Forward Deployed Eng Director

Accenture UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Accenture is shaping the future of AI at scale. We seek a Forward Deployed AI Engineer who will work inside client enterprises to deliver production AI platforms with measurable business value. You will own time-to-value, adoption, reliability and ROI across engagements.

The role spans platform selection, architecture, and governance, partnering with CTOs and CFOs to drive reinvention and scalable AI outcomes in complex environments.

Qualifications

• Significant engineering experience in deploying AI in production.
• Experience with cloud-native architectures and multi-provider platforms.
• Proven ability to translate strategic intent into scalable production AI systems.

Responsibilities

• Own account-level AI transformation across client enterprise, from platform selection to adoption at scale.
• Hold accountability for deployment outcomes: time-to-value, reliability, adoption, ROI; report to client executives.
• Translate executive strategy into production AI systems across the enterprise.
• Define enterprise AI architecture standards and governance across identity, data, security, and integration.

Skills

AI deployment

Cloud-native

OpenAI platforms

RAG workflows

Executive engagement

Leadership

Tools

APIs

Kubernetes

Microservices

Serverless

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

• Own account-level AI transformation across the client enterprise — from platform selection and architecture through to enterprise-wide adoption and reinvention at scale

• Hold full accountability for deployment outcomes at account level: time-to-value, reliability, adoption, and ROI — directly reported to client executive leadership

• Drive ambiguity to resolution at account scale: translate executive-level strategic intent into production AI systems operating across the enterprise

• Define enterprise AI architecture standards and governance frameworks across the client organisation, spanning identity, data, security, multi-platform integration, and AI lifecycle management

• Own the relationship with client CTO, CFO, and CISO: shape AI investment strategy, board-level narrative, and multi-year reinvention roadmap

• Codify reusable patterns and playbooks that define what enterprise AI reinvention looks like — assets that scale across markets, industries, and the FDE practice globally

• Lead executive workshops, board-level engagements, and cross-practice architecture reviews that shape the client’s AI reinvention trajectory

• Define the FDE practice model: engineering standards, deployment playbooks, talent development frameworks, and the capability architecture that the practice is built on

• Significant engineering experience with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).

• Deep expertise in designing and deploying agentic solutions (agents, orchestration, context engineering, RAG, workflows) in production environments.

• Considerable experience with AI platforms — OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, plus open-source models, including building abstraction layers to manage multi-provider pipelines.

• Substantial experience leading software engineering teams: overseeing delivery, allocating resources across workstreams, and owning the professional development of direct reports"

• Demonstrated end-to-end delivery ownership in a client-embedded environment, internal projects, vendor labs, or team-only deployments do not qualify

• Proven ability to articulate business value: can quantify the impact of deployments in terms a CFO would recognize and act on

• Experience presenting to and building trust with senior client stakeholders, CTO, CFO, or CISO level

• Non-linear profiles are expected and welcomed, assessment is based on demonstrated deployment experience and outcome ownership, not CV pattern matching
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About Accenture

Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth and enhance citizen services—creating tangible value at speed and scale. We are a talent- and innovation-led company with approximately 791,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Technology is at the core of change today, and we are one of the world’s leaders in helping drive that change, with strong ecosystem relationships. We combine our strength in technology and leadership in cloud, data and AI with unmatched industry experience, functional expertise and global delivery capability. Our broad range of services, solutions and assets across Strategy & Consulting, Technology, Operations, Industry X and Song, together with our culture of shared success and commitment to creating 360° value, enable us to help our clients reinvent and build trusted, lasting relationships. We measure our success by the 360° value we create for our clients, each other, our shareholders, partners and communities.

Visit us at www.accenture.com

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by applicable law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.