AI Engineer – LLM & Agentic Workflows

Work location: Annapolis Junction, MD

Work arrangement: Hybrid – on-site with up to 3 days per week telework

Required Clearance: TS/SCI with polygraph

Applicants must currently hold an active TS/SCI with polygraph. Ctrl+ does not sponsor new security clearances or clearance upgrades. Applicants who do not meet this requirement cannot be considered.

Location & In-Person Requirement

All positions require in-person work. Applicants must live within commuting distance of the listed work location to be considered. Some roles may allow limited telework, but regular on-site attendance is required. These are not fully remote positions.

Your next challenge

Apply existing large language models to real mission workflows. Build agentic solutions that automate manual work and streamline reporting.

The mission

Support an enterprise reporting and dissemination system that is integrating AI-enabled capabilities into mission workflows.

What you’ll do

• Design and build multi-agent AI workflows from concept to deployment

• Integrate foundation models through APIs and orchestration frameworks

• Engineer and refine prompts and agent instructions

• Build testing and evaluation strategies for AI outputs

• Collaborate with engineers and domain experts and present tradeoffs

What you’ll bring

• 3 years of relevant experience. Bachelor’s degree in a STEM discipline.

• Strong production-quality Python

• Building applications on existing LLMs via APIs

• Multi-agent workflows, prompt chaining and tool use (LangChain, LlamaIndex or custom)

• Prompt engineering and LLM output evaluation

• Integrating AI into RESTful APIs and microservices

• AWS

Preferred qualifications

• RAG pipelines and vector databases

• LLM observability and evaluation tools

• Exploratory data analysis

• MLOps/LLMOps practices

Compensation and flexibility

$77.31–$85.36 per hour in approximate pay; employer 401(k) contribution is additional.

Compensation: The listed range reflects approximate hourly pay across our compensation models and excludes Ctrl+’s employer 401(k) contribution. Your hourly pay will vary based on qualifications, experience, and the compensation model you select. The lower end reflects a no-bonus option with five weeks of PTO; the upper end reflects the Max Rate option without bonus or PTO.

Choose from three compensation models: Max Rate, With Bonus, or With Bonus and PTO. Offers include a projected five-year compensation comparison and a package comparison sheet. PTO and bonuses depend on the selected model and role eligibility.

Why Ctrl+?

Ctrl+ is a software engineering and staffing firm based in Elkridge, Maryland, supporting Department of Defense missions in the Fort Meade area and other listed locations. Founded by two college roommates, Brad and Bhavin, Ctrl+ brings a close-knit team approach, with founders who work on contracts alongside employees.

Benefits include:

• 10% employer 401(k) non-elective contribution

• Employer-paid life insurance and short- and long-term disability insurance

• Medical, dental and vision coverage options

• Employee Assistance Program

• Professional development and certification reimbursement

• Technology and ergonomic equipment reimbursement, subject to eligibility

• Referral and retention bonus programs, subject to eligibility

• Paid social and team events

Let’s connect

If this work sounds like your next chapter and you meet the clearance and local commuting requirements, we’d love to hear from you. Apply with a resume that highlights your relevant experience.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Ctrl+ is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Hiring decisions are based on qualifications, experience, and job requirements. Reasonable accommodations are available to qualified applicants with disabilities during the application and hiring process.