Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Senior Software Engineer, Agentic AI
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Seattle, Washington, us, 98127
Overview
At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments called Directorates that focus on specific scientific research areas. The Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. The National Security Directorate (NSD) drives science‑based, mission‑focused solutions to complex real‑world threats. The AI and Data Analytics Division, part of NSD, consists of over 400 staff and delivers computational solutions that span the entire data analytics lifecycle—from acquisition and management to analysis and decision support.
Responsibilities We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, deploy, and integrate groundbreaking agentic AI agents. This role is ideal for engineers who build tools for other developers, work across diverse technology stacks, and shape the future of AI enablement in production environments. The position demands a deep understanding of building highly scalable systems from scratch, experience with IaC, DevOps, MLOps, Data Engineering, and the ability to translate complex problems into tractable solutions.
Design and deploy scalable AI systems capable of dynamic reasoning and actionable decision‑making.
Build and optimize infrastructure, leveraging containerization tools and automated CI/CD pipelines for efficient AI deployment.
Develop and manage robust data pipelines for sourcing, preprocessing, and experimentation.
Monitor system performance, troubleshoot issues, and ensure compliance with ethical AI standards.
Collaborate across engineering, product, and security teams to align systems with organizational goals and industry regulations.
Create developer‑focused tooling and maintain high‑quality documentation, including API references, quick starts, and best practices for AI‑native frameworks.
Lead the integration of emerging AI frameworks by developing adapters, utilities, interfaces, and orchestration layers.
Contribute to engineering standards by driving design discussions and shaping team‑wide architectural decisions.
Ensure resilience and security in agent‑to‑agent and model‑to‑service communications.
Mentor and guide junior scientists and engineers while fostering a collaborative team environment.
This position is onsite and requires work in either Richland, WA or Seattle, WA.
Qualifications Minimum Qualifications
PhD and 3 years of relevant experience - OR -
MS/MA or higher and 5 years of relevant experience - OR -
BS/BA and 7 years of relevant experience - OR -
AA and 16 years of relevant experience - OR -
HS/GED and 18 years of relevant experience
Qualifying software development experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development may be counted.
Preferred Qualifications
Demonstrated expertise in designing and deploying agentic AI systems in real‑world applications.
Experience engaging with funding agencies such as DOE, NNSA, DoD, or DHS, and demonstrated ability to initiate substantive R&D collaborations.
Experience applying AI to scientific challenges (energy systems, climate modeling, materials design, or molecular science).
Expert‑level software engineering: Git‑based workflows, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, static analysis, thorough documentation, secure coding practices, performance profiling, and Agile/DevOps methodologies.
Cloud‑native system design: API and microservice architecture, containerization and orchestration (Docker/Kubernetes), infrastructure as code, and full‑stack observability (logging, metrics, tracing).
Mature MLOps capabilities: experiment tracking, model and data versioning, automated deployment/rollback, monitoring, and governance of production ML services.
Fluency in Python and proficiency in at least one additional language (e.g., C++ or Go).
Hands‑on experience with leading deep‑learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).
Expertise with modern LLM‑orchestration and agent frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.) and related open‑source tooling.
Solid understanding of system design, microservice architecture, and distributed computing; experience scaling ML workloads with Kubernetes, Ray, Spark, or similar technologies.
Production experience on major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and/or secure edge deployments.
Experience integrating multi‑modal data sources (text, vision, structured/sensor data) into cohesive reasoning or decision pipelines.
Familiarity with state‑of‑the‑art generative AI techniques: LLM fine‑tuning (LoRA/PEFT, QLoRA, dataset preparation), retrieval‑augmented generation, prompt engineering, and evaluation.
Contributions to open‑source AI ecosystems (Hugging Face, LangChain, Llama) or peer‑reviewed publications.
Collaborative, self‑directed problem solver who can translate ambiguous requirements into actionable technical roadmaps and mentor junior staff.
Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills; ability to convey complex ideas to technical and non‑technical audiences.
Additional Information This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a federal security clearance. The investigation includes a review of employment, education, financial, criminal history, foreign connections, drug use, and overall conduct. Applicants must demonstrate non‑use of illegal drugs (including marijuana) for 12 consecutive months prior to the completion of the requisite questionnaire for national security positions. All security‑clearance positions are Testing Designated Positions and require pre‑employment and random drug testing.
Location Richland, WA (PNNL campus) or Seattle, WA. The Lab offers a flexible work environment and access to a world‑class research community.
Commitment to Excellence PNNL is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to fostering a workplace where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect. PNNL considers all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, and any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws. Reasonable accommodations are provided for individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans.
Benefits Employees and families receive medical, dental, vision, telehealth, mental health, and wellness benefits; tuition assistance; backup childcare; legal benefits; and access to a pension plan and 401(k) savings plan with company match. Vacation hours and paid holidays are also provided. Specific benefit eligibility may vary by position and employee class.
