AI Solutions Engineer – Integration & Deployment

Unissant, Inc. is expanding its MissionWorks team with an AI Solutions Engineer focused on integration and deployment. The company applies its domain knowledge, data know-how, and technology expertise to deliver AI-enabled solutions for federal clients and internal operations, guided by honesty and dependability. This on-site role is based in Herndon, Virginia, and offers a salary range of $91,000 to $134,000 per year for someone who can turn a concept into a working system and collaborate closely with customers, stakeholders, and delivery teams.

The ideal candidate is hands-on and pragmatic, able to take a problem statement and shape it into a concrete, production-ready solution. You’ll build integrations, AI-enabled applications, automations, and operational components while working with the MissionWorks Solutions Executive, customer stakeholders, and technical delivery teams. This role suits someone who’s comfortable navigating evolving requirements and who can weigh technical options, assess risks, and design end-to-end solutions that span application, data, cloud, security, and deployment layers.

Your work will center on moving promising prototypes toward secure, scalable operational capabilities. You’ll participate in discovery sessions, design workshops, customer demonstrations, user testing, and technical reviews to ensure the final solution meets real-world needs. You’ll evaluate tradeoffs across functionality, user experience, system integration, data quality, performance, security, reliability, and maintainability, then troubleshoot issues and help establish reusable patterns, documentation, and playbooks for the MissionWorks portfolio. Collaboration with solution leaders, software and data engineers, cloud and cybersecurity teams, program managers, and customer stakeholders will be a constant as you help with estimation, planning, sprint work, releases, and operational handoffs.

What you’ll need to bring to the table

Must-have requirements

• Two to five years of hands-on experience in software engineering, application development, AI engineering, data engineering, cloud engineering, automation, systems integration, or a closely related field
• Strong proficiency in Python is essential
• Experience with C++ or the ability to quickly become productive in C++
• A track record of building and deploying software applications, APIs, workflows, integrations, or data-enabled solutions
• Familiarity with APIs, web services, relational or NoSQL databases, and patterns for authentication and system integration
• Practical exposure to generative AI, large language models, AI agents, retrieval-augmented generation, model APIs, workflow orchestration, intelligent-document processing, or similar AI-enabled capabilities
• Knowing cloud platforms such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud
• Experience with source control, testing, CI/CD, containerization, logging, debugging, and technical documentation
• Evidence of personally building and deploying production software, prototypes, integrations, or automation solutions is strongly preferred
• Ability to evaluate incomplete or ambiguous use cases, identify key assumptions and dependencies, and propose a practical technical approach
• Understanding of secure software development practices, data protection, access controls, and responsible AI considerations
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, with resourcefulness and a bias toward action
• Experience in federal, public-sector, healthcare, defense, intelligence, or another regulated environment is preferred
• Experience interacting with customers, users, product stakeholders, or multidisciplinary delivery teams is preferred
• Bachelor’s Degree is required; preferred fields include computer science, software engineering, information technology or related areas

• Master’s Degree in computer science, data science, AI, engineering, or related field is preferred
• Relevant technical certifications are a plus (examples include AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Docker, DevOps, ML/AI focused certs)
• Active DoD Top Secret clearance is desirable, and the candidate should be eligible to obtain and maintain a security clearance

Pay, benefits and practical details

The role is onsite in Herndon, Virginia, with a compensation range of $91,000 to $134,000 per year. Travel may be required based on customer, program, and solution-delivery needs. The position expects a routine office environment, with possible lift of up to 10 pounds and a tolerance for extended hours when project demands arise. Pre-employment screening is required, and Unissant emphasizes equal opportunity in its hiring practices.

Advice for applicants

Lead your resume with concrete projects that show you’ve built and deployed production software, prototypes, integrations, or automation solutions. Describe the problem, the approach you took, the tech you used (especially Python and any C++ work), and the measurable outcomes.

To prove you meet the must-have skills, include examples that highlight end-to-end work: how you translated a mission or business use case into a technical design, the integrations you implemented, and how you ensured security and maintainability. If you’ve worked in federal or regulated settings, spell out the compliance and security steps you followed and the stakeholders you partnered with.

In interviews, come prepared to walk through a few real-world tradeoffs you faced, why you chose a particular architecture, how you balanced user experience with data quality, and how you addressed performance or security concerns. Be ready to discuss your process for moving a PoC into production, including testing, deployment, and governance steps.

Ask a focused question about the role’s production path in regulated environments, such as: what does the typical lifecycle look like for turning a prototype into a secure operational capability, and who owns the security review at key milestones? Another good question: how does MissionWorks measure success for AI-enabled solutions once they’re deployed?