Role
Forward Deployed AI Engineer
An applied AI engineer who makes models behave in a real deployment: evaluation, retrieval, prompt and model design, guardrails and monitoring, measured against the task the business cares about.
What they do
The work, in plain terms
Evaluation
Builds the test sets and checks that show whether the system is good enough to ship.
Retrieval
Designs retrieval over your documents and data so answers are grounded in them.
Guardrails
Limits what the system may do, and records what it did.
Monitoring
Watches quality and cost once it is live, and fixes drift.
Skills we match on
The skills behind the title
We match on what an engineer has used in production, not on a keyword list. These are the skills that come up most for this role; your brief decides which matter.
- Evaluation design
- Retrieval and embeddings
- Prompt and model design
- Fine-tuning
- Guardrails
- Observability
- Python
- Amazon Bedrock
- Azure AI
- Vertex AI
When you need one
- Answers that are almost right, which is worse than wrong
- No way to tell whether a new model is better
- Security teams that will not approve an agent without limits
Hiring options
Hire this role the way that fits the work
Contract
An FDE embedded in your team for the length of the work. Best when you have a defined program and need the skills now, without adding headcount.
- You direct the work day to day
- Billed for time worked
- Extend or end as the work changes
Contract to hire
Start on contract, then hire the engineer onto your team. Best when you want a permanent forward deployed capability and want to see the fit first.
- Work together before committing
- Conversion terms agreed up front
- Keeps the knowledge in house
Direct hire
We find the engineer. You employ them from day one. Best when you are building an FDE team of your own and need help finding the people.
- Your employee from the first day
- One placement fee
- We run the search and first screens
FDE hub
A deployment strategist and a small team of engineers. Best when the work needs business and engineering skills at once, with one point of accountability.
- Strategist plus two or more engineers
- Sized to the problem
- One team, one plan
Other roles
Often hired alongside
Forward Deployed Engineer
Builds and ships AI applications and agents inside your systems.
About this roleForward Deployed Data Engineer
Gets your data into a state AI can use: pipelines, quality, access.
About this roleForward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer
Deploys and runs AI platforms in hard environments: private, on-premises, regulated.
About this roleDeployment Strategist
Finds the problem worth solving, sets the measure, and drives adoption.
About this roleHire FDEs
Need a Forward Deployed AI Engineer?
Someone who understands forward deployed work reads every brief and replies with a view on the engineers you need, how many, and the hiring option that fits.