Forward Deployed Engineer - Enterprise AI Transformation - Cologne - 150k

Next Ventures; Köln; Vor Ort; EUR 135.000 - 165.000; Vollzeit

Zusammenfassung

Next Ventures in Cologne seeks a Forward Deployed AI Engineer to bridge AI engineering, consulting and enterprise transformation. You’ll work with senior client stakeholders to turn business workflows into production AI solutions, from discovery to scale, delivering measurable impact.

You’ll design production-grade AI apps, including LLM systems and intelligent workflows, while balancing architecture, data, APIs and cost considerations.

Qualifikationen

• Strong Python skills with hands-on engineering ability.
• Practical experience building and deploying AI/ML systems in real environments.
• Experience with LLMs, RAG, retrieval systems or AI applications.
• Experience with APIs, data pipelines, enterprise systems and cloud infra.

Aufgaben

• Work directly with clients to understand workflows, pain points and requirements.
• Turn ambiguous problems into practical AI solutions and scalable architectures.
• Design and build production-grade AI applications, including LLM systems and agents.
• Develop AI copilots, automations and intelligent workflows for operations.
• Defend architectural decisions across models, data, APIs, infra, security and cost.
• Integrate AI into existing enterprise apps and data platforms.
• Work hands-on with Python, APIs, cloud infra and modern AI tooling.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders while contributing to implementation.

Kenntnisse

Python

AI/ML systems

LLMs & RAG

APIs

Cloud infrastructure

Client-facing

Architecture decisions

Jobbeschreibung

Forward Deployed Engineer - Enterprise AI Transformation - Cologne - 150k

We’re looking for a Forward Deployed AI Engineer to work at the intersection of AI engineering, consulting and enterprise transformation.

This is a hands‑on role. You’ll work directly with senior client stakeholders and engineering teams to understand real business workflows, identify high‑value AI opportunities, build the solution yourself and take it from discovery prototype production.

You’ll work on complex enterprise problems where the requirements aren’t perfectly defined and where technical quality, adoption and business impact all matter.

What you’ll do

• Work directly with clients to understand business workflows, pain points and requirements
• Turn ambiguous problems into practical AI solutions and scalable architectures
• Design and build production‑grade AI applications, including LLM systems, RAG and agentic workflows
• Develop AI copilots, automations and intelligent workflows that solve real operational problems
• Make and defend architectural decisions across models, retrieval, orchestration, APIs, data, infrastructure, security, scalability and cost
• Integrate AI into existing enterprise applications, data platforms and workflows
• Work hands‑on with Python, APIs, cloud infrastructure and modern AI tooling
• Work closely with senior stakeholders while remaining deeply involved in implementation
• Identify recurring customer problems and turn successful solutions into scalable capabilities

What we’re looking for

• Strong Python skills and genuine hands‑on engineering ability
• Experience building and deploying AI/ML systems in real‑world environments
• Practical experience with LLMs, RAG, retrieval systems, agents or AI applications
• Experience with APIs, data pipelines, enterprise systems and cloud infrastructure
• Ability to reason about architecture and clearly explain technical trade‑offs
• Experience taking solutions from requirements through deployment and iteration
• Previous external consulting or client‑facing technical delivery experience is required
• Fluent German and strong English are required
• Comfortable working directly with technical and non‑technical senior stakeholders

Nice to have

• Experience at an AI‑native company such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Palantir or similar
• Strong ML, data science or predictive modelling foundations
• Experience with AI evaluation, testing, monitoring or LLMOps
• Digital transformation or technology advisory experience
• Transaction advisory, private equity or value‑creation experience
• Strong technical/quantitative academic background
• Startup, scale‑up or consulting experience

You’ll probably thrive here if you…

• Prefer shipping working systems over producing slide decks
• Enjoy solving problems without a perfect specification
• Can move from a client conversation to a technical architecture - and then build it
• Care about adoption, reliability and measurable business impact
• Want high autonomy, responsibility and direct exposure - to decision‑makers

Why this role?

Work on AI where the problems are messy, high‑impact and genuinely unsolved.

You’ll combine deep technical work with direct client exposure - helping define what should be built, why it matters, how it should work, and getting it into production.

If you’re an engineer who wants to go beyond building isolated features and instead own real AI solutions from problem definition to production, this is a rare opportunity to do exactly that.