Full-Time
AI Innovation Engineer
Steampunk
501-1,000 employees
Federal software solutions delivering user-focused outcomes
Compensation Overview
$120k - $180k/yr
McLean, VA, USA
In Person
Bachelor's, Master's
 Software Engineering (1) |
|---|
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- Ability to hold a position of public trust with the United States government.
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or a related field.
- At least 3 years of experience in software engineering, data engineering, or applied artificial intelligence and machine learning roles.
- Demonstrated hands-on experience with modern generative artificial intelligence tooling, including OpenAI GPT-4, Claude, Gemini, Llama 3, LangChain, LlamaIndex, AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI Service, and vector databases such as FAISS, Pinecone, Weaviate, or Chroma.
- Strong Python development skills, including familiarity with building data pipelines, application programming interface wrappers, and lightweight front ends for demonstrations.
- Ability to build and present artificial-intelligence-powered demonstrations to technical and non-technical audiences.
- Familiarity with DevSecOps and continuous integration and continuous delivery principles.
- Familiarity with GitHub.
- Experience engaging with external clients or business stakeholders in a consultative role.
- Relevant professional certifications.
- Experience supporting HHS or NIH programs.
- Experience working in scientific environments.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to the client organization on modern artificial intelligence capabilities, best practices, and responsible use.
- Develop artificial intelligence education materials, tutorials, demonstration videos, and onboarding sessions tailored to the client organization’s needs.
- Lead or support artificial intelligence enablement events such as workshops, lunch-and-learns, innovation sprints, and capability briefings.
- Design and implement artificial intelligence prototypes and proof-of-concept solutions tailored to mission use cases such as summarization, entity extraction, classification, and semantic search.
- Work with cloud platform teams to integrate prototypes into modern cloud environments such as AWS Bedrock, Google Cloud Vertex AI, and Azure OpenAI.
- Use retrieval-augmented generation pipelines, orchestration frameworks such as LangChain and LlamaIndex, and large language model application programming interfaces to rapidly deliver working demonstrations.
- Participate in communities of practice and cross-team working groups covering cloud, data, architecture, and cybersecurity to align artificial intelligence adoption with broader modernization goals.
- Share findings, prototype patterns, and reusable components across delivery teams to accelerate reuse and scale impact.
- Serve as a liaison between data scientists, platform engineers, and user-facing teams to ensure end-to-end viability of artificial intelligence solutions.
- Ensure artificial intelligence solutions are designed with responsible artificial intelligence principles, data sensitivity awareness, and security-first practices.
- Collaborate with compliance and governance stakeholders to vet tools, define usage boundaries, and mitigate risks in artificial intelligence applications.
- Experience delivering artificial intelligence capabilities into federal government agencies or highly regulated industries.
- Experience customizing artificial intelligence services for biomedical or health research.
- Understanding of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework and other public-sector digital policy memoranda.
- Hands-on knowledge of data governance, personally identifiable information handling, and compliance-aware prototyping.
- Exposure to Human-Centered Design practices, user research synthesis, or journey mapping.
- Prior involvement in establishing or contributing to an artificial intelligence Community of Practice or Innovation Hub.
Steampunk helps U.S. federal government agencies deliver digital programs and services. The company partners with government clients, using a startup-style, customer-centered delivery approach to design, develop, and deploy software and services that support mission goals. Its products and work are executed in close collaboration with clients, emphasizing rapid delivery and high-quality user experiences. Steampunk differentiates itself by focusing specifically on federal customers and by embedding client input at every step of the process, from planning through deployment, so outcomes meet user needs and mission requirements at speed. The overall goal is to produce reliable, usable solutions that achieve clear mission impacts for government programs.
Company Size
501-1,000
Company Stage
N/A
Total Funding
N/A
Headquarters
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Founded
2002
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See people who can refer or advise you
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- August 4, 2026 merger with MetroStar expands scale to roughly 1,600 employees.
