Software Engineer 3 (RAG)

• Location: Annapolis Jct
• Type: Contract
• Job #3692

Title: Software Engineer 3 (RAG)
Location: Annapolis Junction, MD
Compensation Range: $180 -$200K
*Clearance: *Active TS/SCI w/ Polygraph needed to apply *
Company Overview:
Cornerstone Defense is the Employer of Choice within the Intelligence, Defense, and Space communities of the U.S. Government. Realizing early on that our most prized assets are our employees, we continually focus our attention on improving the overall work/life experience they have supporting the mission. Our Team is pushed every day to use their industry leading knowledge to provide end-to-end solutions to combat our nation's toughest and most secure problems. If you are looking for a place to not only be professionally challenged, but encouraged and supported by a company that cares, don't look any further than Cornerstone Defense.

Benefits Overview:
Cornerstone Defense offers a very comprehensive benefits package including, but not limited to: Medical, Dental and Vision Plans * Generous PTO Policy * 401(k) * HSA and FSA options * Life and Disability Insurance * Tuition Reimbursement and Training * Perks at Work Discount Program * Referral Program * Leads Generation Program * CollegeAmerica 529 * Fitness Reimbursement Program * Travel Assistance * Norton Lifelock Benefit Solutions * Life Planning Financial & Legal Services *

SWE-3 Qualifications : Master's degree in computer science or related discipline from an accredited college or university, plus five (5) years of experience as a SWE, in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity.
OR
Bachelor's degree in computer science or related discipline from an accredited college or university, plus seven (7) years of experience as a SWE, in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity
OR
Nine (9) years of experience as a SWE, in programs and contracts of similar scope, type, and complexity.

Position Description:
The Software Engineer shall be responsible for the design, development, and deployment of a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) solution deployed in a HPC Linux environment. Candidates applying for this position must be familiar with LLMs (Large Language Models), LLM orchestration frameworks, knowledge retrieval, and security-aware AI systems.
Position Required Skills:

• Experience with Linux system administration, CLI, and shell scripting
• Experience with containerization technologies such as Docker, PodMan, and containerd
• Experience deploying containerized services under Kubernetes or Docker Compose orchestration
• Recent software development experience using Python, Golang
• Familiar with RAG pipelines, LLMs, and embedding models
• Experience with CI/CD principles, methodologies, and tools including GitLab CI
• Experience using metrics and monitoring tools such as Prometheus and Grafana
• Experience using Git Source Control System

Position Desired Skills:

• Experience working with and debugging GPU-enabled applications
• Familiar with LLM orchestration such as Open API API
• Experience with distributed processing technologies such as Spark, Dask, or Ray for data processing ETL workflows
• Experience with SQL, Elasticsearch, and Vector databases
• Experience with HTMX or Hyper-script
• Experience with HW/SW aspects of multi-node, multi-GPU AI model training
• Knowledge of AI inferencing solutions such as Nvidia NIM/TRITON, vLLM, and direct deployment (e.g. Ray)

• Experience with the Atlassian suite of tools including Confluence and Jira