Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Forward Deployed AI Engineer Permanent | Hybrid Leeds | AI Engineering + Forward-Deployed Engineering | Salary up to £100,000 The Opportunity A growing technology consultancy is building an AI-native engineering capability and is looking for a Deployed AI Engineer to help deliver real-world AI solutions for clients. The role combines AI Engineering, Software Engineering and Forward- Deployed Engineering, with ownership across discovery, architecture, build and production. Working in a small delivery pod, the engineer will build directly with client data and within their environments, taking ideas from prototype to MVP in weeks. Between engagements, they'll help evolve the company's internal AI platform and turn successful approaches into reusable tools and accelerators. What you'll be working on: * Building AI solutions using RAG, AI agents, LLM integrations and MCP * Taking solutions from prototype through to production, including security, scalability, guardrails and observability * Building AI evaluation and testing frameworks to measure accuracy and reliability * Working with complex client data, integrations and enterprise environments * Working directly with clients, demoing progress and iterating quickly based on feedback * Developing the internal AI platform and reusable engineering accelerators * Helping upskill client engineering teams and staying on top of emerging AI technologies What they're looking for: * Strong software engineering fundamentals across clean code, testing, CI/CD and production systems * Strong programming skills in Python, TypeScript or similar, with experience across multiple modern languages * Full-stack capability, including back-end and data engineering * Proven experience building and shipping production LLM/AI applications * Hands-on experience with RAG, AI agents, prompt engineering, tool orchestration and MCP * Experience with AI evaluation, testing, datasets and guardrails * Client-facing experience and an understanding of enterprise security, compliance and legacy environments * High autonomy, strong communication skills and a commercial, outcome-focused mindset Nice to have: * Vector databases, embeddings or fine-tuning * AWS or Google Cloud * Startup or founder experience * Open-source contributions or AI side projects What's in it for me? * Base salary up to £100,000 * Hybrid working model with remote flexibility * Private healthcare * Professional development and funded learning * Opportunity to work on modern, AI-enabled systems at scale * Clear progression within a growing engineering function We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.