Lead AI/ML Engineer

Our client in Washington, DC is seeking a highly skilled and hands-on Lead AI/ML Engineer to drive the design, development, and deployment of advanced machine learning and generative AI solutions. This role will serve as a technical leader, guiding cross-functional teams in building scalable, high-performing AI/ML systems across a modern cloud-native environment. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in supervised/unsupervised learning, MLOps, large language models, and modern coding practices, while also mentoring junior engineers and shaping platform-wide AI capabilities.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and implement machine learning models including regression, classification, clustering, time-series forecasting, and boosting algorithms
• Build and optimize neural networks (CNNs, RNNs, LSTMs) for diverse data and use cases
• Develop and integrate Generative AI solutions using LLMs and foundation models; apply techniques like prompt engineering, LoRA, and PEFT
• Write advanced, production-grade Python code; develop in JupyterLab and VSCode
• Deploy solutions using Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud platforms (AWS, Azure); manage version control with Git
• Manage the end-to-end ML lifecycle including model serialization (Pickle, Joblib, ONNX), API deployment with FastAPI, and serverless infrastructure
• Build internal tools and AI interfaces using Streamlit and modern front-end technologies (HTML/CSS/JavaScript)
• Champion Databricks adoption to enable AutoML, pipeline automation, and scalable development
• Perform robust data processing, visualization, and storytelling using tools like pandas, polars, NumPy, scikit-learn, seaborn, and PyTorch
• Mentor junior team members, foster self-service AI/ML capabilities, and collaborate across teams to align technical solutions with business goals