Director, Forward-Deployed AI Engineering (Hybrid)

GlaxoSmithKline plc; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

GlaxoSmithKline plc in the United Kingdom is seeking a Staff/Director, Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the FDE function within Enterprise AI and drive collaboration with BU sponsors. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on AI engineering at the frontier of production-ready solutions.

Based at GSK HQ in London with a hybrid work model, the job reports to Enterprise AI leadership and shapes standards across the FDE team while delivering high-impact AI initiatives for the business.

Qualifications

• Extensive software and AI/ML engineering leadership experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent.
• Master’s degree in CS or related field is advantageous.
• Experience turning AI ideas into working software quickly.
• Strong depth in GenAI patterns: agents, multi-agent orchestration, RAG.
• Daily use of AI coding agents as primary development mode.
• Experience hiring and developing senior engineering talent.
• Proven ability to present engineering perspectives to senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function — strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards.
• Hire and mentor the FDE team, creating career paths from G8 to G5.
• Set AI-native engineering standards — agent workflows, prompts, and handoff.
• Own relationships with BU sponsors bringing AI use cases to Enterprise AI.
• Lead strategic FDE engagements and defend portfolio decisions.
• Coordinate with Solutions & Operations on the delivery pipeline.

Skills

Software engineering

AI/ML engineering

People leadership

GenAI patterns

AI agents

Customer-facing engineering

Hiring & mentoring

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s in Computer Science

Master’s in CS advantageous

Tools

Claude Code

GitHub Copilot

Databricks AI Assistant

Job description

GlaxoSmithKline plc in the United Kingdom is seeking a Staff/Director, Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the FDE function within Enterprise AI and drive collaboration with BU sponsors. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on AI engineering at the frontier of production-ready solutions.

Based at GSK HQ in London with a hybrid work model, the job reports to Enterprise AI leadership and shapes standards across the FDE team while delivering high-impact AI initiatives for the business.