- Recent combined revenue estimates near $500 million strengthen pursuit of larger federal contracts.
- Steampunk's $205 million last-12-month prime obligations show continued contract momentum across civilian agencies.
What critics are saying
- Veritas acquisition closes Q3 2026, then MetroStar integration can distract delivery teams.
- Customer concentration at ICE, CBP, and USDA exposes revenue to recompetes.
- PE rollup pressure can erode Steampunk's user-centered culture and trigger attrition by 2027.
What makes Steampunk unique
- Design Intelligence still separates Steampunk from commodity federal systems integrators.
- USDA STRATUS BOA, awarded May 21, 2024, secured ten-year cloud delivery access.
- NVIDIA Partner Network membership from March 13, 2024 supports federal AI execution.
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Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 11%1 year growth
↑ 11%2 year growth
↑ 11%Veritas to merge Steampunk into MetroStar Systems. Stay Connected Find opportunities - and win them. By Nick Wakeman , Editor-in-Chief, Washington Technology August 4, 2026 03:21 PM ET The combination pairs MetroStar's artificial intelligence and digital transformation work with the delivery model of Steampunk. Veritas Capital plans to acquire Steampunk and will merge the business with MetroStar Systems, an existing company in the private equity firm's portfolio. The combination will bring together MetroStar's artificial intelligence and digital transformation work with Steampunk's user-centered delivery model approach. Terms of the acquisition announced Tuesday were not disclosed. All parties involved expect to close the transaction by end of this calendar quarter. "The combination of MetroStar and Steampunk will create a powerful force multiplier for delivering mission-critical solutions at scale," said Hugh Evans, managing partner of Veritas. Veritas acquired MetroStar in November 2025. Steampunk was formed in 2019 when a group of former Agilex executives acquired and rebranded SE Solutions. In the last 12 months, Steampunk has pulled in $205 million in unclassified prime contract obligations. Data from USASpending.gov pegs its top customers as Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Patent and Trademark Office. MetroStar has logged $52.6 million in unclassified prime contract revenue over the last 12 months. MetroStar's biggest customers are the Air Force, Navy, Army and Defense Information Systems Agency. "Together, we can move missions faster, operate at a greater scale, and deliver even bigger outcomes for our customers and their missions," said Ali Reza Manouchehri, co-founder and CEO of MetroStar. Robert W. Baird & Co. was financial adviser and Holland & Knight LLP was legal counsel to Steampunk. Latham & Watkins LLP is the legal counsel to MetroStar and Veritas.
Combination will unite two of GovCon's most disruptive innovators to deliver AI-enabled digital transformation with
Veritas Capital unites Steampunk and MetroStar, accelerating mission impact. RESTON, VA - Tues., August 4, 2026 - Combination will unite two of GovCon's most disruptive innovators to deliver AI-enabled digital transformation with greater scale, speed, and conviction. Veritas Capital ("Veritas"), a leading investor at the intersection of technology and government, today announced that affiliates of The Veritas Capital Vantage Fund, L.P. ("Vantage Fund") have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Steampunk, Inc. ("Steampunk"), a change agent in the federal contracting industry. Following the close of the transaction, Veritas will merge Steampunk with existing portfolio company MetroStar Systems, LLC ("MetroStar") to form one of the government contracting industry's most formidable forces for mission-driven transformation. The merger will bring together two companies built on the same commitment: providing warfighters, intelligence professionals, defense civilians, public servants, and the United States government with innovative tools to work faster, smarter, and safer. "The combination of MetroStar and Steampunk will create a powerful force multiplier for delivering mission-critical solutions at scale," said Hugh Evans, Managing Partner of Veritas. "Together, the companies will provide agency partners with AI-enabled solutions to move with agility, meet mission demands faster, and harness cutting-edge technology that drives mission impact. This is a combination that will set a new standard for what our nation's warfighters, intelligence professionals, federal civilians, and homeland security leaders should expect from an industry partner." The combined company will benefit from complementary offerings of both organizations. MetroStar's deep AI and digital transformation product expertise will be strengthened by Steampunk's user-centered delivery model approach, Design Intelligence(R), pairing