FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER
Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
Work Location: Fully Remote – United States
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience: 10+ Years
Work Model:
Remote with occasional travel for client workshops, Proofs of Value (PoVs), and executive meetings
Role Overview:
We are seeking a highly experienced Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) with 10+ years of professional experience across software engineering, solution architecture, technical consulting, and enterprise technology delivery. The FDE operates at the intersection of executive problem framing, rapid engineering, AI/agentic solution development, and scalable architecture. You will work directly with CXOs and senior business and technology leaders to identify high-value business opportunities, rapidly build working Proofs of Value, and translate successful solutions into MVPs and scalable enterprise deployments. This is a hands-on engineering role, not a purely advisory or consulting position.
Key Responsibilities
Executive-Facing Discovery & Value Shaping:
Lead CXO-level discovery and working sessions with senior client stakeholders.
Translate business challenges into an outcome thesis, KPI framework, baseline, uplift hypothesis, and operating constraints.
Identify high-value, measurable opportunities suitable for rapid Proofs of Value.
Determine what should be automated versus assisted and where human-in-the-loop controls are required.
Communicate technical, business, cost, risk, and scalability tradeoffs to executive stakeholders.
Rapid Proof-of-Value Engineering:
Design and build rapid PoVs demonstrating business value and technical feasibility.
Develop agentic workflows incorporating tools, APIs, enterprise applications, and lightweight user experiences.
Build evaluation frameworks covering:
- Task success
- AccuracyPolicy compliance
- Tool-call success
- LatencyCostEstablish measurable baseline-versus-PoV improvements.
- Agentic Architecture & Path-to-Scale
- Develop scalable agentic architectures covering:
- Agent roles
- Orchestration patterns
- Tools and APIsData and knowledge strategies
- GuardrailsObservabilityHuman-in-the-loop escalation
- Define:
- MVP backlog
- Architecture decisions
- Identity and access management
- Audit logging
- Fallback mechanisms
- Policy boundaries
- Deployment models
- Provide delivery teams with a production-ready implementation plan and ensure successful transition from PoV to MVP and scaled deployment.
Required Qualifications:
- 10+ years of professional experience in full-stack engineering, solution architecture, technical consulting, or related technical disciplines.
- Significant client-facing enterprise delivery experience.
- Proven ability to build rapidly under ambiguity while maintaining strong architectural and engineering standards.
- Strong hands-on experience with modern AI technologies, including:
- LLMsAgent architectures
- Agent orchestration
- Tool calling
- Planning/execution loops
- Memory patterns
- Strong RAG experience, including:
Embeddings
ChunkingVector databases
Knowledge retrieval
Retrieval evaluation
Experience with:
Offline and online evaluations
Regression testingAI safety testing
Basic red-teaming
Strong software engineering fundamentals in:
APIsData pipelines
Enterprise integrations
Distributed systems
Strong proficiency in Python and at least one of:
TypeScriptJavaGoStrong cloud-native experience with AWS, Azure, and/or GCP.Experience with containers, CI/CD, and observability.
Exceptional communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into measurable business outcomes for CXO-level stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications:
Proven delivery of GenAI/agentic solutions in production, not just prototypes.
Experience integrating with enterprise platforms such as:
- Service
- NowSalesforceSAPMicrosoft Graph / Microsoft 365 Databricks
- SnowflakeExperience with GenAI security and governance, including:
- Data boundaries
- Access control
- AuditabilityModel risk
- ComplianceFamiliarity with LLMOps / AgentOps, including:
- Versioning
- TelemetryDrift monitoring
- Cost governance
- FinOpsDomain expertise in one or more of:
- Travel / Transportation / Hospitality
- Retail / CPGBanking / Financial Services / Insurance
ManufacturingMediaRelevant cloud, AI, security, or data certifications are a plus.
Core Competencies
Executive Presence:
Credible with CXOs and senior stakeholders; able to lead executive discussions and drive decisions.
Structured Problem Solving:
Quickly identifies the highest-value business opportunity and defines measurable success criteria.
Builder Mindset:
Hands-on engineer who can rapidly turn an idea into a functioning solution. Technical Judgment & Responsible AIUnderstands where autonomous agents can safely operate and where guardrails and human oversight are required.
Repeatability:
- Creates reusable architectures, playbooks, accelerators, and implementation patterns from successful solutions.
- Working ModelFully remote within the United States.
- Collaborate with distributed global engineering, product, sales, and delivery teams.
- Periodic travel may be required for:
- Client workshops
- Proofs of Value
- Executive meetings
- Customer engagements
- Work within highly collaborative cross-functional teams.
- Strong emphasis on hands-on engineering and rapid solution delivery.
- This is not a purely advisory or strategy consulting role.
Ideal Candidate:
The ideal candidate should have 10+ years of overall technology experience and be capable of independently taking a customer problem through the complete lifecycle: Executive Discovery → Business Problem → High-Value Use Case → PoV → Agentic Solution → Evaluation → MVP Architecture → Production Deployment Candidates whose experience is limited to traditional software development, AI research, prompt engineering, project management, business analysis, or strategy consulting without substantial hands-on GenAI/agentic engineering experience will not be considered a strong fit.