Senior Data Engineer

Overview Join a team where innovation meets mission. Our AI, cloud, cyber, and modernization solutions save agencies thousands of hours, safeguard national security, and strengthen health and humanitarian missions worldwide. With 1,700+ team members, 1,500+ AI/data experts, and 100+ prime contracts, we deliver at scale and with purpose. We've been recognized as a Top Workplace by the Washington Post for six straight years and named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies 13 of the past 14 years. Credence is a welcoming home for those looking to grow and contribute to positive change. We encourage all employees to expand beyond their boundaries, dive into important world-changing Federal challenges. Position Summary Credence has an immediate need for a Senior AI Data Engineer to join our growing AI and Automation practice. You will be a technical anchor in our AI and Automation practice. You'll apply advanced AI and data engineering expertise to design, build, and deploy data-driven solutions. You'll drive agentic AI development lifecycles and collaborate across engineering, data, and stakeholder teams to deliver high-impact, cloud-native AI capabilities that advance federal missions. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the duties listed below Data Integrations for Generative AI & LLM Usage Build and optimize data pipelines that prepare, clean, and structure data for generative AI and LLM usageData Lake & Warehouse Engineering Manage and organize large datasets across cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) using data lake and warehouse technologies. Implement medallion architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold layers) to ensure data quality, lineage, and accessibilityDatabase Management & Performance Work with both SQL and NoSQL systems to model, query, and load large-scale datasets. Monitor, tune, and maintain high-performance data stores supporting analytics and reportingCollaborative Engineering Work alongside data engineers, software engineers, and data scientists to develop operational agentic AI systemsCloud Enablement Help automate model deployment workflows using Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD pipelines, and container orchestration toolsProduction Monitoring & Optimization Monitor AI systems post-deployment, perform performance tuning, and apply best practices for reliability and scalabilityTechnical Rigor & Documentation Write clean, well-documented code following industry and federal guidelines, support reproducible developmentProfessional Growth Stay current on AI/ML trends and tools and actively learn from senior team members through mentorship and technical design reviews Requirements U.S. Citizenship with eligibility for DoD Secret clearanceBachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Data/AI/ML, or a related field7+ years of hands-on experience delivering Data/AI/ML solutionsStrong understanding of ETL, ELT, and other similar data pipeline processes, as well as Enterprise Data and Storage Systems, such as experience with OpenSearch/Elastic Search, Kafka, Bedrock, Glue, DataBricks, Snowflake, AWS S3, RDS, EBS, or GlacierExperience with vector databases, embeddings, and their affiliated data structures, file formats, services, APIs, etc (e.g. FAISS, PGVector, OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, Hugging face with Pinecone, Bedrock Knowledge Base)Experience in generative AI, working with LLMs, adding tool calls (MCP) and agents (A2A)Understanding of leading AI APIs such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Bedrock, Vertex for use with LLMs and RAG searchFamiliarity with CI/CD pipelines (GitLab/GitHub/Jenkins)Experience with VS Code and AI extensions such as Cline and Claude CodeStrong communication skills and client-oriented mindset Preferred Curious and experimental about the latest innovations in AI with an orientation toward the relentless pursuit of delivering mission impactPython proficiency and familiarity with libraries and frameworks (Pyspark, Pandas, uv, Pydantic, FastAPI, CrewAI, LangChain, LangGraph, Unstructured)Experience with IaC tools such as Terraform, Open Tofu, AWS CDK, or CloudFormation to deploy cloud native applicationsExperience with agentic frameworks such as Agent2Agent Protocol, AWS Bedrock Agents, Mastra, CrewAI, Strands, or AgentCoreExposure to adjacent skillsets such as data science, UI/UX, cloud engineering, and platform engineering to understand the entire software ecosystemKnowledge of federal cybersecurity, RMF, FedRAMP, or regulatory frameworks Why This Role Matters Real-World Impact — Your work will support defense and health agencies where AI solutions directly contribute to national security and public well-beingGrowth-Oriented Environment — Learn from technical leaders, innovate within Agentic AI, and mentor those around you in AI best practicesCulture of Empowerment — You'll be part of a team that values innovation, trust, collaboration, and mission success Salary Range: $115,000 - $155,000 annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on the selected candidate's experience, education, certifications, skills, and overall qualifications. Benefits Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)Retirement Plan (401k, IRA)Life Insurance (Basic, Voluntary & AD&D)Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & Public Holidays)Family Leave (Maternity, Paternity)Short Term & Long Term DisabilityTraining & DevelopmentWellness Resources