Senior R&D Software Developer Jobs in Houston, TX

We're hiring an experienced and motivated Senior Software Developer in our National Technology Practice to support key internal and external clients. You will work closely with Technology Team leaders and cross functional business line teams to support the development and growth of our advanced software development and AI capabilities.

Under direction, works collaboratively with industry experts, software developers, data specialists, project managers, and client stakeholders to design, build, and deliver AI-enabled software, data, and analytics solutions that solve important and impactful real-world problems. Apply broad knowledge of leading-edge information technologies, data engineering, machine learning, cloud platforms, and software development practices to analyze complex datasets, integrate AI models and third-party services, and develop secure, maintainable, and scalable digital solutions.

Expected to take the lead in project-specific teams and support direct interaction with clients within the context of project progress meetings, design reviews, operations, and project production and delivery. Major results expected include high-quality written, verbal, graphical, analytical, and technical deliverables in the form of software specifications, data documentation, architecture notes, operational concepts, analytical reports, dashboards, presentations, and working applications.

Project Delivery

• Serve as a credible AI expert in client meetings, conferences, proposal interviews, internal strategy sessions, and cross business unit discussions.
• Develop reusable AI solutions, demo concepts, reference architectures, use case libraries, discovery templates, proposal language, and delivery playbooks.
• Develop business cases that define expected benefits such as productivity improvement, cost reduction, cycle time reduction, service quality improvement, accuracy improvement, user adoption, and return on AI investment.
• Use machine learning, natural language processing, OCR, automation, Generative AI, and model-integration techniques to support project delivery
• Evaluate whether a use case is best solved through deterministic automation, traditional software logic, analytics, machine learning, generative AI or third-party products.
• Design and maintain integration patterns for third-party AI models, APIs, enterprise platforms, and software tools.
• Support AI governance, model evaluation, data handling, security review, human-in-the-loop validation, responsible AI documentation, and client data-permission considerations.
• Support Microsoft Azure-based data and application development, including SQL Server, Azure Data Lake Storage, identity and access management, backend deployment, Azure Data Factory, Databricks, and DevOps workflows as applicable.
• Participate in client needs analyses, scope of work development, estimate development, project planning, design reviews, progress meetings, and operational discussions.
• Work in close coordination with leadership, account leads, project managers and client resources.
• Translate business requirements into software specifications, data requirements, architecture notes, workflow diagrams, and implementation tasks.
• Build and manage data pipelines from diverse sources
• Perform other such duties as the supervisor may from time to time deem necessary.

Business Development

• Contribute AI strategy, technical approach, use case narratives, and differentiators for proposals and client presentations.
• Develop and execute a practical AI growth strategy that identifies target clients, priority markets, high value use cases, and repeatable service offerings.
• Create standard AI marketing materials that clearly communicate the organization's AI value proposition.
• Meet with existing and prospective clients to understand business challenges, operational pain points, data maturity, and opportunities for AI enabled improvement.
• Work with client stakeholders, industry experts, software developers, data specialists, and project managers to define AI enabled solutions that solve real business problems.
• Collaborate with clients and stakeholders to define software requirements and technical strategies.
• Assist sales leads and project managers to estimate level of effort.

• B.S. or B.A. in Computer Science, or IT-related discipline.
• 8-15+ years of overall Software Development experience.
• Experience with Python programming and development of maintainable, well-documented code.
• Experience with SQL, relational database concepts, and efficient database design.
• Experience building RAG systems, Prompt engineering, Data processing
• Knowledge on AI Best practices, Evaluation techniques and Quality control strategies.
• Experience with Structured and unstructured data ingestion, cleaning, transformation, and processing.
• Experience developing Data pipelines for analytical, application, dashboard, or model workflows.
• Experience with applied machine learning, model integration, AI-enabled automation, or analytical modeling.
• Experience with AI front-end development and deployment using web application services or containers
• Microsoft Azure experience preferred, including SQL Server, Azure Data Lake Storage, Azure IAM / Active Directory, Azure Data Factory, Databricks, and backend deployment patterns.
• Experience with DevOps practices, version control, application deployment, CI/CD concepts, and development lifecycle management preferred.
• Experience with Google cloud, AWS and other cloud environments is a plus.
• Experience in MLOps, model deployment, model monitoring, and model lifecycle management preferred.
• Experience with tools such as PyTorch, Tensor Flow, Keras, Scikit-Learn and XG Boost
• Experience designing, building and deploying OCR Solutions
• Experience with Power BI, Tableau, or similar dashboarding and reporting tools preferred.
• Strong technical writing, analytical, graphical, and communication skills essential, including ability to present concepts verbally.
• Ability to develop proposal narratives, technical approaches, solution concepts, client presentations, and differentiators for AI related pursuits.

At AtkinsRealis, our values-Safety, Integrity, Collaboration, Innovation, and Excellence-are more than just words. They are the foundation of who we are and how we work. These principles shape our culture, guide our decisions, and inspire us to create an environment where every team member feels empowered to grow, succeed, and make a meaningful impact.

Depending on your employment status, AtkinsRealis benefits may include medical, dental, vision, company-paid life and short- and long-term disability benefits, employer-matched 401(k) with 100% vesting, employee stock purchase plan, Paid Time Off, leaves of absences options, flexible work options, recognition and employee satisfaction programs, employee assistance program, and voluntary benefits. You can review our comprehensive benefits page here.

We're AtkinsRealis, a world-class engineering services and nuclear organization. We connect people, data and technology to transform the world's infrastructure and energy systems. Together, with our industry partners and clients, and our global team of consultants, designers, engineers and project managers, we can change the world. We're committed to leading our clients across our various end markets to engineer a better future for our planet and its people.

Find out more.

Expected compensation range is between $90,000-$150,000 annually depending on skills, experience, and geographical location.

Are you ready to expand your career with us? Apply today and help us shape something extraordinary.

AtkinsRealis is an equal opportunity, Drug-Free employer EOE/Veteran/Disability

Please review AtkinsRealis' Equal Opportunity Statement here.

AtkinsRealis cares about your privacy and is committed to protecting your privacy. Please consult our Privacy Notice on our Careers site to know more about how we collect, use and transfer your Personal Data. By submitting your personal information to AtkinsRealis, you confirm that you have read and accept our Privacy Notice.

Note to staffing and direct hire agencies:

In the event a recruiter or agency who is not on our preferred supplier list submits a resume/candidate to anyone in the company, AtkinsRealis family of companies, we explicitly reserve the right to recruit and hire the candidate(s) at our discretion and without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. https://careers.atkinsrealis.com/recruitment-agencies

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