Data & AI Architect

L. Scott Associates (KLSA) is a mission-driven management and technology consulting firm that partners with public-sector organizations to modernize operations, strengthen data and AI capabilities, and deliver measurable impact.

Requirements

into scalable, high-quality solutions. Project Team Roles The following position comprises a multidisciplinary delivery team responsible for planning, building, integrating, deploying, and operating an AI-enabled chatbot capability using an iterative, sprint-based approach with security and risk management embedded throughout. Data AI Architect KL Scott and Associates is seeking a Data AI Architect .

This role serves as the technical authority for enterprise data, analytics, and AI architecture supporting the chatbot platform. The position combines strategic data architecture leadership with hands-on oversight of data engineering, AI enablement, governance, and evaluation frameworks to ensure secure, scalable, and auditable AI operations. The ideal candidate will reside in or within commutable distance to Washington DC.

Create and maintain curated datasets and searchable knowledge artifacts to support retrieval and response grounding. Optimize indexing and retrieval pipelines to improve response relevance, latency, and overall user experience. Support release cycles by ensuring data refresh procedures, rollback plans, and operational monitoring are in place.

Build secure ingestion and processing pipelines for documents, guidance, SOPs, and approved structured data sources.

Create and maintain curated datasets and searchable knowledge artifacts to support retrieval and response grounding. Optimize indexing and retrieval pipelines to improve response relevance, latency, and overall user experience. Support release cycles by ensuring data refresh procedures, rollback plans, and operational monitoring are in place.

Support the harvesting and refinement of solutions for internal KLSA product portfolio.

Ability to engage with, collaborate, and present to executive stakeholders (CFO), technical leaders (CDO), and mission leaders (Division Directors). Maintain professional execution of project delivery while engaging with executive presence as all times.

Responsibilities

: Implement data quality checks, validation rules, versioning, lineage, and access controls aligned to governance

Qualifications

: Required: Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, or related field. Preferred: Master’s or PhD in a quantitative discipline. Preferred certifications: Cloud Data Specialty (AWS/Azure/GCP), TOGAF (architecture), DAMA/CDMP (data management), Security+ (helpful in regulated environments, preferred), Databricks (or equivalent platform).

20+ years of experience in data architecture, analytics, or platform engineering; 3+ years applying AI/ML to production use cases (NLP/LLM/retrieval-augmented generation preferred). Deep experience with enterprise data platforms, cloud environments, and AI/ML systems. Prior leadership in regulated or security-conscious environments.

Ability to obtain and maintain Top Secret clearance eligibility.

Benefits

: Competitive salary Health, dental, and vision insurance 401K "Discretionary" PTO Professional development opportunities A dynamic and collaborative work environment Working Conditions: This position may require travel as needed.