AI Engineering & Cybersecurity Capability Lead

Everforth ECS Federal is seeking a Senior AI Engineering & Cybersecurity Capability Lead to drive the strategy, technical development, and operational integration of artificial intelligence across enterprise level cybersecurity missions for Federal agencies. 

In this role, you will lead a specialized AI engineering team responsible for developing, integrating, and deploying advanced AI/ML capabilities supporting Red Team, Blue Team, Purple Team, and Enterprise Vulnerability Management operations. The ideal candidate combines deep, hands-on AI engineering expertise with strategic vision, strong technical leadership, and the ability to translate emerging technologies into practical, mission-ready solutions. Working directly with section chiefs, customer executive leadership, cybersecurity operators, and technical stakeholders, this leader will establish the direction, architecture, and delivery priorities for AI-enabled cybersecurity capabilities. This is a customer facing, technical leadership role requiring someone who can shape the future of AI-enabled cyber operations while remaining actively engaged in engineering, innovation, and delivery.

Key Responsibilities include:

1. Strategic Direction & Executive Engagement

• Establish and execute the AI capability roadmap, aligning engineering priorities, investments, and implementation milestones with cybersecurity objectives.
• Serve as the principal AI technical advisor to program leadership, Section Chiefs, and executive stakeholders on emerging technologies, operational opportunities, and AI-related risks.
• Translate complex cybersecurity mission challenges into actionable AI engineering initiatives, measurable outcomes, and scalable enterprise solutions.
• Evaluate emerging AI/ML technologies, commercial products, open-source frameworks, and industry advancements to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Define technical priorities and guide progression from proof of concept through initial operational capability (IOC), full operational capability (FOC), and sustained operations.
• Communicate technical progress, mission impact, operational risks, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.

1. Technical Architecture, Engineering & Innovation

• Lead the architecture, development, integration, and deployment of AI/ML solutions supporting offensive and defensive cybersecurity operations.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership in LLMs, agentic AI, RAG, machine learning, model optimization, and intelligent workflow automation.
• Guide development of AI-enabled capabilities for threat hunting, adversary emulation, vulnerability prioritization, security analytics, incident response, and defensive automation.
• Direct integration of AI solutions with enterprise cybersecurity platforms, including SIEM/SOAR, vulnerability management tools, threat intelligence sources, and security assessment technologies.
• Oversee secure AI infrastructure, including private model hosting, GPU environments, air-gapped deployments, data pipelines, and model orchestration.
• Advance capabilities for detecting and responding to AI-enabled adversarial activity, including automated reconnaissance, adaptive attacks, prompt injection, and model exploitation.
• Establish engineering standards for AI solution reliability, evaluation, testing, observability, security, and operational performance.
• Balance technical innovation with security, governance, and operational requirements applicable to classified customer environments.

1. Team Leadership & Operational Delivery

• Lead, mentor, and develop a multidisciplinary team of AI engineers and technical specialists, fostering technical excellence, innovation, collaboration, and accountability.
• Establish clear engineering workstreams, delivery priorities, technical milestones, and performance expectations.
• Build strong partnerships between AI engineers and existing Red, Blue, Purple, SOC, and Vulnerability Management teams to ensure solutions address real operational requirements.
• Guide technical design reviews, architecture decisions, engineering troubleshooting, and resolution of complex implementation challenges.
• Develop team capabilities through mentoring, technical knowledge sharing, training, and exposure to emerging AI engineering practices.
• Manage competing technical priorities and resources while maintaining delivery momentum and responsiveness to mission requirements.
• Establish repeatable processes for moving AI solutions from experimentation into secure, supportable production environments.

1. Enterprise Integration & Mission Impact

• Identify opportunities to reduce manual effort, improve analytical accuracy, accelerate threat identification, and strengthen enterprise cybersecurity visibility.
• Lead integration of AI capabilities into existing cybersecurity workflows, tools, and operational processes rather than creating disconnected solutions.
• Collaborate with government system owners, security stakeholders, infrastructure teams, and mission operators to ensure secure and sustainable implementation.
• Establish measurable performance indicators demonstrating improvements in operational efficiency, threat detection, vulnerability remediation, and analyst effectiveness.
• Support major cybersecurity exercises, incident response activities, and enterprise security initiatives through AI-enabled analytics and decision-support capabilities.
• Ensure solutions comply with applicable FBI security requirements, RMF, NIST AI RMF, data governance, and responsible AI principles.

Salary Range: $215,000 - $240,000

General Description of Benefits

• Active Top Secret security clearance.
• 10+ years of relevant technical experience, including at least 2 years in a technical leadership or management capacity.
• Demonstrated experience leading AI/ML engineering initiatives from solution architecture through production deployment.
• Strong hands-on experience with modern AI technologies, including LLMs, agentic AI frameworks, RAG architectures, machine learning, and AI automation.
• Proficiency in Python, API development, systems integration, data engineering, and modern software development practices.
• Experience designing and implementing AI solutions within secure enterprise environments.
• Working knowledge of cybersecurity operations, including threat detection, vulnerability management, incident response, or offensive/defensive security.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams, establish engineering direction, and mentor senior engineers.
• Experience advising senior technical or executive stakeholders and translating complex engineering concepts into mission outcomes