Forward Deployed Engineer

hedgehog lab; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Hedgehog Lab, a UK digital product consultancy, seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead early client engagements and shape architecture from day one. You’ll work directly with customer teams to define solutions, build proofs of concept, and establish pipelines that scale with delivery teams.

You’ll be in front of clients from the start, shaping ambiguous problems and delivering practical outcomes. This permanent, flexible role spans healthcare, commerce, media and education, with a strong

Qualifications

• Real experience using AI agents to build production software.
• Ability to break down a complicated, poorly defined problem and ship something that works.
• Strong TypeScript or Python, comfortable across the full stack, with frameworks such as NestJS or FastAPI.
• Experience meeting and presenting to clients directly.
• Strong written communication, especially for ADRs and docs others rely on.
• Experience in consulting, professional services or a forward-deployed role.
• A pragmatic take on architecture, sized to POC, pilot or production.

Responsibilities

• Turn customer goals into a solution architecture and technology choices.
• Build proofs of concept that validate your design and hand off cleanly.
• Define the agentic engineering pipeline: tooling, workflows and guardrails for AI coding agents.
• Shape the quality strategy, including test approach and code review.
• Make other engineers more capable, pairing on real work and leaving patterns client teams can own.
• Own the architectural decision records.

Skills

AI agents

Problem decomposition

TypeScript

Python

Client presentations

Written communication

Consulting/forward-deployed

Architectural pragmatism

Tools

NestJS

FastAPI

Job description

Type: Full-time, permanent

Working pattern: Flexible, home, office or hybrid

Location: Within 50 miles of an office, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London

We're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the earliest, most open stage of our client work.

This is a forward deployed engineering role that combines hands-on technical ownership with a prominent client relationship, working directly with customer teams to solve their hardest challenges

You’ll be the first engineer through the door on a new client engagement. Before there's a team, before there's a plan, with no one ahead of you telling you how to build it.

Just a client trusting you to work out what's possible, then build the proof a delivery team can scale from.

Most engineering roles start once the hard decisions are made. This one starts before them.

If that sounds exciting rather than daunting, this could be for you.

Why you’d want this

You decide how the work gets done. Most companies wrap their AI accounts in governance and access controls that block half of what's useful. We don't. Swap one AI tool for another, wire them into your stack, whatever suits the problem. No permission needed. The work spans sectors, from healthcare and commerce to media and education, and it's live transformation that ships. On a recent 19-week build, an AI insights platform turning complex data into clear, multilingual analysis, AI was embedded from day three and 80.5% of authored commits carried verifiable AI co-authorship. We call the approach Run: deliver something the business needs now, use that work to set better engineering practices, and leave the team stronger than you found it. You're close to clients from the start, so the effect of your decisions is visible.

About Hedgehog Lab

We're a UK digital product consultancy and a certified B Corp, with 20 years behind us and teams in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London. AI reaches beyond the engineering floor. Around 40 people across the business, recruitment and operations included, are working out how AI changes their own roles.

What You’ll Do

• Turn customer goals into a solution architecture and technology choices
• Build proofs of concept that validate your design and hand off cleanly
• Define the agentic engineering pipeline: tooling, workflows and guardrails for AI coding agents
• Shape the quality strategy, including test approach and code review
• Make other engineers more capable, pairing on real work and leaving patterns client teams can own
• Own the architectural decision records

Who’s This Is For

You'll be in front of clients from the first week, not just building behind the scenes. Shaping ambiguous problems and explaining your thinking to non-technical people is core to the job. If you'd rather keep your head down and code, this isn't for you.

Experience You’ll Need To Be Considered

• Real experience using AI agents to build production software, not copy-pasting from ChatGPT
• The ability to break down a complicated, poorly defined problem and ship something that works
• Strong TypeScript or Python, comfortable across the full stack, with frameworks such as NestJS or FastAPI
• Experience meeting and presenting to clients directly
• Strong written communication, especially for ADRs and docs others rely on
• Experience in consulting, professional services or a forward-deployed role
• A pragmatic take on architecture, sized to POC, pilot or production

Where you’ll work

This is a permanent role. We don't mandate office days, but we value time together in person, as a team and with clients.

From time to time there will be client presentations and meetings we'd expect you to attend in person.

To make that work, you'll need to be based within 50 miles of one of our offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London.