AI Engineer Jobs in Washington, DC

Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.). Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 1000, and the Fortune 500 and we are among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.
Full time
Hybrid model
Washington, DC
The Data Engineer in this role will support programs involving one or more of the following:
responsible for building persistent cloud data pipelines, integrating microservices, and structuring data to power Amazon OpenSearch, Amazon Neptune (Knowledge Graphs), and Amazon SageMaker for advanced analytics.
2. Scope of Work
2.1 Pipeline Development and Implementation

• Build continuous, event-driven streaming pipelines using Amazon EventBridge and SQS.
• Orchestrate complex ELT transformations using EKS and Databricks.
• Develop automated data feeds for the enterprise data platform and downstream applications.

2.2 Solution Design and Optimization

• Design and populate graph data models for Amazon Neptune to support entity relationship tracking.
• Build and optimize vector indexes for Amazon OpenSearch to power the platform's AI/ML and RAG Q&A capabilities.
• Ensure real-time or near-real-time data latency targets are met for operational dashboards.

2.3 Stakeholder Engagement and Change Management

• Partner directly with AI/ML Data Scientists to ensure data is properly curated, partitioned, and served for real-time model inference.
• Support front-end developers by building reliable, performant data APIs.
• Present pipeline architectures during technical reviews.

2.4 Governance, Ethics, and Risk

• Implement fine-grained, row-level Access Control to secure sensitive procurement data.
• Set up Amazon CloudWatch and Dynatrace for continuous pipeline monitoring, alerting, and telemetry.
• Ensure data served to AI models is clean and unbiased according to institutional guidelines.

2.5 Documentation and Reporting

• Maintain architectural diagrams for streaming data flows.
• Write API endpoint documentation and AI data prep runbooks.

3. Required Qualifications and Experience
3.1 Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Data Engineering, or a related quantitative field.

3.2 Certifications (Preferred)

• AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate or Microsoft Certified Azure Data Engineer. OR AWS ML Specialty

3.3 Mandatory Experience

• 5+ years building continuous data pipelines, real-time streaming architectures, and preparing data for machine learning workflows.

3.4 Technical Knowledge

• Expert SQL and Python.
• Deep expertise in AWS ecosystem (EKS, Lambda, SQS, OpenSearch, Neptune, Bedrock) and Apache Spark/Databricks.

3.5 Core Competencies

• Strong architectural mindset, capability to handle hight-veolocity data, and enthusiasm for integrating foundational AI/ML services.

Roles and Responsibilities
Application Accepted: 7/30/2026
Benefits: Cognizant offers the following benefits for this position, subject to applicable eligibility requirements:

Salary and Other Compensation:
The annual salary for this position is between $125,000 - $140,000 depending on experience and other qualifications of the successful candidate
Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

• Paid holidays plus Paid Time Off
• 401(k) plan and contributions
• Long-term/Short-term Disability
• Paid Parental Leave
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Disclaimer: The salary, other compensation, and benefits information is accurate as of the date of this posting. Cognizant reserves the right to modify this information at any time, subject to applicable la
Our strength is built on our ability to work together. Our diverse backgrounds offer different perspectives and new ways of thinking. It encourages lively discussions, creativity, productivity, and helps us build better solutions for our clients. We want someone who thrives in this setting and is inspired to craft meaningful solutions through true collaboration.
If you are content with ambiguity, excited by change, and excel through autonomy, we’d love to hear from you!
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