Minimum Salary USD $161,300.00 / year.
Maximum Salary USD $255,000.00 / year.
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Responsibilities We are seeking an experienced Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, deploy, and integrate groundbreaking agentic AI agents. This role is ideal for engineers who build tools for other developers, work across diverse technology stacks, and shape the future of AI enablement in production environments. The position demands a deep understanding of building highly scalable systems from scratch, experience with IaC, DevOps, MLOps, Data Engineering, and the ability to translate complex problems into tractable solutions.
Design and deploy scalable AI systems capable of dynamic reasoning and actionable decision‑making.
Build and optimize infrastructure, leveraging containerization tools and automated CI/CD pipelines for efficient AI deployment.
Develop and manage robust data pipelines for sourcing, preprocessing, and experimentation.
Monitor system performance, troubleshoot issues, and ensure compliance with ethical AI standards.
Collaborate across engineering, product, and security teams to align systems with organizational goals and industry regulations.
Create developer‑focused tooling and maintain high‑quality documentation, including API references, quick starts, and best practices for AI‑native frameworks.
Lead the integration of emerging AI frameworks by developing adapters, utilities, interfaces, and orchestration layers.
Contribute to engineering standards by driving design discussions and shaping team‑wide architectural decisions.
Ensure resilience and security in agent‑to‑agent and model‑to‑service communications.
Mentor and guide junior scientists and engineers while fostering a collaborative team environment.
This position is onsite and requires work in either Richland, WA or Seattle, WA.
Qualifications Minimum Qualifications
PhD and 3 years of relevant experience - OR -
MS/MA or higher and 5 years of relevant experience - OR -
BS/BA and 7 years of relevant experience - OR -
AA and 16 years of relevant experience - OR -
HS/GED and 18 years of relevant experience
Qualifying software development experience in designing, architecting, programming, deploying, and automating software solutions in support of scientific research or consumer digital product development may be counted.
Preferred Qualifications
Demonstrated expertise in designing and deploying agentic AI systems in real‑world applications.
Experience engaging with funding agencies such as DOE, NNSA, DoD, or DHS, and demonstrated ability to initiate substantive R&D collaborations.
Experience applying AI to scientific challenges (energy systems, climate modeling, materials design, or molecular science).
Expert‑level software engineering: Git‑based workflows, code reviews, automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, static analysis, thorough documentation, secure coding practices, performance profiling, and Agile/DevOps methodologies.
Cloud‑native system design: API and microservice architecture, containerization and orchestration (Docker/Kubernetes), infrastructure as code, and full‑stack observability (logging, metrics, tracing).
Mature MLOps capabilities: experiment tracking, model and data versioning, automated deployment/rollback, monitoring, and governance of production ML services.
Fluency in Python and proficiency in at least one additional language (e.g., C++ or Go).
Hands‑on experience with leading deep‑learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, or JAX).
Expertise with modern LLM‑orchestration and agent frameworks (LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.) and related open‑source tooling.
Solid understanding of system design, microservice architecture, and distributed computing; experience scaling ML workloads with Kubernetes, Ray, Spark, or similar technologies.
Production experience on major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and/or secure edge deployments.
Experience integrating multi‑modal data sources (text, vision, structured/sensor data) into cohesive reasoning or decision pipelines.
Familiarity with state‑of‑the‑art generative AI techniques: LLM fine‑tuning (LoRA/PEFT, QLoRA, dataset preparation), retrieval‑augmented generation, prompt engineering, and evaluation.
Contributions to open‑source AI ecosystems (Hugging Face, LangChain, Llama) or peer‑reviewed publications.
Collaborative, self‑directed problem solver who can translate ambiguous requirements into actionable technical roadmaps and mentor junior staff.
Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills; ability to convey complex ideas to technical and non‑technical audiences.
Additional Information This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a federal security clearance. The investigation includes a review of employment, education, financial, criminal history, foreign connections, drug use, and overall conduct. Applicants must demonstrate non‑use of illegal drugs (including marijuana) for 12 consecutive months prior to the completion of the requisite questionnaire for national security positions. All security‑clearance positions are Testing Designated Positions and require pre‑employment and random drug testing.
Location Richland, WA (PNNL campus) or Seattle, WA. The Lab offers a flexible work environment and access to a world‑class research community.
Commitment to Excellence PNNL is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to fostering a workplace where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect. PNNL considers all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, protected veteran status, and any other status protected by federal, state, or local laws. Reasonable accommodations are provided for individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans.
Benefits Employees and families receive medical, dental, vision, telehealth, mental health, and wellness benefits; tuition assistance; backup childcare; legal benefits; and access to a pension plan and 401(k) savings plan with company match. Vacation hours and paid holidays are also provided. Specific benefit eligibility may vary by position and employee class.
Minimum Salary USD $161,300.00 / year.
Maximum Salary USD $255,000.00 / year.
#J-18808-Ljbffr