MS Copilot AI Engineer

Technical And Strategic Lead For Microsoft Copilot Chat And 365 Copilot

You will serve as the technical and strategic lead for the deployment, governance, and optimization of Microsoft's Copilot Chat, 365 Copilot, as well as other AI tools within a federal agency. This hybrid role combines enterprise architecture, AI governance, and hands-on engineering to deliver a secure, compliant, and mission-aligned AI platform. You'll work across IT, cybersecurity, legal, and business units to ensure that Copilot and related AI services are fully integrated, operationally sound, and are driving measurable productivity gains across the agency.

What You'll Do

Architecture & Strategy

• Lead the end-to-end design and rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI Foundry across a secure government tenant
• Architect AI infrastructure including Microsoft Graph grounding, web grounding, plugin extensibility, and telemetry integration
• Evaluate and integrate third-party AI plugins and connectors in accordance with federal security standards
• Align AI platform capabilities with agency mission goals and bureau-specific needs

Governance & Compliance

• Develop and enforce AI governance policies, including responsible use, data boundaries, and risk mitigation
• Ensure compliance with federal frameworks such as FedRAMP, FISMA, NIST AI RMF, and agency-specific directives
• Collaborate with legal, cybersecurity, and privacy teams to manage ethical and regulatory considerations

Engineering & Operations

• Administer and optimize Copilot services, plugins, and Graph-based integrations
• Implement secure access controls, role-based permissions, and data protection mechanisms
• Monitor AI performance, usage telemetry, and system health across bureaus
• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues related to AI services and integrations

Enablement & Adoption

• Drive Copilot adoption through training, prompt libraries, and tailored use cases
• Partner with business owners to identify AI opportunities and deliver measurable productivity improvements
• Maintain technical documentation, support channels, and user-facing resources
• Report on AI usage, adoption metrics, and ROI to leadership

Required Knowledge And Skills

• U.S. Citizen eligible for Public Trust clearance, existing clearance is preferred
• 10+ years of experience in enterprise architecture, cloud engineering, or AI platform deployment, Azure GCC and MSFT FedRamped solutions.
• Deep expertise in Microsoft 365, Azure AI, Microsoft Graph, associated APIs and Copilot extensibility
• Proven success in infrastructure governance, risk management, and operational support
• Expertise in PowerShell, Azure CLI or other tools used for scripting and automation.
• Strong communication skills across technical and executive audiences
• Experience in both government and commercial environments preferred

Technical Focus Areas

• Grounding & Data Access: Configure web grounding and Microsoft Graph grounding (Graph connectors, indexing scope, ACL mapping) to ensure least-privilege access to SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, and line-of-business repositories. Additionally, there will likely be the need to support other FedRamped, AI solutions available in the marketplace, and the ability to understand and expand utilization of MSFT Copilot products as needed.
• Extensibility: Support Copilot Studio/Teams extensions as applicable; document integration patterns and guardrails.
• Security & Monitoring: Enable auditing, logging, and alerting across Microsoft 365/Entra; integrate with Log Analytics and SIEM/SOAR.
• Data Protection: Implement Microsoft Purview (Sensitivity Labels, DLP, eDiscovery), retention, and auditing aligned to government requirements.

AI Policy & Governance (Government Context)

• Draft and operationalize acceptable use, data classification/handling, human-in-the-loop requirements, red-teaming, incident response, and model safety boundaries.
• Align controls to Zero Trust principles and frameworks relevant to the environment (e.g., NIST 800-53/171, FedRAMP baselines).
• Establish lifecycle governance for prompts, connectors, plugins, and data sources (change control, reviews, recertification).

API Access To Copilot (Plugins/Connectors/Extensions)

• Design and secure API endpoints and app registrations (OAuth 2.0, Entra ID) for Copilot extensibility.
• Implement Graph and LOB connectors with correct permission scopes (delegated vs. application) and enforce conditional access/MFA where appropriate.
• Build telemetry for API usage, errors, latency, and throttling; define SLOs and operational runbooks.

Adoption, Training, and Support

• Create admin and end-user enablement (guides, quick starts, office hours).
• Define support tiers, SLAs, and escalation paths; maintain knowledge base and runbooks.
• The ability to educate other team members on AI prompt generation, to enable better customer support.

Nice To Haves

Preferred Experience

• Familiarity with federal IT security and compliance frameworks
• Experience with plugin development, secure API integration, and telemetry analysis
• Background in change management, user enablement, and cross-functional collaboration

Salary Range

$180k-$225k

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