Forward Deployed Engineer

Overview

The artificial intelligence landscape is moving at unprecedented speed, and our clients need solutions built at the same pace. As a Forward Deployed Engineer within TransPerfect's Artificial Intelligence team, you will be customer-embedded, i.e. working directly with clients to understand their toughest problems, rapidly prototype AI-powered solutions, and build production systems that deliver real business value.

This role sits at the intersection of engineering, product thinking, and consulting. You'll spend your time with clients, scoping solutions to their problems, building working prototypes in days, and evolving those into production-grade applications in weeks. You will write production code, build custom solutions, and solve challenging technical problems. The Forward Deployed Engineer excels at moving from prototype to production, directly impacting both revenue and our bottom line with an entrepreneurial mindset.  

Description

• Work directly with clients to scope problems, understand constraints, and define concrete technical solutions, asking the right questions before jumping to code

• Rapidly prototype AI-powered solutions and build proof-of-concepts that demonstrate value in days

• Own the full journey from a client problem to a deployed production system

• Write production-quality code across the full stack

• Act as the primary technical owner for customer engagements

• Develop custom applications leveraging LLMs, RAG systems, and agentic frameworks

• Work cross-functionally between clients and internal product teams

• Lead technical discovery sessions with clients

• Build and deploy integrations, data connectors, and custom workflows that make our AI platforms work within customers' existing systems

• Collaborate with sales teams during pre-sales technical discussions, demos, and proof-of-value engagements

• Mentor technical teams on best practices for AI implementation, prompt engineering, and system integration

• Complete all other tasks that are deemed appropriate for this role and assigned by the manager/supervisor

Required Skills

• Strong proficiency in Python with experience building production applications, APIs, and full-stack systems

• Hands-on expertise with modern AI platforms like OpenAI, Claude, Google, or Microsoft, and ability to rapidly integrate them into customer solutions

• Experience with LLM application frameworks like LangChain, LlamaIndex, or LangGraph for building chatbots, agents, RAG systems, and custom workflows

• Proven ability to scope ambiguous problems, asking clarifying questions, understanding constraints, and defining concrete technical plans before coding

• Strong full-stack development skills with modern web frameworks like React, Next.js, Vue.js, FastAPI, or Flask to build complete customer-facing applications

• Excellent problem-solving and analytical thinking with a bias toward action, prioritizing working solutions over perfect architectures

• Outstanding communication skills for customer engagement, technical discovery, stakeholder presentations, and cross-functional collaboration

• Ability to work independently in customer environments, taking ownership of complex problems and driving them to resolution

• Experience building custom data pipelines, integrations, and APIs

• Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid iteration of dynamic customer environments with evolving requirements

• Strong technical troubleshooting skills and ability to debug production issues under pressure as the owner

• Customer-focused mindset with ability to build trust, translate business needs into technical solutions, and guide non-technical stakeholders

Required Experience and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience

• 5+ years of software development experience with ability to ship production applications end-to-end

• 2+ years working with LLMs and AI tools in a practical, customer-facing or application-focused context

• Proven track record working directly with customers or stakeholders, gathering requirements, managing expectations, and delivering solutions

• Experience with the full software development lifecycle, from scoping and architecture to deployment and production support

• Hands-on experience building APIs and integrations

• Ability to work independently and take ownership of technical problems in fast-paced environments

• Experience leading technical discovery sessions and translating business requirements into working systems

• Solid foundation in version control (Git), testing practices, and writing maintainable code

• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and distributed computing systems

Desired Skills and Experience

• Experience in a customer-facing engineering role (solutions engineer, technical consultant, implementation engineer, or similar)

• Background working in fast-paced environments where you've had to scope problems, prototype quickly, and deliver under tight timelines

• Experience participating in technical sales cycles, demos, POCs, RFPs, or technical discovery sessions

• Prior experience embedded with customer teams or working on-site to solve complex technical challenges

• Knowledge of NLP, machine learning fundamentals, or experience fine-tuning models (LoRA, prompt tuning, RAG optimization)

• Experience with agile methodologies and working in iterative, customer-driven development cycles

• Advanced proficiency with CI/CD pipelines and modern deployment practices

• Entrepreneurial mindset with examples of taking initiative, identifying opportunities, and driving projects to completion