Cloud Software Engineer Level 2 - AI/ML TS/SCI w/Poly

Peraton is hiring a Cloud Software Engineer Level 2 for its Cyber Intelligence team in Laurel, MD (onsite). The position supports next-generation cyber and AI/ML capabilities delivered through large-scale compute clusters and AWS Cloud infrastructure, within an integrated product development environment.

Role Summary

This role combines cloud software research, engineering services, and product-oriented development. Responsibilities span the full software lifecycle, from requirements analysis through installation, integration, evaluation, enhancement, sustainment, testing, validation, and issue diagnosis and resolution. Work is performed as part of an integrated product team.

Responsibilities

• Provide cloud software research, development, and engineering services, including requirements analysis.
• Deliver software development through installation, integration, and evaluation.
• Support enhancement and sustainment activities, including testing, validation, and issue diagnosis/resolution.

Required Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance with polygraph is required.
• Minimum six (6) years of experience developing software with high level languages such as Java, C, or C++.
• Minimum eight (8) years of experience in software development/engineering, including requirements analysis, software development, installation, integration, evaluation, enhancement, maintenance, testing, and problem diagnosis/resolution.
• Eight (8) or more years of directly related experience in software development/engineering across requirements analysis, development, installation, integration, evaluation, enhancement, maintenance, testing, and problem diagnosis/resolution.
• A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or a related technical field (or equivalent experience). A relevant Bachelor’s degree will be considered equivalent to two (2) years of experience; a Master’s degree in a technical field will be considered equivalent to four (4) years of experience.

Additional Requirements and Demonstrated Experience

• Ability to work with OpenSource (NoSQL) products supporting highly distributed, massively parallel computation needs such as Hbase, Acumulo, Big Table, etc.
• Experience with the Map Reduce programming model and technologies such as Hadoop, Hive, Pig, etc.
• Experience with Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).
• Experience with serialization such as JSON and/or BSON.
• Demonstrated work experience developing RESTful services.
• At least five (5) years of experience developing software for UNIX/Linux (Redhat versions 3-5).
• Demonstrated work experience in the requirements analysis and design of at least one Object Oriented system.
• Experience integrating and extending FOSS/COTS products.
• At least three (3) years of experience in software integration and software testing, including developing and implementing test plans and test scripts.
• Demonstrated technical writing skills, including generating technical documents supporting software development projects.
• Experience deploying applications in a cloud environment.
• Experience developing and deploying: data driven analytics; event driven analytics; and sets of analytics orchestrated through rules engines.
• Candidate must demonstrate work experience in at least four (4) of the desired characteristics listed in the job description (for example: big-data cloud scalability; automated analytic software techniques and algorithms; analytics operating on very large datasets; semantic relationships across structured and unstructured data; social network discovery; ontology and schema documentation; and heterogeneous schema analytics).

Certifications

Prior to start, the candidate must have or be willing to obtain one of the following cloud developer certifications:

• AWS Certified Developer-Associate
• AWS Certified Machine Learning-Associate
• AWS Certified Machine Learning-Specialty
• AWS DevOps Engineer Professional
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

Preferred/Desired Skills

• Experience with Large Language Models (LLM), Agentic AI, and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).
• Expertise in AWS Cloud Architecture design and development, including use of AWS SDKs and AWS APIs.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as CloudFormation or Terraform.
• Skilled in Continuous Integration, Deployment, Testing, and Monitoring practices.
• Knowledge and skill implementing observability tooling (e.g., Elasticsearch, OpenSearch).
• Java programming for distributed systems, including networking and multi-threading experience.
• Agile development experience and source code management practices/tools.
• Linux fundamentals and scripting in at least one language such as Python, Ruby, or Perl.
• Familiarity with microservices and container orchestration such as Kubernetes.
• Knowledge of security and compliance best practices.

Technologies

The role involves work across AWS Cloud and related services and toolchains, including AWS Cloud Architecture, AWS SDKs, AWS APIs, CloudFormation, Terraform, and CI/CD. The environment may include large language models (LLMs), RAG, Cloud security principles, compliance best practices, and certification-aligned knowledge. Development may include Java, Python, Ruby, Perl, Kubernetes, microservices architecture, and Linux, along with big data and distributed computation technologies such as OpenSource (NoSQL), Hbase, Acumulo, Big Table, Map Reduce, Hadoop, Hive, Pig, HDFS, JSON, BSON, and restful services. Observability tooling may include Elasticsearch and OpenSearch. Additional topics listed include genetic algorithms and Agentic AI.

Compensation and Location

• Location: Laurel, MD (onsite)
• Target Salary Range: USD 146,000 - 234,000 per year

Salary is determined based on factors including scope and responsibilities, experience, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, geographic location, and contract considerations. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay.

Benefits

• Heavily subsidized employee benefits coverage for you and your dependents
• 25 days of PTO accrued annually up to a generous PTO cap
• Eligibility to participate in an attractive bonus plan
• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Life, Health savings account
• Short/long term disability
• EAP
• Parental leave
• 401(k)
• Paid time off (PTO) for vacation
• Company paid holidays
• Eligibility for enhanced professional development opportunities (training, certification programs, and skill-building experiences)

Application and Interview Notes

• The application period is estimated to be 30 days from the job posting date.
• During the review of your application, you may be required to participate in an on-camera interview and a process to verify identity.
• Use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools of any kind during Peraton interviews is strictly prohibited unless the candidate has obtained prior written authorization.
• All interview responses must be the candidate’s own.

Employment Context

Peraton offers eligible employees a variety of benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, health savings account, short/long term disability, EAP, parental leave, 401(k), paid time off (PTO) for vacation, and company paid holidays.