Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

About the Role :

We are seeking Lead Forward Deployed Engineers who thrive on shipping production software, solving complex systems problems, and pioneering AI-first engineering workflows.

As a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you own the technical execution and architecture for your workstream. Leading a small team of engineers, you will deliver high-impact software while embedded directly within client engineering teams. In this role, you will partner closely with client leadership and account leads to align delivery with strategic goals, model AI-first engineering practices, and elevate client teams through active pairing and mentorship.

What You'll Do:

• Owning the technical delivery, architecture, and code quality for your workstream: making key technical decisions, documenting tradeoffs, and ensuring the team builds coherent, maintainable systems

• Writing and reviewing production code across the full stack: setting the technical bar, reviewing PRs, and staying actively involved in direct implementation alongside your team

• Integrating AI and LLM capabilities into client applications: designing and implementing agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, intelligent automation, and AI-augmented developer tooling

• Pioneering AI-assisted software delivery: using advanced AI coding environments, LLM tooling, and agentic assistants to accelerate refactoring, code generation, and test writing in client codebases

• Enabling client engineering teams on AI-first practices: hands-on coaching and pairing with client developers to integrate AI coding assistants into their daily development workflows and culture

• Breaking down monolithic legacy applications into cloud-native microservices and event-driven architectures without taking critical systems offline

• Anticipating technical debt, delivery friction, and architectural risk early: establishing clear mitigation strategies, test automation standards, and CI/CD best practices

• Serving as the primary technical point of contact for your workstream: engaging directly with client engineering managers and technical directors on execution, delivery risk, and technical strategy

• Mentoring and uplifting client and Liatrio engineers: pairing on complex problems, conducting architectural reviews, breaking down complex tasks, and providing continuous feedback

• Partnering with account leadership and architects on technical scoping, statement of work (SOW) development, proof-of-concept (POC) demonstrations, and identifying expansion opportunities

Experience and Skills:

Engineering and Architecture

• You have a track record of owning technical execution and architectural direction for engineering teams in complex enterprise environments

• You've modernized large legacy applications, with practical experience applying, incremental refactoring, and event-driven decomposition under real constraints

• You are fluent across the full delivery stack (frontend, backend, APIs, data pipelines, and cloud infrastructure) with genuine technical depth in multiple core areas

• You've designed and delivered cloud-native, distributed systems at enterprise scale: microservices, event-driven architectures, API gateways, and asynchronous messaging

• You possess strong practical knowledge of platform engineering, infrastructure as code, cloud platform adoption (Kubernetes, managed container services), and CI/CD delivery automation

• You know how to maintain a high engineering bar across a team: evaluating code, catching edge cases early, enforcing test standards, and driving velocity

AI and Intelligent Systems

• You've built or integrated production AI capabilities into real applications, understanding the end-to-end lifecycle from model integration and retrieval pipelines to observability and maintenance

• You actively model AI-augmented engineering workflows, leveraging modern AI coding tools as a daily multiplier for delivery speed and code quality

• You can speak credibly with client technical leadership about pragmatic AI adoption and where intelligent workflows create genuine, production-grade leverage

Requirements:

• 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with demonstrated technical leadership of engineering teams or workstreams

• Must be authorized to work in the United States or Canada without sponsorship

• Travel availability: 25% depending on client needs