Forward Deployed Engineer

MarkIT Placements; St. James; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

MarkIT Placements is seeking a Lead / Principal AI Engineer to own product discovery and delivery across client engagements. You will architect AI agents, full-stack applications, and workflows with Next.js, FastAPI and MCP-based frameworks.

Expect collaboration with UX/design, cross-functional teams and a high accountability culture. You will drive roadmaps, write PRDs, and define success metrics while mentoring engineers and engaging with senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• At least 6 years building production software.
• 3+ years building AI/agentic development systems.
• Hands-on agents and multi-step AI workflows experience.
• Experience with LangGraph, AutoGen, Claude Agent SDK or equivalent.
• Strong Python and/or TypeScript experience.
• Solid OOP, SOLID, 12-factor and microservice knowledge.
• Experience with Next.js and FastAPI or similar.
• Vector DBs, retrieval pipelines and AI evaluation frameworks.
• Cloud-native deployment with AWS, Azure, Cloudflare or Vercel.
• Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD tooling experience.
• Understanding of LLM behavior, failure modes, and optimization.
• Proven track record shipping technology (GitHub projects, portfolios).
• Experience owning a product area end-to-end.
• Experience in product discovery, roadmapping and prioritisation.
• Experience in writing PRDs, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• Experience defining success metrics and using data to steer direction.
• Collaborating with UX/design teams and agile delivery.
• Experience in client-facing consulting or similar environments.
• Ability to structure ambiguous problems for senior stakeholders.
• Strong written communication and executive-readout skills.
• Experience scoping, estimation and stakeholder management.
• Willingness to travel to client sites.
• Bachelor/Master in CS, ML or related.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery with business and technical stakeholders.
• Separate client problems from underlying needs and hypotheses.
• Structure ambiguity into clear options and recommendations.
• Develop business cases around value, cost and outcomes.
• Communicate effectively with technical and executive audiences.
• Translate discovery into an outcome-driven roadmap.
• Own scope, priorities, sequencing and trade-offs.
• Create clear product documentation including PRDs and user stories.
• Define and track meaningful success metrics.
• Work with UX/design to align with user needs.
• Run agile delivery with backlogs, sprints, demos and releases.
• Own production software, including infrastructure and deployment.
• Develop full-stack apps, APIs, AI agents and workflows.
• Use technologies: Next.js, React, FastAPI, Fastify, Hono, MCP.
• Design agentic apps using LangGraph, AutoGen, Claude SDK or similar.
• Integrate LLMs with tools/databases and external systems.
• Implement RAG via vector databases and retrieval.
• Handle logging, monitoring, metrics and tracing.
• Automate CI/CD with GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
• Improve performance, scalability and cost efficiency.
• Mentor engineers and set client engagement standards.
• Lead interview/onboarding of future team members.

Skills

AI engineering

Python

TypeScript

OOP & SOLID

12-factor apps

Microservices

Next.js

FastAPI

LangGraph

AutoGen

Claude Agent SDK

OpenAI tooling

Docker

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Vector databases

Retrieval pipelines

Cloud deployment

AWS

Azure

GitHub

Agile delivery

Client relationships

Communication

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Machine Learning or related

Tools

LangGraph

AutoGen

Claude Agent SDK

OpenAI tooling

GitHub Copilot

Job description

Salary: £100,000 - 100,000 per year

Requirements

• We require at least 6 years of experience building production software.
• We require at least 3 years of experience building production applications using AI and/or agentic development approaches.
• We require strong hands‑on experience building agents and multi‑step AI workflows, not just integrating chat or prompted models.
• We require experience with agent frameworks such as LangGraph, AutoGen, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI tooling or equivalent.
• We require strong Python and/or TypeScript experience.
• We require a strong understanding of OOP, SOLID, 12‑factor application development and microservice architecture.
• We require experience building applications with frameworks such as Next.js and FastAPI or equivalent.
• We require experience with vector databases, retrieval pipelines and AI evaluation frameworks.
• We require cloud‑native deployment experience with at least one of AWS, Azure, Cloudflare or Vercel.
• We require experience with Docker, Kubernetes and CI/CD tooling.
• We require a deep understanding of how LLMs behave, where they fail and how to optimise accuracy, latency and cost.
• We require a demonstrable track record of building and shipping technology, such as GitHub projects, portfolios, side projects or open‑source contributions.
• We require experience owning a product or significant product area from discovery through delivery.
• We require experience in product discovery and problem framing.
• We require experience in roadmapping, prioritisation and opportunity assessment.
• We require experience writing PRDs, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• We require experience defining and measuring product success metrics.
• We require experience using data and evidence to change product direction.
• We require experience working closely with UX and design teams.
• We require experience running agile delivery processes with accountability for outcomes.
• We require previous experience in consulting, professional services, forward deployment or another client‑facing environment.
• We require experience owning client relationships.
• We require the ability to structure ambiguous problems and make clear recommendations to senior, non‑technical stakeholders.
• We require excellent written communication, including decision papers, proposals and executive readouts.
• We require experience with scoping, estimation, change control and stakeholder management.
• We require the confidence to challenge clients or senior stakeholders constructively when the evidence supports a different approach.
• We require a strong commitment to clean code, testing, security, observability, scalability, performance and cost efficiency.
• We require excellent communication and written skills.
• We require a founder‑style mindset and enthusiasm for solving ambiguous, high‑impact technical and commercial problems.
• We require willingness to travel to client sites when required.
• We require a Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Machine Learning or a related technical discipline.

