UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT U.S. PROBATION & PRETRIAL SERVICES OFFICE DISTRICT OF HAWAII VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT NO. 2025-04
Position: AI PROGRAMMER
Classification Level: Court Personnel System, Classification Level 27-29
Table HI - Hawaii
Starting salary dependent on qualifications
Grade: CL 27-29, steps 1-61; Salary range: $67,068 - $155,420*
*Salary noted above includes a 22.1% locality pay adjustment and an 8.64% non-taxable Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for Hawaii for 2025, subject to change annually. If working remotely from outside Hawaii, salary will be based on the salary tables for the location in which the employee resides.
Terms of Employment: Full-time, Excepted Service, Temporary, One year plus
Position Location: United States Probation & Pretrial Services Office
300 Ala Moana Boulevard, Room 2300, Honolulu, HI 96850
(Remote workers from outside Hawaii will be considered)
Closing Date: Position open until filled. Priority consideration for applicant packets received by December 14, 2025.
The U.S Probation & Pretrial Services Office for the District of Hawaii is currently accepting applications for one or more full-time AI Programmers. Under the direction of the Chief and Deputy Chief, the incumbent will be responsible for the full lifecycle management of Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced LLM Agents, which involves the selection, development, and secure deployment of customized LLM solutions for the U.S. Probation & Pretrial Services Office for the District of Hawaii.
JOB SUMMARY
The AI Programmer is responsible for the full lifecycle management of Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced LLM Agents. This critical role involves the selection, development, and secure deployment of customized LLM solutions within the agency. The focus is on implementing, fine-tuning, and integrating cutting-edge open-source LLMs into secure, scalable enterprise environments, including the core responsibility of developing and maintaining robust Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines. The primary objective is to leverage these technologies to automate complex workflows and significantly enhance the functionality of mission-critical enterprise applications using grounded, agency-specific knowledge. This role combines advanced programming skills with a deep understanding of LLM models and data engineering principles. The ideal candidate(s) is(are) both creative and analytical, capable of translating conceptual ideas into functional, scalable AI systems.
Representative Duties:
AI Development & Integration
Design, fine-tune, and maintain Large Language Models (LLMs) to support probation officers in drafting reports and related judicial documents.
Implement natural language processing (NLP) systems to extract, summarize, and structure data from case management systems (e.g., PACTS, PSR databases).
Build prompt templates and rule-based filters to ensure generated content aligns with statutes, national guidelines, policy statements, and local court requirements.
Serve on the local AI working group, and assist in developing policy and procedures for the use of AI.
Data Management & Compliance
Collaborate with data teams to curate secure and anonymized datasets for model training and validation.
Ensure full compliance with Judiciary IT Security Standards, confidentiality rules, and privacy policies (e.g., CJIS, PII, HIPAA where applicable).
Implement bias detection and mitigation strategies to uphold fairness and impartiality in generated narratives.
System Deployment & Maintenance
Develop secure APIs and interfaces to integrate AI tools with existing federal systems (e.g., CM/ECF, PACTS).
Support the deployment, monitoring, and continuous improvement of AI-assisted writing tools within district offices.
Troubleshoot and maintain model pipelines, ensuring consistent uptime and reliability.
Evaluation & Research
Create metrics for evaluating AI performance in accuracy, readability, and compliance.
Research emerging AI methods applicable to judicial and legal text generation.
Draft technical documentation, including system specifications and validation reports for oversight and auditing.
Commitment to staying current with AI advancements and actively explore novel architectures or methods to continuously advance the capabilities of AI systems.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
At least two years of specialized experience, defined as progressively responsible experience in or closely related to the work of the position that has provided the specific knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to successfully perform the duties of the position. This would include experience in the functional areas of AI Programming.
Educational Substitutions for consideration:
Completion of the requirements for a bachelor s degree from an accredited college or university in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, or a related field, and one of the following superior academic achievement requirements qualifies the candidate for placement at the CL-27 level:
1). An overall B grade point average equaling 2.9 or better of a possible 4.0;
2). Standing in the upper third of the class;
3). A B+ (3.5) average or better in the major field of study, or,
4). Election to a membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma XI, or one of the National Honorary Scholastic Societies meeting the minimum requirements of the Association of College Honor Societies, other than Freshman Honor Societies, or,
5). Completion of one academic year (18 semester or 27 quarter hours) of graduate study in an accredited university in a field closely related to the subject matter of the position.
Completion of a master s degree or two years of graduate study (27 semester or 54 quarter hours) in an accredited university in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, or a related field, qualifies the candidate for placement at the CL-28 level.
There is no educational substitution available for placement at the CL-29 level. At least two years specialized experience is required.
Strong proficiency with Python programming. Strong knowledge of software engineering best practices, data structures and algorithms.
