Contractual Observability Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Software Engineer 2 - (AI Infrastructure, Kubernetes, Python)

Clearance: TS/SCI - Polygraph required
Position ID: 20-24-014-SWE2
Location: Annapolis Junction, Maryland

Description:

Join us in building the next generation of AI infrastructure that will power innovation across the customer organization. We’re seeking a full-stack software engineer to support our AI infrastructure team. In this role, you’ll help build and maintain the platform that provides the foundation for the customer’s AI capabilities, focusing on inference services while supporting the broader ecosystem of AI-enabled applications.

This role is intended for experienced engineers who can independently design, implement, and operate scalable AI infrastructure components.

• Design, implement, and optimize infrastructure for AI model inference at scale.
• Support the development and maintenance of production AI services and applications, including retrieval augmented generation (RAG), autonomous agents, and emerging technologies.
• Navigate ambiguity and define solutions for underspecified systems and requirements .
• Drive adoption of new technologies and practices across engineering teams.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and observability solutions for AI services.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration using IaC principles.
• Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of AI platform components
• Contribute to security best practices for AI systems and data.
• Provide technical guidance and informal mentorship to junior engineers.

Position Required Skills:

• Proven experience building and maintaining production systems at scale.
• Experience with high-volume web application architecture and performance optimization.
• Strong background in systems integration across diverse technologies and platforms.
• Hands-on experience with cloud engineering in AWS.
• Proficiency with Kubernetes administration and deployment patterns.
• Strong Python programming skills.
• Experience implementing observability solutions (APM, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Prometheus).
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Strong change management and organizational influence skills.
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments and create structure where needed.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with AI inference serving technologies (vLLM, LiteLLM, etc.).
• Previous experience with agentic frameworks (LangChain).
• Knowledge of vector databases and embedding systems.
• Experience with high-performance computing or distributed systems.

SWE2 Qualifications:

YOE Requirement: 8 yrs., B.S. in a technical discipline or 4 additional yrs. in place of B.S.

Salary Range: $191k-$234k (Annually)

The range displayed above is a likely salary range for this position. This is not, however, a guarantee of compensation or salary. Rather, salary will be set based on experience, geographic location and possible contractual requirements and could fall outside of this range.

Akina is a Woman Owned, Service Disabled, Veteran Owned, Small Business, looking for talented and ambitious individuals to join our team. We offer a generous compensation package that includes 24 days PTO accrued annually and 11 federal holidays. Our 401k is 100% vested on your start date and the company makes a direct contribution worth 10% of your salary. Akina covers 100% of healthcare costs for employees and 50% toward dependents. We offer educational assistance towards college classes and will cover costs associated with job related training and certifications.

Akina is committed to excellence and creating innovative and flexible solutions for our clients. We are a small company with an open ear to our employees' needs in order to attract and retain quality talent that enables our customer's mission.

We are an equal employment opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

www.akina-inc.com/careers