AI Solution Architect - FEMA ITSA

What You'll Get To Do as a AI Architect:

We are seeking a senior AI Solution Architect to evaluate how ready a federal agency's IT systems are for artificial intelligence, automation, and advanced analytics. You will identify responsible, high-value AI and automation opportunities, assess whether data is ready for them, and define the governance and risk considerations needed to adopt them safely. You will also support integration analysis so that recommendations reflect the real data flows and APIs that AI-enabled capabilities depend on. The role begins with an enterprise IT assessment and offers opportunities to support follow-on modernization and implementation work.

• Inventory and evaluate existing AI, machine learning, robotic process automation, and advanced analytics capabilities across the application portfolio.
• Identify opportunities for responsible use of AI and automation to improve service delivery, reduce manual processing, and strengthen fraud prevention.
• Assess data readiness for analytics and AI, including data quality, completeness, lineage, accessibility, labeling, and governance.
• Identify technical, architectural, data, policy, and workforce constraints that limit AI or automation adoption.
• Define governance, oversight, and risk considerations for AI-enabled functionality, including transparency, bias, privacy, security, and human oversight.
• Estimate the potential mission value of AI-enabled improvements and help prioritize use cases by impact, feasibility, and risk.
• Support analysis of upstream and downstream dependencies, data exchanges, and interfaces that AI and analytics solutions would rely on.
• Assess API availability and maturity, and secure data exchange and data mesh integration patterns, as they relate to AI and analytics use.
• Identify data standards, quality, and accessibility challenges, as well as manual workarounds and duplicative data entry that are candidates for automation.
• Contribute AI and automation considerations to modernization recommendations and the roadmap.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15 or more years of progressive IT experience, including substantial experience architecting data, analytics, machine learning, or AI solutions.
• Demonstrated experience assessing enterprise data readiness and designing data platforms for analytics and AI.
• Hands-on familiarity with modern AI/ML and generative AI platforms and services (e.g., Azure AI / Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock and SageMaker, Google Vertex AI) and with intelligent automation tools.
•  Working knowledge of responsible AI and AI risk management frameworks, such as the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0).
• Understanding of APIs, integration patterns, and data governance and data quality practices.
• Ability to explain AI opportunities, risks, and trade-offs clearly to non-technical executives.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with federal AI policy and governance, including OMB AI guidance, AI use case inventories, and agency AI governance boards.
• Experience applying AI and analytics to fraud detection, case or grants processing, or other mission operations.
• Certifications such as Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Engineer Associate, AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty, Google Professional Machine Learning Engineer, or CDMP.
• Experience supporting DHS or other federal civilian agencies.

Security and Eligibility Requirements

• Must be a U.S. citizen.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a favorably adjudicated Public Trust suitability determination (Tier 2 or Tier 4, depending on position risk designation) prior to start.
• Must complete required federal security, privacy, and insider threat awareness training within the client's required timeframes and recertify annually.
• Work is performed primarily from company facilities or remotely, with periodic travel to Government facilities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and northern Virginia.