Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Accenture PLC; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 100,000 - 217,000; Full time

Job summary

Accenture is seeking a Forward Deployed AI Engineer to embed with client teams and translate AI platform capabilities into measurable business value in real-world environments.

You will own outcomes such as time-to-value, adoption, reliability, and scalability, overseeing enterprise deployments from architecture to adoption across multiple streams and senior stakeholders. This is a high-impact client-facing role that shapes how AI is deployed at scale.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or college diploma in a related field.
• 7+ years of engineering with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).
• At least 1 year designing and deploying agentic solutions in production.
• 7+ years AI platforms experience (OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, or open-source).
• 7+ years leading software engineering teams and delivery oversight.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise AI platform deployments across multi-stakeholder client environments — Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir — owning the full programme from architecture through adoption
• Own programme-level delivery outcomes: time-to-value, reliability, adoption velocity, and scalability across multiple concurrent workstreams, with commercial metrics attached
• Lead rapid experimentation at pace: drive ambiguous business problems to working production systems in days or weeks across complex enterprise environments
• Architect and govern enterprise AI solutions across the full technology stack: identity, data, security, governance, platform layer, and multi-system workflow integration at programme scale
• Shape AI reinvention strategy for client CTO, CFO, and CISO: build value architecture, ROI backlogs, use case prioritization frameworks, and multi-year AI adoption roadmaps
• Define and publish reusable reinvention blueprints, patterns, and accelerators that scale across multiple client engagements and grow the FDE practice
• Lead architecture design sessions, executive workshops, and code-with sessions with client engineering and C-suite leadership teams
• Codify delivery learnings, failure patterns, and engineering standards that shape the FDE practice and enable the next generation of forward deployed engineers

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

Delivery ownership

Executive workshop facilitation

Education

Bachelor's degree or college diploma

Tools

APIs

Microservices

Containerization

Serverless

OpenAI

Anthropic

Vertex AI

Job description

This is not a consulting role. It is not a project delivery role. It is not a research position. A Forward Deployed AI Engineer is a production engineer who works embedded inside a client's enterprise, shoulder to shoulder with their teams, to make complex AI platforms work in real, messy organizational environments. You own outcomes: time-to-value, adoption, reliability, and scalability. Not delivery milestones. Outcomes. The market is beginning to understand what leading technology companies have demonstrated: AI products fail not because the models are weak but because deployment is broken. The gap between a successful AI pilot and an AI capability that scales is bridged by engineers who can translate platform capability into measurable business value inside a real enterprise environment. That is this role. Forward Deployed AI Engineers form the execution spine of our Reinvention Deployment Engineering pods. We are building the largest FDE capability in the services industry. The engineers who join at this stage will define what the role looks like at scale and will have access to the hardest enterprise AI problems in the market across every industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise AI platform deployments across complex multi-stakeholder client environments — Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir — owning the full programme from architecture through adoption
• Own programme-level delivery outcomes: time-to-value, reliability, adoption velocity, and scalability across multiple concurrent workstreams, with commercial metrics attached
• Lead rapid experimentation at pace: drive ambiguous business problems to working production systems in days or weeks across complex enterprise environments
• Architect and govern enterprise AI solutions across the full technology stack: identity, data, security, governance, platform layer, and multi-system workflow integration at programme scale
• Shape AI reinvention strategy for client CTO, CFO, and CISO: build value architecture, ROI backlogs, use case prioritization frameworks, and multi-year AI adoption roadmaps
• Define and publish reusable reinvention blueprints, patterns, and accelerators that scale across multiple client engagements and grow the FDE practice
• Lead architecture design sessions, executive workshops, and code-with sessions with client engineering and C-suite leadership teams
• Codify delivery learnings, failure patterns, and engineering standards that shape the FDE practice and enable the next generation of forward deployed engineers

Basic Qualifications

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or college diploma in a related field.
• Minimum of 7 years of engineering experience with cloud-native systems, including APIs, microservices, containerization, and serverless architectures
• Minimum of 1 year of experience designing and deploying agentic solutions (agents, orchestration, context engineering, RAG, workflows) in production environments
• Minimum of 7 years of experience with AI platforms (OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, or open-source models), including building abstraction layers for multi-provider pipelines
• Minimum of 7 years of experience leading software engineering teams, including delivery oversight, resource allocation, and professional development of direct reports
• Demonstrated end-to-end delivery ownership in a client-embedded environment
• Experience leading enterprise AI deployments across multi-stakeholder environments
• Experience managing and developing engineering teams, including performance management and development planning
• Experience working with enterprise AI platforms such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir
• Experience defining enterprise AI architecture across identity, data, security, governance, and multi-system integrations
• Experience working directly with senior stakeholders (CTO, CFO, CISO) on AI strategy and investment decisions
• Experience leading executive workshops, architecture design sessions, or cross-functional technical engagements

Compensation at Accenture varies depending on a wide array of factors, which may include but are not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. As required by local law, Accenture provides a reasonable range of compensation, based on full-time employment, for roles that may be hired as set forth below. The recruiting efforts for this position are intended to fill a brand new position. The base pay range shown below is intended as a guideline to reflect the majority of offers for this role. It does not represent a maximum limit — in some cases, actual compensation may exceed the range where appropriate.

Information on benefits is here.

Role Location Annual Salary Range British Columbia/Ontario/New Brunswick $100,300 to $216,700