating model that accelerates value while maintaining strong controls, policy compliance, and financial stewardship.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead engineering for an agentic AI derivation and deployment platform, including curation of agent workflows, agent specification generation, and automated provisioning in Azure Foundry.
• Define and implement enterprise patterns for AI agent lifecycle management, security controls, policy enforcement, and operational observability.
• Lead model evaluation and recommendation activities in partnership with security and governance teams, including trade-off analysis across capability, risk, and cost.
• Contribute to AI credit management capabilities, including forecasting, allocation strategies, usage analytics, and executive-level reporting.
• Build and govern automation frameworks for usage reporting, model controls, policy checks, and operational remediation.
• Serve as a technical resource on enterprise AI cloud platforms and tools, including GitHub, Azure Foundry, and Codex.
• Guide integration strategy for AI experiences across APIs, workflows, Microsoft 365 Copilot, SharePoint Online, Teams, and related enterprise tools.
• Mentor junior engineers, define engineering standards, and drive delivery excellence across AI and automation initiatives.
• Partner with platform teams on Azure Foundry infrastructure posture, security hardening, and compliance adherence.
• Evaluate emerging AI tools and establish adoption guidance, architecture guardrails, and implementation roadmaps.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field; an advanced degree is preferred but not required.
• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, cloud engineering, or automation platforms, with at least 2+ years in AI/ML-enabled solution delivery.
• Experience as a full stack developer with a focus on AI.
• Proven experience designing and deploying production-grade cloud solutions on Azure.
• Strong proficiency in Python, PowerShell, and SQL, with the ability to build robust API-driven automation systems.
• Working knowledge of Azure ML, Azure Functions, Cognitive Services, Azure Foundry Agent Services, and Azure Automation Accounts (Runbooks).
• Demonstrated expertise with RESTful APIs, service integration, and secure authentication and authorization patterns.
• Experience establishing technical governance, architecture standards, and secure-by-design practices in enterprise environments.
• Experience with cost optimization, usage analytics, budgeting, or FinOps-style engineering for cloud and AI services.
• Excellent stakeholder communication skills and the ability to translate complex technical topics for security, finance, and business audiences.
• Demonstrated leadership in mentoring engineers, driving architecture decisions, and delivering cross-functional programs.

Desired Qualifications

• Hands-on experience with Azure Foundry and enterprise agent/LLM orchestration patterns.
• Experience implementing policy as code, compliance checks, and governance automation for AI platforms.
• Familiarity with GitHub Enterprise Cloud administration, billing governance, and AI policy management.
• Experience integrating with Microsoft 365 services, including SharePoint Online, Teams, and Graph APIs, as well as Copilot-adjacent tooling.
• Experience with Dataverse through REST APIs and enterprise data platform integrations.
• Exposure to Copilot Studio administration or enterprise advisory support.
• Experience building reusable AI platform components, internal developer platforms, or factory-style delivery models.
• Relevant certifications such as Azure Solutions Architect, Azure AI Engineer, Security, or DevOps are a plus.

Education: Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The employer is committed to providing equal employment opportunities and maintaining an inclusive workplace. Employment decisions shall not be based on any characteristic protected by applicable law.