Responsibilities

• We lead discovery with business and technical stakeholders.
• We separate the problem a client describes from the underlying problem they actually need to solve.
• We structure ambiguity into clear hypotheses, options, trade‑offs and recommendations.
• We develop business cases around value, cost, adoption risk and expected outcomes.
• We communicate effectively with both technical and executive audiences.
• We translate product discovery into a focused, outcome‑driven roadmap.
• We own scope, priorities, sequencing and trade‑offs.
• We create clear product documentation including problem briefs, PRDs, user stories and acceptance criteria.
• We define and track meaningful success metrics.
• We work closely with UX and design teams to ensure solutions are built around genuine user needs.
• We run agile delivery processes, including backlogs, sprints, demos and releases.
• We continue to own and iterate on products after launch based on user feedback and performance data.
• We build production‑quality software using Python and/or TypeScript.
• We develop full‑stack applications, APIs, AI agents and workflows.
• We work with technologies including Next.js, React, FastAPI, Fastify, FastMCP and Hono.
• We design and implement agentic applications using technologies such as LangGraph, AutoGen, Claude Agent SDK, OpenAI tooling or custom orchestration frameworks.
• We integrate leading and self‑hosted LLMs with tools, data and external systems using MCP and custom connectors.
• We implement RAG solutions using vector databases and hybrid retrieval where appropriate.
• We work across relational, document, key‑value and graph databases depending on the problem.
• We develop prompt and context engineering approaches focused on accuracy, reliability, cost and latency.
• We make structured use of AI‑assisted development tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot and Codex.
• We fine‑tune or adapt models where there is a genuine use case.
• We own solutions into production, including infrastructure and deployment.
• We own AI evaluation and testing frameworks.
• We implement MCP servers.
• We manage cloud deployment across AWS, Azure, Cloudflare or Vercel.
• We use Docker, Kubernetes and/or serverless architectures.
• We apply TDD and robust software engineering practices.
• We handle security, secrets management and SAST/DAST.
• We implement structured logging, monitoring, metrics and tracing.
• We automate CI/CD using tools such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
• We optimise performance, scalability and cost.
• We take operational ownership of the systems we build.
• We mentor engineers in AI engineering, system design, product thinking and agentic architectures.
• We set the technical and product standard on client engagements.
• We review work, raise engineering standards and unblock teams.
• We contribute to reusable accelerators, playbooks and technical assets.
• We help interview, onboard and develop future team members.

Technologies

• AI
• AI Agents
• AWS
• Azure
• CI/CD
• Claude Code
• Cloud
• Copilot
• Cursor
• Docker
• FastAPI
• GitHub
• Jenkins
• Kubernetes
• Machine Learning
• MCP
• OOP
• Python
• RAG
• React
• Security
• Serverless
• TDD
• TypeScript
• UX UI Design
• Support

More

We are an innovative, global digital health technology business partnering with major organisations across the pharmaceutical, biotech and healthcare sectors. This is a hybrid, full‑time Lead / Principal Individual Contributor role that combines AI engineering, product ownership and client leadership. You will work at the forefront of AI, agentic development and digital health, with significant autonomy, exposure to high‑profile clients and complex technology challenges, and the opportunity to build technology with meaningful real‑world impact. We offer a collaborative, people‑focused culture, continuous learning, technical leadership and mentoring opportunities, competitive salary and benefits, and the chance to help set the standard for how AI products are delivered.

last updated 38 week of 2026