Lead Frontier AI Research Engineer

Booz Allen Hamilton

Confirmed live yesterday High trust

Quick summary

Work type: On-site
Location: McLean, VAWashington, DC
Salary: $128,700–$292,000 / yr
Posted: 58 days ago
Freshness: Confirmed live yesterday
Nearby: 99+ roles within 25 mi

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Salary context

Competitive pay

How this pay compares to similar roles

Similar $216k

This role $210k

$109k most similar roles pay here $312k

This role pays less than 62% of similar roles. Most pay $186,500–$246,150 — the shaded band above. At the midpoint, this role pays about $210k versus about $216k for comparable roles.

Based on 240 similar postings.

Employer

About Booz Allen Hamilton

Booz Allen Hamilton is a management and technology consulting firm that provides analytics, digital, engineering, and cybersecurity solutions primarily to U.S. government agencies and commercial clients. Industry: Management & Technology Consulting

Booz Allen Hamilton currently has 799 open roles on FindRole.

Listed pay typically runs $86,800–$198,000 across 780 roles with salary data.

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At a glance

TL;DR · Lead Frontier AI Research Engineer

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The Frontier AI Research Engineer, Lead serves as the senior-most hands-on engineering authority within the Frontier Research team. This role focuses on converting breakthrough capabilities into functional systems by designing, building, and validating advanced AI systems across the full stack. The engineer is responsible for evaluating advancements from hyperscalers and academia, conducting technical assessments, and delivering end-to-end solutions including infrastructure, frontier LLMs, agentic and multi-agent applications, and physical AI pipelines. Key responsibilities include providing technical leadership to researchers, performing design reviews, and creating reusable frameworks and reference architectures. The role requires expertise in building distributed AI systems and managing complex integrations across cloud, hybrid, edge, or disconnected environments. Candidates must possess deep technical engineering experience, a Bachelor’s degree, and the ability to translate research into scalable, production-grade capabilities for various business units.

Skills

LLMs MLOps AI Research Cloud-native R&D

What you'll do

Evaluate emerging AI advancements across hyperscalers, research labs, and academia.
Conduct technical assessments, benchmarks, and proof-of-concepts to validate AI performance.
Deliver end-to-end AI systems including infrastructure, LLMs, agentic applications, and physical pipelines.
Integrate emerging AI technologies into complex customer environments like cloud, hybrid, or edge.
Provide day-to-day technical leadership and conduct design reviews for the engineering team.
Convert prototype learnings into reusable frameworks, reference architectures, and scalable technical artifacts.
Translate frontier research concepts into production-grade capabilities and functional systems.

What we're looking for

Bachelor's degree required; Master's or Doctorate in a technical field preferred.
5+ years of experience in deep technical engineering.
Experience designing, building, and managing advanced AI systems.
Experience developing AI prototypes, products, or high-visibility technical demonstrations.
Experience leading technical exchanges with commercial partners and executive stakeholders.
Experience translating research into scalable, revenue-generating solutions.
Experience guiding R&D efforts from concept through implementation.
Ability to create and drive technical roadmaps aligned with organizational goals.

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