---
title: 'AI/ML Engineer (R-00194) at True Zero Technologies'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/ai-ml-engineer-r-00194-true-zero-technologies-arlington-x2cxm2xkt25j'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# AI/ML Engineer (R-00194) at True Zero Technologies

- **Company:** True Zero Technologies
- **Location:** Arlington, VA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-14
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/truezerotech/69f748f9-f6af-4ed4-bddb-05c138102c47

## Job description

True Zero Technologies, a veteran-owned small business, was founded on the principle that the purposeful enablement of people and technology in an organization directly ties to the quality of its outcomes. True Zero recognizes that those outcomes begin and end with our people, and that is what we have built a community of like-minded, driven, and passionate individuals and innovators who are aligned in a common goal of delivering top-tier services to our customers. Our culture and commitment have been recognized through numerous accolades, including being named one of the Best Places to Work in 2023 in two categories (“Prosperous and Thriving” ($5MM–$50MM in gross revenue) and “Mid-Atlantic Region” (DC, DE, MD, NC, VA, WV)), and again in 2025 as a Best Places to Work honoree. In addition, True Zero earned coveted spots on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies in America in 2022, 2023, and 2025, a testament to our sustained growth driven by our people-first approach and unwavering dedication to excellence.

The AI/ML Engineer is responsible for designing, building, integrating, deploying, and operating artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities that support mission and business workflows in secure government cloud environments. This role spans the AI/ML lifecycle, including data preparation, model and application development, evaluation, deployment, monitoring, and ongoing optimization. The engineer will leverage FedRAMP-authorized services available within AWS GovCloud, while ensuring all AI/ML solutions align with applicable security, data handling, compliance, and Zero Trust requirements. The ideal candidate has strong Python development skills, experience with modern AI/ML architectures and data pipelines, and practical knowledge of deploying and evaluating models in cloud environments.

Job Responsibilities AI/ML Engineering & Mission Integration

- Build and integrate AI/ML capabilities supporting mission workflows using FedRAMP-authorized services available in AWS GovCloud, from data preparation through deployment, evaluation, and monitoring.
- Design, develop, test, and operationalize AI/ML solutions aligned to defined mission and business requirements.
- Translate operational use cases into scalable AI/ML architectures, services, and integration patterns.
- Develop APIs, services, and application integrations that expose AI/ML capabilities to mission applications and enterprise platforms.
- Collaborate with application engineers, data engineers, cloud engineers, cybersecurity teams, and mission stakeholders throughout the solution lifecycle.
- Conduct technical evaluations and proof-of-concept implementations to determine whether proposed AI/ML technologies are appropriate for the mission, security environment, and available GovCloud services.
- Maintain technical documentation covering architecture, model behavior, interfaces, dependencies, deployment procedures, and operational requirements.

Python & AI/ML Development

- Develop production-quality AI/ML applications and supporting services using Python.
- Build reusable Python modules, services, utilities, and automation supporting data processing, inference, evaluation, and system integration.
- Apply standard software engineering practices including source control, automated testing, code review, dependency management, and CI/CD.
- Develop and integrate machine learning models, foundation models, or AI services based on approved use cases and architecture.
- Optimize AI/ML application performance, reliability, scalability, and resource utilization.
- Troubleshoot issues involving model behavior, data quality, application integration, cloud services, and runtime environments.

Generative AI & Retrieval-Augmented Generation

-

- Design and implement Generative AI and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) patterns when included within the approved solution scope.
- Develop workflows for document ingestion, parsing, chunking, embedding generation, indexing, retrieval, prompt construction, and model inference.
- Integrate approved large language models and foundation-model services with enterprise applications and mission data sources.
- Evaluate retrieval quality, response relevance, groundedness, hallucination risk, and overall solution effectiveness.
- Develop prompt-management, model-routing, and orchestration patterns where appropriate.
- Implement safeguards and validation mechanisms to reduce the risk of inappropriate, inaccurate, or unauthorized model outputs.
- Support secure integration of vector stores, search services, knowledge repositories, and other components required by RAG architectures.

Job Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience with Generative AI, foundation models, and RAG architectures, where applicable to the program scope.
- Experience with embeddings, vector search, semantic retrieval, prompt engineering, and LLM evaluation.
- Experience with supervised or unsupervised machine learning, feature engineering, model training, and model selection where traditional ML is in scope.
- Familiarity with MLOps or LLMOps practices for model and application lifecycle management.
- Experience developing automated model and application evaluation frameworks.
- Familiarity with responsible AI concepts, including model limitations, bias evaluation, explainability, traceability, and human oversight.
- Experience deploying containerized workloads and microservices.
- Experience working in government, defense, regulated, or other security-sensitive environments.