Proven experience working with and fine-tuning Large Language Models (LLMs) and deep knowledge of natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
Expertise in programming languages essential for AI/ML development and proficiency with relevant ML/AI frameworks.
Theoretical and practical understanding of transformer-based language models. Familiarity with the architecture and mechanics of models like BERT, GPT, etc.
Proven expertise with at least one major LLM orchestration framework, such as LangChain or LlamaIndex.
Experience designing and implementing end-to-end RAG pipelines, including data chunking, embedding generation and retrieval strategies.
Practical experience working with at least one major vector database/search engine (e.g., Chroma, Milvus or OpenSearch)
Experience with developing production-ready APIs using frameworks like FastAPI or Flask.
Familiarity with secure deployment of solutions on major cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure).
Strong understanding of data engineering principals, including data ingestion, processing, vector databases, and indexing for RAG implementations.
Demonstrated ability to build robust APIs and scalable pipelines to securely integrate LLMs into production applications, ensuring high maintainability.
Capability to develop rigorous metrics and testing protocols to accurately measure solution performance and accuracy across various use cases.
Proven experience working with cross-functional teams - including data scientists, engineers, product owners and stakeholders to effectively align solution with critical mission goals.
COURT PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS AND SKILLS:
Experience working with and adapting multi-modal models (e.g., models that handle text and images).
Hands-on experience with Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning (PEFT) techniques (e.g., LoRA, QLoRA) and dataset preparation for supervised fine tuning (SFT).
Familiarity with MLOps pipelines.
Experience with Docker and basic Kubernetes concepts.
Strong grasp of ethical AI and responsible deployment principles.
Analytical mindset with strong problem-solving skills.
Excellent communication and documentation abilities.
Creative thinking and willingness to experiment.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in fast-paced environments.
BACKGROUND INVESTIGATION
As a condition of employment, the selected candidate must successfully complete a five-year background investigation and every five years thereafter will be subject to an updated investigation similar to the initial one, if needed. The investigation includes an FBI fingerprint check, and retention in the position will depend upon a favorable suitability determination. When completing the AO-78, Application for Federal Judicial Branch Employment, version dated 5/2024, applicants must complete questions 18-20 under the Optional Background Information section.
CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT:
All application information is subject to verification. Court employees are required to adhere to the Code of Conduct for Federal Judicial Employees. This position is subject to mandatory electronic funds transfer for payroll direct deposit.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:
Compensation will be set based on the experience and qualifications of the successful candidate subject to the policies and guidelines set forth in the Court Personnel System (CPS). Although Federal Government Civil Service classifications/regulations do not apply, court employees are entitled to similar benefits as other Federal Government employees. These benefits include participation in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), a three- tier system which includes the Social Security Retirement Program, a basic pension benefit, and the Thrift Savings Plan (similar to a 401k plan with employer matching contributions), as well as Federal Employees Health, Dental and Vision Benefits, Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Program, Flexible Benefits Program, paid holidays and annual/sick leave accrual. See the United States Courts website for an overview of Federal Judiciary benefits.
HOW TO APPLY:
It is recommended that applicant packets be submitted as soon as possible, as interviews may be done on a rolling basis. To ensure consideration, qualified applicants must submit one of each of the following:
(1) a letter of interest which clearly outlines your professional qualifications, skills, and experience as it relates to the position,
(2) an updated resume,
(3) a list of three professional references with their current contact information, and
(4) a completed AO-78, Application for Federal Judicial Branch Employment, version dated 5/2024 (available as a fillable pdf on the Employment page of our website at ;/p>
You must submit ALL required documents to be considered for this opportunity. Non-submission of the required documentation or an incomplete application packet may disqualify applicant from further consideration.
All four documents should be combined and submitted together as one pdf document.
Please submit your PDF via email to: with subject line: VA 25-04 (AI Programmer).
Only qualified applicants will be considered for this position. The U.S. Probation & Pretrial Services Office will only communicate with those individuals who will be invited for personal interviews and only applicants who are interviewed will receive a written response regarding their application status.
The District of Hawaii, U.S. Probation & Pretrial Services Office reserves the right to modify or withdraw this vacancy announcement, or to fill the position at any time during the recruitment process, any of which may occur without prior written or other notice. If a subsequent vacancy of the same position becomes available within a reasonable time of the original announcement, the Chief U.S. Probation Officer may elect to select a candidate from the original qualified applicant pool.
The Federal Judiciary values a diverse workforce and encourages a broad range of qualified individuals to apply. No applicant will be discriminated against on the basis of their race, color, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, sexual orientation, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, genetic information, age (40 years and over), disability, or service in the uniformed forces.
The Federal Judiciary is also committed to supporting a workplace in which all employees are provided opportunities for growth and development, and in which everyone is treated with dignity and respect.
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