culture and capability in a way MetroStar Systems, LLC believe few competitors can match. "MetroStar has built something rare: real technical strength paired with a culture that actually backs it up," said Matt Warren, CEO, Steampunk. "With our shared action-oriented mentality, drive to achieve transformative outcomes, and track record of putting people, employees, clients, and the communities they serve at the heart of our businesses, combining forces will mean more capability for our clients and more opportunity for our people." "This transaction represents a milestone for both MetroStar and Steampunk, which has created market differentiation powered by Design Intelligence(R), innovation, and a dynamic culture," said Ali Reza Manouchehri, Co-Founder and CEO, MetroStar. "Together, we can move missions faster, operate at a greater scale, and deliver even bigger outcomes for our customers and their missions. The road ahead is full of possibility, and I could not be more excited about what we will build together." The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions. Financial terms were not disclosed. Advisors Robert W. Baird & Co. served as financial advisor and Holland & Knight LLP served as legal counsel to Steampunk. Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as legal counsel to MetroStar and Veritas. About Steampunk Steampunk is a change agent in the federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients across Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health, and Defense. Guided and powered by a User-Centered delivery methodology, Design Intelligence(R), Steampunk exists to positively disrupt how government services are designed and delivered. About MetroStar MetroStar is a trusted provider of AI-enabled products and solutions for U.S. government agencies, advancing the nation's most critical missions through speed, innovation, and purpose. With a focus on AI, digital transformation, and secure enterprise modernization, MetroStar delivers technology that translates mission needs into capability at record pace, empowering defense and national security leaders to outpace emerging threats and accelerate mission success. About Veritas Capital Veritas is a longstanding technology investor with over $54 billion of assets under management and a focus on companies operating at the intersection of technology and government. The firm invests in companies that provide critical products, software, and services, primarily technology and technology-enabled solutions, to government and commercial customers worldwide. Veritas seeks to create value by strategically transforming the companies in which it invests through organic and inorganic means. Leveraging technology to make a positive impact across vitally important areas, such as healthcare, education, and national security, is core to the firm. Veritas is a proud steward of national assets, improving the quality of healthcare while reducing cost, advancing its educational system, and protecting its nation and allies. For more information, visit www.veritascapital.com. Media Contacts Steampunk: Robert Pearson | [email protected] | 571-344-5538 MetroStar: Stephanie Haynes | [email protected] | 703-481-9581 Veritas Capital: Prosek Partners | [email protected] Management | making an impact. Feature | AI/ML | innovation lab.
MCLEAN, Va., May 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Steampunk announced today that the company has been awarded a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).The BOA was awarded as part of the STRATUS program for cloud integration and development support services. The STRATUS program aims to accelerate cloud adoption by providing rapid access to hyperscale cloud service providers, integration and development service providers, and SaaS providers/resellers. Steampunk was selected for the program's unrestricted portion and has a 10-year ordering period to support USDA's cloud solution objectives."Steampunk is thrilled and honored to continue our partnership with USDA through STRATUS," said Joe Nizhnikov, Senior Vice President at Steampunk. "Over the last four years, Steampunk has had the privilege of working directly with USDA to exploit the power and innovation of cloud computing using our Design Intelligence® delivery framework. Together we have demonstrated the very real business value of cloud-based solutions through cloud migration, modernization, and innovation engagements."Since 2019, Steampunk has supported the majority of USDA mission areas, as well as the Department's Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Digital Infrastructure Services Center (DISC). Steampunk thrives on producing mission outcomes with capabilities in DevSecOps, Data Exploitation, Digital Platform modernization, Cybersecurity, and Design & Strategy
Stefani Shepherd joins Steampunk as Senior Director of Growth for DHS.