CDAO - Enterprise - Cloud Engineering Lead

JOA: CDAO-2026-000104
Pay Scale:  $139,395-$191,900
Open Date: 20 May 2026
Close Date: 27 May 2026

The Chief Data and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) mission is to accelerate the adoption of data, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) across the Department of Defense (DoD). The CDAO works across the Military Departments and Services, Joint Staff, Combatant Commands (CCMDs), Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and other DoD Components to design, develop, field, and scale technologies, capabilities, strategies, policies, and other guidance related to data, analytics, and AI in support of DoD's warfighting and business functions, including responding to crises and emerging challenges with state of the art digital solutions.   

The CDAO has three broad goals of enabling, speeding, and scaling adoption of AI in the DoD. Rapid and scalable adoption of AI is a critical capability for DoD support in national security, and the CDAO executes that strategy. The CDAO’s role in facilitating the rapid adoption of frontier AI and autonomy will enable the DoD’s other objectives by informing future investments into policies, partnership, and infrastructure, enabling the adoption of AI at scale throughout the department.  

As the Lead, Cloud Engineering for Generative AI, you will be the senior technical authority responsible for architecting and managing the specialized cloud infrastructure required to train, fine-tune, and serve large-scale Generative AI models. You will lead a team of expert engineers in building and operating secure, automated, and highly performant cloud environments that serve as the engine for the Department's most advanced AI initiatives.  

You will serve as the senior advisor on all matters related to GPU-enabled cloud infrastructure, MLOps for large models, and platform optimization for AI workloads. Your role is to ensure that the foundational technology layer is purpose-built for the unique demands of Generative AI, from managing peta-scale datasets to delivering low-latency inference. You are not just managing cloud services; you are engineering the very platform on which the DoD's Generative AI supremacy will be built.  

This position is covered by the Department of Defense (DoD) Civilian Acquisition Workforce Personnel Demonstration Project (AcqDemo). The position is located in Washington, DC. The pay plan and broadband level for this role is NH-0800/1500-04, which is equivalent to the GS-14/15 grade level. This position does have an education requirement – details can be found here. 

This role will close for submissions at 11:59pm on May 27th, 2025.