Forward Deployed Engineer

Palo IT; Pau; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote-friendly

Meal vouchers

Health insurance

Career coaching

Certifications support

Open source & R&D access

Job summary

the company Labs in Pau, France is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own AI-powered product delivery from discovery to production across Fortune 1000-like clients, translating complex business problems into scalable solutions.

You will lead hands-on development, mentor teams, present to executives, and ensure value delivery while embracing ambiguity and end-to-end ownership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of hands-on software engineering with client-facing delivery.
• Proven ability to manage all project phases from discovery to production.
• Deep full-stack expertise across ReactJS front-end and back-end stacks.
• Experience deploying AI-powered systems and understanding AI behavior in product design.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end AI-enabled product delivery from discovery to production.
• Engage clients, frame needs, and manage expectations with executives.
• Mentor engineers and promote AI-native best practices.
• Collaborate with Sales and Presales on proposals and designs.
• Drive continuous improvement of delivery tools and playbooks.
• Champion prompt engineering, validation, and guardrails.

Skills

End-to-end project delivery

Client engagement

Team leadership

Strategic advising

AI tooling & prompt engineering

Full-stack engineering (ReactJS, .NET/

Tools

ReactJS

.NET

Java

Python

LLM deployment

Prompt engineering

Job description

Who We Are

Building the AI-first frontier enterprise. We are a global technology consultancy with a trademarked, AI-first approach—Gen-e2. It redefines how enterprises build digital products and transform their organizations with AI. We do the right thing, and we do it right. We're proud to be a World Economic Forum New Champion, and a B Corp-certified company.

• We are small enough to care locally, big enough to deliver globally (10 countries, 450+ experts from 50+ nationalities)
• We are becoming an agentic organization, adopting the AI-native operating model we bring to our clients.
• We are robust and resilient (100% independent, 0 debt, founded 2009)
• We are AI-native professionals who invest in what we believe and work as a collective intelligence
• We are positive, courageous and deliver at the leading edge

Your Role

As Lead Forward Deployed Engineer, you take full ownership of delivering AI-powered products from early discovery through pilot to production to adoption. You will embed closely with Fortune 1000 clients in sectors like finance, retail, and energy, translating ambiguous, high-impact business problems into scalable AI-native solutions.

This hands-on, client-facing role requires deep full-stack expertise and daily use of AI coding tools to accelerate development and maintain high quality. You don’t just write code, you lead workshops, present to senior executives, and ensure your solutions create real user value. If you thrive in ambiguity and end-to-end ownership, this role is for you.

What You’ll Own

• End-to-end project delivery: Lead discovery, scope work, architect, develop prototypes, and deliver stable production-ready AI systems.
• Client engagement: Run discovery sessions, frame complex needs, manage expectations, and build trust with technical and executive stakeholders.
• Team leadership: Mentor engineers, foster AI-native best practices, and nurture autonomous AI-augmented delivery teams.
• Strategic advising: Collaborate with Sales and Presales to craft compelling proposals and solution designs.
• AI-native excellence: Champion prompt engineering, output validation, guardrails, fallback strategies, and embed Gen-e2 methodology in every engagement.
• Continuous improvement: Capture field insights to strengthen delivery tools, playbooks, and accelerate scalable client success.

Who You Are

• 10+ years of hands-on software engineering with proven client-facing delivery experience.
• Skilled at independently managing all project phases from discovery to production with minimal oversight.
• Deep full-stack expertise (preferably ReactJS front-end; .NET, Java, or Python back-end), with eagerness to learn new stacks and platforms.
• Experienced in deploying LLM- or generative AI-powered systems, understanding the nuances of AI behavior in product design.
• Strong architecture and design capabilities coupled with excellent communication and stakeholder management.
• Autonomous, proactive, outcome-oriented, and comfortable leading senior conversations.
• Experience mentoring or leading small teams.
• Familiarity with enterprise constraints - risk, compliance, complex stakeholder environments.

Core AI-Native & Gen-e2 Skills

• Daily, hands-on use of AI tools integral to your development workflow.
• Expertise in prompt engineering and context management to maximize AI effectiveness.
• Critical evaluation of AI-generated outputs to ensure reliability and quality.

More About the company

Our mission is to become the most advanced consulting company when it comes to AI-First product and software engineering. 100% of our projects are focused on deploying our Gen-e2 methodology to clients to help them accelerate delivery and scale those new practices.

• A playground matching your expertise: missions chosen for their complexity, engineering excellence, and meaningful business and societal impact.
• Dedicated career coaching with regular development check-ins and goal support.
• A demanding yet supportive technical community: code reviews, pair programming, mentoring to raise development craft daily.
• Gen-e2 skill ramp-up from week 1, fully integrated onboarding.
• Funded Microsoft and GitHub certifications.
• From idea to impact: internal R&D labs, default open source culture, tech conferences, and innovation dojos to experiment and share.

Plus

Global career opportunities with cross-sector and multi-country missions, connecting 11 offices worldwide.

• Remote-friendly arrangements depending on project needs, alternating client sites and Paris office for team collaboration.
• Impact Academy: training on climate, digital responsibility, and accessibility embedded in everyday practices.
• Solidarity engagements: team volunteering, skills sponsorship, and more.
• Benefits including Swile meal vouchers and Alan health insurance.

For more on our team culture and benefits, check outourcareers page.

the company Labs is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions will be based on merit, qualifications and abilities. the company Labs does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexuality, national origin, age, disability, marital status or any other characteristics protected by law.

Protecting your privacy and the security of your data are longstanding top priorities for the company. Your data will be processed to manage PALOIT’s recruitment-related activities. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.palo-it.com/en/privacy-policy) to know more about how we collect, use, and transfer the personal data of our candidates.