Where is the Forward Deployed Engineer role at Thinkahead located?

The Forward Deployed Engineer position at Thinkahead is based in United States. This is an on-site position.

What type of employment is the Forward Deployed Engineer role at Thinkahead?

The Forward Deployed Engineer position at Thinkahead is a Full time role.

What skills are required for the Forward Deployed Engineer role at Thinkahead?

Key skills for the Forward Deployed Engineer position at Thinkahead include: ai, large language models.

Forward Deployed Engineer — Thinkahead

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.

The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is a hands-on role embedded within AHEAD's internal AI transformation function. You will design, build, and run production AI applications on enterprise GPT platforms, including custom agents, workflows, connectors, and integrations. You will operate as the technical build resource within a cross-functional delivery team, partnering closely with business stakeholders, a transformation consultant, and an adoption lead to support one of AHEAD’s key domains, such as Services, Go-to-Market, or Corporate & Technology. This person owns the full solution lifecycle from discovery and design through build, rollout, optimization, and ongoing support.

This role is well suited for someone who enjoys working directly with business teams, translating ambiguous needs into practical AI-enabled solutions, and building production AI patterns such as orchestration, model integration, evaluation, observability, and secure enterprise deployment. Success in the role requires comfort working inside a shared team model where solution design, user adoption, and business outcomes are delivered in close coordination rather than in isolation.

Duties/Responsibilities

Build on the Enterprise GPT Platforms

Design and ship agents and multi-step workflows using Glean, Claude, and other GPT platforms and applying platform tools such as Agent Builder, actions, MCP tools, and adjacent automations (e.g., n8n, Zapier, Make)

Apply AI solution patterns such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), workflow orchestration, agent-assisted processes, model integration, API-based automation, and human-in-the-loop review

Integrate & Orchestrate

Create connections to ingest data from enterprise systems like Salesforce, ServiceNow, SharePoint/Teams, email, and internal APIs

Extend platform capabilities through MCP-based integrations and context-aware workflows that improve the usefulness and reach of AI solutions

Implement custom services and integrations, including REST APIs and webhooks, when platform-native patterns or existing automations are not sufficient

Ensure solutions are secure, reliable, observable, and compliant with enterprise standards

Create reusable templates, components, and solution patterns that can be applied across teams and use cases

Identify & Solve Business Friction Points

Proactively surface pain points across business workflows and reimagine them leveraging the best available technology to create impact

Rapidly prototype, validate with real users, and harden MVPs into scalable, production solutions

Partner with stakeholders to prioritize high-impact use cases based on business value, feasibility, risk, and repeatability, with a focus on scalable solutions rather than one-offs

Measure and communicate the value of solutions delivered, including time saved, errors reduced, adoption, reliability, and operational performance

Own LLM Quality, Telemetry & Cost

Apply production LLM practices: prompt and agent design, guardrails, and evaluation

Use test sets, quality metrics, and offline or online evaluation methods to improve solution performance over time

Instrument usage, reliability, and token/credit consumption at the agent and team level

Use data to improve quality and reduce unnecessary spend (context scoping, summarization, caching, model choice)

Required Experience

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Data and Analytics

Experience in technical roles such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Integration Engineer, Automation Engineer, or similar roles with direct stakeholder engagement

Experience designing or supporting AI-enabled solutions in production environments, prompting and system design, agent development, and workflow configuration

Familiarity with evaluation approaches such as test sets, quality metrics, and iterative improvement loops

Working knowledge of AI solution patterns such as retrieval-augmented generation, orchestration, model integration, vector-backed retrieval, and human-in-the-loop workflows

Ability to configure existing connectors to access required data

Experience integrating enterprise applications using APIs, webhooks, automation tools, or lightweight services

Familiarity with observability, monitoring, governance, guardrails, and responsible AI controls in enterprise environments

Preferred Experience

Familiarity with common business systems such as Salesforce, Microsoft 365, SharePoint, Teams, ServiceNow, ticketing or ITSM platforms, and CRM or ERP tools

Hands-on experience with Enterprise GPT platforms (e.g., Glean, Claude) and automation tools (e.g., n8n, Zapier, Make)

Familiarity with enterprise security concepts such as RBAC, least privilege, SSO, SAML, OAuth, OIDC, and auditability

Experience working in cross-functional delivery teams that pair solution building with business process transformation, user enablement, and change support

How You Work

Operate as a builder and long-term advisor, not just an implementer

Comfortable being embedded with business teams while upholding platform and security standards

Communicate clearly with executives and non-technical stakeholders about trade-offs, risks, and impact

Move fast on prototypes, but know when to slow down for risk, security, or cost

Stay current on the cutting edge of AI — new models, MCP developments, agentic frameworks, and emerging tooling — and bring relevant innovations back to AHEAD

Continuously scan the business for friction points and unmet needs; show up with ideas, not just execution

Work effectively as part of a small, embedded team where technical build, business problem framing, and adoption support are closely coordinated

Forward Deployed Engineer

Job description