Senior Python Developer

Job Description

Centurion is hiring a Senior Python Developer (AI & Conversational Systems) for a long term federal government position. This is open to GC holder or US Citizens, and it is onsite in Woodlawn, MD 5 days per week.

Key Required Skills:

Deep Python expertise, hands-on experience integrating large language models (LLMs) into production systems, ability to operate independently in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.
Position Description:

• Design, develop, and maintain scalable Python backend systems for a public-facing AI chatbot.
• Integrate and manage LLMs, including prompt design, context management, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), AI agents, and tool/function calling.
• Ensure chatbot reliability, safety, and compliance through moderation, guardrails, and abuse prevention.
• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting to support production reliability and rapid issue resolution.
• Lead code reviews and enforce best practices to maintain high engineering standards.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, cloud deployments, and infrastructure decisions supporting high availability.
• Evaluate and adopt new AI technologies and architectural improvements to support long-term scalability.
• Be proactive, adaptable, and highly engaged – communicating clearly, raising risks early, and collaborating effectively to deliver high-quality code at speed.
• All other duties as assigned or directed.

Skills Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or a related field.
• Masters or Doctorate degree may substitute for required experience
• 10 years of experience building, scaling, and maintaining production-grade Python applications.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust. Contract requirement.
• ** Selected candidate must be willing to work on-site in Woodlawn, MD 5 days a week.
• Deep expertise building, scaling, and maintaining production-grade Python applications
• Strong Python backend engineering experience including API design, asynchronous programming, and system integration.
• Proficiency in managing and querying both relational databases and vector databases for semantic search.
• Hands-on experience working with AI and LLMs in production environments.
• Solid understanding of key AI/LLM concepts, including prompt engineering, RAG, AI agents, context management, evaluation and structured outputs.
• Understanding of how to measure LLM performance using frameworks like Ragas, TruLens, or Arize Phoenix to evaluate faithfulness, relevance, and safety.
• Demonstrated ability to solve complex technical problems and make sound architectural decisions in ambiguous environments.
• Strong communication skills with a proven ability to be vocal, engaged, collaborative, proactive, and adaptable within cross-functional teams.

Desired Skills:

• Experience with DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, containerization, monitoring, and logging.
• Prior experience building or operating public-facing, high-availability, or regulated systems.
• Familiarity with AI safety, moderation, and responsible AI practices.
• Experience working in fast paced, "startup-like" environments.

Education:

• Bachelor's Degree with 7 years of experience
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust. Contract requirement.