Lead Forward-Deployed AI Engineer — Prototyping to Production

McKesson; Mississauga; On-site; CAD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

McKesson, a Fortune 10 healthcare company, seeks a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with business and operational teams to turn complex problems into AI-enabled solutions. This hands-on role connects business needs with technology and moves ideas from discovery to prototypes, then production with multiple teams including AI Application Engineering and MLOps.

You will define production pathways, validate value with users, and ensure a scalable, governed solution, while mentoring

Qualifications

• 8+ years of relevant experience building, integrating, or delivering enterprise software solutions.
• Hands-on software engineering capability with APIs, data, integrations, and cloud-based patterns.
• Experience translating ambiguous business problems into working technical solutions, prototypes, or proofs of concept.
• Experience working directly with business executives and operational leaders.

Responsibilities

• Embed with practice and business teams to understand workflows, user needs, and outcomes.
• Lead discovery workshops, workflow assessments, and problem framing with executives and clinical teams.
• Translate business needs into clear problem statements, hypotheses, and prototype scopes.
• Advise where AI, automation, data, or workflow tech is appropriate and communicate risks and tradeoffs.
• Design pragmatic solution approaches using enterprise technologies and available data assets.
• Build prototypes and proofs of concept to test feasibility with representative users.
• Demonstrate prototypes, gather feedback, and decide to stop, refine, or advance.
• Collaborate with AI Application Engineers, Data Engineers, MLOps, security, and product leaders.
• Lead solution handoff to engineering teams and support production readiness.
• Capture patterns and lessons learned to improve speed and consistency.

Job description

McKesson, a Fortune 10 healthcare company, seeks a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to partner with business and operational teams to turn complex problems into AI-enabled solutions. This hands-on role connects business needs with technology and moves ideas from discovery to prototypes, then production with multiple teams including AI Application Engineering and MLOps.

You will define production pathways, validate value with users, and ensure a scalable, governed solution, while mentoring