Forward Deployed Manager, Netherlands
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 16, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 8, 2026.
Forward Deployed Manager (AI), Europe Wayfinders
Location: Benelux
Are you passionate about helping clients harness the power of technology to deliver real business outcomes? Do you thrive on solving complex problems and contributing to successful outcomes? Are you looking for an opportunity to grow your consulting career within an entrepreneurial environment? Are you energised by working side-by-side with senior client teams to take AI from concept to production?
If the answer is yes, we have an exciting opportunity for you to join Fujitsu’s newly established consulting brand in Europe - Europe Wayfinders asForward Deployed Manager
Wayfinders is committed to guiding customers through business and management transformation, turning concepts into reality and delivering tangible results through our consulting approach. We believe that Data and AI will be the main driver of business transformation over the next 5-10 years. Wayfinders will help clients navigate this transformation and capture the opportunities by leveraging Fujitsu’s key technologies and capabilities. Working side by side with clients, Wayfinders and Europe Region colleagues collaborate to deliver integrated solutions that span the full lifecycle of digital change-from initial strategy to sustained impact. We are focussed on fostering an inclusive environment where diverse talent thrives.
Your role will involve:
As a Forward Deployed Manager you will operate at the intersection of engineering, consulting, and delivery. You will be embedded with selected strategic clients, often as part of an AI Factory run or AI transformation programme, bridging the execution of AI solutions from early validation into stable, production-grade systems.
You will design and build business-led AI solutions using leading enterprise foundation models including Claude, alongside Microsoft-based AI services, Cohere and comparable Fujitsu platforms. You will work in a deliberately platform-agnostic environment, selecting the right technology based on client needs, trust requirements and business impact.
What matters most is your ability to take LLM-and agent-based solutions from idea to MVP, integrating them securely into complex enterprise environments and ensuring they are robust, responsible and adopted in day-to-day operations.
Reporting to a Senior Manager or Director within Wayfinders, this is a unique opportunity to play a critical role in closing the execution gap between AI ambition and operational reality.
As a Forward Deployed Manager you will be responsible for:
Client-embedded delivery
- Embedding directly with client teams (business, IT, data, security) to understand real workflows, constraints, and success metrics.
- Translating high-value AI use cases into working MVPs as a precursor to production-ready solutions within enterprise environments.
- Owning end-to-end technical delivery for Wayfinders -from discovery and scoping through to MVP build and handover for deployment.
- Acting as the technical counterpart to senior client stakeholders, building trust through execution rather than slides.
Solution engineering & build
- Designing and building AI-enabled systems (e.g. LLM-based applications, agentic workflows, decision-support tools) integrated with existing enterprise platforms.
- Writing and reviewing production-grade code (typically Python and/or modern full-stack environments).
- Making pragmatic trade-offs between scope, speed, cost, risk, and maintainability to protect delivery outcomes.
- Implementing guardrails for security, privacy, model risk, and human-in-the-loop controls, aligned with enterprise and regulatory expectations (e.g. EU AI Act readiness).
Operationalisation & adoption (in collaboration with Implementation and Service Delivery teams)
- Ensuring solutions are observable, supportable, and ready for day-to-day operations (logging, monitoring, documentation, handover).
- Supporting client teams through early adoption, iteration, and stabilisation.
- Identifying delivery patterns that can be standardised and reused across engagements.
Practice and capability development
- Feeding field learnings back into Wayfinders’ AI Factory playbooks, accelerators, and reference architectures.
- Contributing to internal knowledge sharing, mentoring, and capability building across consulting teams.
- Supporting business development by providing grounded input on feasibility, delivery approach, and risk-based on real execution experience.
Your skills and experience
- Strong hands-on experience as a software engineer, AI engineer, or technical delivery lead, including customer-facing work.
- Proven track record of taking complex systems from prototype to production in enterprise environments.
- Practical experience building or deploying AI-enabled solutions (e.g. LLMs, ML-driven decision systems, automation or agent-based workflows).
- Solid engineering fundamentals: system design, APIs, integration, testing, CI/CD, and operational readiness.
- Ability to work effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving situations and make sound decisions under pressure.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage confidently with engineers, architects, and senior business stakeholders.
- A collaborative, ownership-driven mindset: you stay with problems until they are solved, not just defined.
Why this role matters
Forward Deployed Manager are a cornerstone of Wayfinders’ AI approach. They ensure that AI initiatives do not stall at proof-of-concept, but become durable, trusted capabilities embedded in how organisations operate. If you want to work on the hardest AI problems, where success is measured not by demos, but by what runs in production , this role is for you.
Recruitment process
The recruitment process consists of 1-2 stages.
About Fujitsu
Since being founded in Japan in 1935, we have continued to demonstrate our technological prowess and persistent pursuit of innovation. As a world-leading digital transformation partner, our business structure is aligned with the modern digital world. Fujitsu’s purpose is to make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.
We are people centric: Our hybrid work environments enable you to Be Completely You. Our active people-led Inclusive Community networks are representative of all aspects of diversity and are instrumental in enabling and supporting our innovative approach to inclusion.
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