Preferred Certifications:

- AWS Certified AI Practitioner
- AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty

We’re actively searching for talented security and technology practitioners who are ready to experience the True Zero difference. As a True Zero team member, you'll enjoy:

- Competitive salary, paid twice per month
- Best in class medical coverage
- 100% of medical premiums covered by True Zero
- Company wide new business incentive programs
- Contribution Incentives (i.e. white papers, blog posts, internal webinars, etc.)
- 3 weeks of PTO starting + 11 Paid Holidays Annually
- 401k Program with 100% company match on the first 4%
- Monthly reimbursement of Cell Phone and Home Internet costs
- Paternity/Maternity Leave
- Investment in training and certifications to broaden and deepen your technical skills

## About True Zero Technologies

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: True Zero Technologies is a veteran-owned small business delivering comprehensive cybersecurity programs and software solutions to public and private sector clients, with a focus on Zero Trust architecture and proactive defense.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped)
- **Headquarters**: Fairfax, Virginia, United States
- **Founded**: 2016
- **Founders**: Carl Salzano (CEO), Mike Fluharty (President), Jonathan Cooper (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Cybersecurity, IT Services and IT Consulting
- **Target customers**: B2G; primarily federal, civilian, defense, and state/local government agencies, as well as commercial clients.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To fortify the cyber posture of clients across public and private sectors through cutting-edge cybersecurity solutions and threat-centric strategies, with a commitment to supporting veterans.

## Products & Services
- **Cybersecurity Programs & Software Solutions**: Comprehensive services including 24x7x365 Security Operations Center (SOC) support, proactive incident response and recovery, security engineering and architecture, cyber threat intelligence, security audit support, endpoint security, penetration testing, and policy/TTP development.
- **Zero Trust Architecture**: Designing and implementing adaptive Zero Trust architectures for clients.
- **Managed Security Services**: Bespoke managed security services including compliance, implementation, and operation of security frameworks.
- **Consulting & Advisory**: Cybersecurity consulting for enterprise network and technical support, including DARPA and NASA contract work.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly available
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue estimated at $1M–$5M; Total Funding: Not disclosed (bootstrapped). The company does not appear to have taken outside venture capital.
- **Notable Clients/Partners**:
    - Awarded a spot on DARPA’s $350 million **MANNUS** IDIQ contract delivering enterprise network, cybersecurity, and technical support.
    - Named an awardee on **NASA's SEWP VI** IT contract vehicle across all three categories (IT Solutions, Enterprise-wide IT Service Solutions, IT Mission-Based Services).
    - Partnered with the **University of Maryland** to create a True Zero-funded scholarship for the veteran community.
- **Growth Signals**:
    - Employee headcount is 56 (+38.3% year-over-year), showing strong hiring momentum [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/true-zero-technologies).
    - LinkedIn followers grew +39.1% year-over-year to ~2,600+ [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/true-zero-technologies).
    - Actively hiring for 27 open positions across cybersecurity, engineering, and data science roles (as of recent data) [jobs.lever.co](https://jobs.lever.co/truezerotech).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Veteran-Owned Small Business (VOSB)**: This status provides a distinct advantage in securing government contracts, as agencies have procurement goals for small and veteran-owned businesses.
- **Zero Trust Specialization**: True Zero is expert in one of the most sought-after cybersecurity frameworks in government (Zero Trust), which is a major priority for agencies like DARPA and NASA.
- **Proven Track Record**: Successfully won highly competitive spots on major government contracts (DARPA MANNUS, NASA SEWP VI), signaling strong credibility and capability.
- **Mission-Driven Focus**: Deep commitment to serving veterans and national security missions, which attracts talent with a sense of purpose.

## Strategic Focus
- **Government Market Expansion**: Leveraging contract vehicles like DARPA MANNUS and NASA SEWP VI to grow its footprint across federal, civilian, and defense agencies.
- **Zero Trust Leadership**: Doubling down on Zero Trust architecture as its core differentiator for state and local agencies.
- **Talent Growth**: Aggressively hiring skilled security and software professionals to scale delivery capacity and maintain its growth trajectory.
- **Community Investment**: Continuing its veteran outreach and scholarship programs as part of long-term brand and talent strategy.

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Culture**: True Zero is a veteran-owned small business focused on high-impact national security missions. Employees often cite a sense of purpose and working on "missions that matter."
- **Strong Benefits Package**:
    - Best-in-class medical coverage with **100% of premiums paid** by True Zero.
    - Companywide new business incentive programs.
    - Contribution incentives for white papers, blog posts, internal webinars.
    - 3 weeks PTO + 11 paid holidays annually.
    - 401k program with **100% company match on the first 4%**.
    - Monthly reimbursement for cell phone and home internet costs.
    - Paternity/Maternity leave.
    - Competitive salary paid twice per month [truezerotech.com](https://www.truezerotech.com/careers).
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Many roles listed as **100% Remote** (e.g., Cribl Engineer, AWS Workspaces SME) [truezerotech.com](https://www.truezerotech.com/careers).
- **Growth Opportunities**: High employee headcount growth (+38% YoY) suggests a rapidly scaling organization with opportunities for advancement.
- **Veteran-Friendly**: True Zero is committed to hiring veterans and maintaining a veteran-friendly workplace, with dedicated leadership and scholarship programs.

## Sources
1. [truezerotech.com](https://www.truezerotech.com/)
2. [truezerotech.com/careers](https://www.truezerotech.com/careers)
3. [linkedin.com/company/true-zero-technologies](https://www.linkedin.com/company/true-zero-technologies)
4. [jobs.lever.co/truezerotech](https://jobs.lever.co/truezerotech)

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