Lead AI & ML Engineer

Title: Lead AI & ML Engineer
Location: Remote EST - local candidate to Washington DC available for on-site meetings would be highly preferred

this is part of a large hiring wave (12+ people) to support a major project for CMS. I am only sending this to a few vendors though as I feel good that this small group can handle this role.


Please Read!!!

• Given we have competition on this project; it is best to only submit candidates who have previously had a Public Trust or DoD Clearance in the past - the client WILL find someone who has supported government projects like this.
  • No point in wasting time with candidates who come from other backgrounds.
  • They do not need current Public Trust or Clearance but having had in past is necessary for us to win this position.
• They will hire a local candidate who can come on-site for occasional meetings OVER a candidate who is not local if candidates are equal. Ideally someone would be in Greater Washington DC area if we want to win this role.

The Data Management & Governance Lead role will be supporting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) which is the largest division within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on a major ClaimsCore modernization project. The Program is down to the final 2 vendors and will be decided in 6+ months who will replace 4 legacy Medicare mainframes (1970s) with a unified cloud platform. Our customer is the incumbent on this Program and has deep knowledge of the current claims system.


Role Overview
We are seeking a Lead AI/ML Engineer to join a team of qualified, diverse professionals. The ideal candidate will lead the architecture, design, and development of advanced AI assisted solutions supporting large-scale modernization efforts. This role will be critical in driving automated rule extraction from legacy systems, engineering next-generation AI platforms, and ensuring the seamless integration of extracted business logic into modern enterprise environments.


Key Responsibilities

• Leading the design, development, and implementation of AI assisted solutions to extract and document business rules from legacy COBOL/ALC systems.
• Architecting and enhancing an AI platform to support automated rule extraction, automated code comprehension, and traceability pipelines.
• Ensuring rule traceability from extraction through translation into a vendor-neutral business rules repository.
• Developing, training, and deploying machine learning models and AI agents capable of processing large codebases and legacy logic structures.
• Maintaining and optimizing AI/ML platforms, workflows, and environments, including cloud-based ML pipelines and MLOps frameworks.
• Creating scalable, secure, and reliable AI/ML services using technologies such as Python, SQL, and AWS services including Bedrock.
• Leading code reviews, architecture reviews, and quality assurance activities to ensure model accuracy and reproducibility.
• Collaborating with cross-functional engineering, data, and business rule teams.
• Providing technical leadership and mentorship to junior AI/ML engineers, data scientists, and software developers.
• Documenting models, workflows, datasets, and architectural decisions to support long-term maintainability.
• Supporting Agile ceremonies and contributing to sprint planning and iterative delivery activities.

Education & Experience:

• Minimum of 8 years of experience with a BS/BA degree; 6 years with an MS/MA; or 3 years with a PhD.
• Must be eligible to obtain Public Trust clearance.
• Demonstrated experience developing and deploying AI/ML models for code analysis, natural language processing, rule extraction, or AI agents.
• Hands-on experience maintaining ML platforms, MLOps pipelines, or AI agent frameworks in production environments.
• Proven ability to architect complex systems and lead end-to-end technical efforts.
• Experience integrating AI/ML solutions with legacy or mainframe-based environments (COBOL, ALC, JCL, or similar).
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or higher-level clearance as required for federal programs.

Technical Skills:

• Proficiency in Python and SQL, with a strong understanding of data processing, feature engineering, and model evaluation techniques.
• Experience designing or operating AI/ML workloads in AWS environments, including AWS Bedrock, S3, Lambda, or related cloud services.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with federal healthcare IT environments or modernization initiatives.
• Familiarity with business rules management systems (BRMS) or enterprise rules repositories.
• Experience with automated code analysis platforms or static analysis tools.
• Knowledge of Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Certifications in AI/ML, cloud architecture (AWS), or related technical domains.
• Experience supporting projects requiring strict traceability or auditability standards.
• Active or former Public Trust clearance.