Forward Deployed Engineer - Avp

Citi; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working model (up to 2 days at/

27 days annual leave

Discretionary annual bonus

Private Medical Care & Life Insurance

Employee Assistance Program

Pension Plan

Paid Parental Leave

Employee discounts

Job summary

Citi London is hiring an intermediate Forward Deployed Engineer to build automated evaluation harnesses, optimize prompts and output schemas, and drive CI/CD testing for production AI agents. You’ll work with business and technology teams to deliver reliable agent workflows and secure, scalable systems.

The role requires hands-on Python development, API integration, and strong testing expertise within a hybrid work model. Excellent collaboration and communication are essential.

Qualifications

• Proficient Python development with REST/gRPC APIs, Docker, and Git workflows.
• Experience with AI evaluation frameworks, BLEU/ROUGE, and automated testing.
• Experience building automated test pipelines in CI/CD environments (Lightspeed, Tekton, Jenkins).
• Ability to work under pressure with tight sprint deadlines and changes in model outputs.
• Strong written/verbal communication and meticulous software quality.

Responsibilities

• Construct automated evaluation test suites using Agentflow Studio.
• Curate domain-specific datasets and regression testbeds with experts.
• Optimize prompts, system instructions and JSON output parsers for determinism.
• Maintain automated test pipelines and gates in Lightspeed CI/CD.
• Analyze agent errors and recommend coding and prompt improvements.
• Implement security measures and Lakera Guardrail policies post‑implementation.
• Provide performance metrics and diagnostic reporting to stakeholders.
• Operate with limited supervision as evaluation SME to the pod team.

Skills

Python

REST/gRPC APIs

AI evaluation frameworks

CI/CD pipelines

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Docker

Git workflows

Lightspeed CI/CD

Tekton

Jenkins

Job description

About the Team

Build the next generation of agentic AI.

The Applied AI and Agents Factory brings together ambitious engineers to turn advanced AI capabilities into production-ready solutions. Working directly with business and technology teams, you’ll tackle complex engineering challenges, build intelligent agents and take ideas from initial concept through to live deployment.

This is an opportunity to work at the cutting edge of AI engineering, developing systems that go beyond conversational tools to reason, plan and execute multi-step workflows. You’ll build reliable agent workflows, integrate AI with enterprise systems and ensure solutions perform securely and consistently in production.

With a strong focus on hands-on engineering, collaboration and rapid delivery, the Factory gives you the opportunity to solve challenging technical problems, develop your expertise and contribute reusable tools and engineering practices that support AI adoption across Citi.

If you want to do more than experiment with AI — and build, deploy and scale systems that deliver real business value — this is where you can make your mark.

About the Role

The Forward Deployed Engineer is an intermediate-level software engineering position responsible for constructing automated evaluation harnesses, curating regression testbeds, optimizing prompts and output schemas, and automating testing pipelines within embedded LOB delivery pods. The overall objective of this role is to ensure the reliability, accuracy, and safety of production AI agents by building rigorous evaluation suites in Agentflow Studio and driving automated CI/CD test execution.

Responsibilities

• Conducts tasks related to the construction, calibration, and execution of automated evaluation test suites using Agentflow Studio, measuring agent task completion, tool call correctness, latency, and hallucination metrics.
• Curates and maintains domain-specific golden datasets, synthetic benchmarks, and regression testbeds in collaboration with LOB domain experts and senior engineers.
• Optimizes prompt templates, system instructions, few-shot examples, and structured JSON output parsers (Pydantic/JSON Schema) to maximize deterministic agent behavior.
• Authors and maintains automated test execution and deployment pipelines within Lightspeed CI/CD, enforcing continuous evaluation gates prior to staging and production rollout.
• Utilizes in-depth specialty knowledge of Python applications development to analyze complex agent errors, evaluate system performance, and recommend advanced coding and prompt solutions.
• Recommends and implements security measures and Lakera Guardrail policies in post‑implementation analysis of agent usage to ensure safe functionality.
• Monitors and controls evaluation test cycles, providing operational support, performance metrics, and prompt diagnostic reporting to business stakeholders and squad leads.
• Has the ability to operate with a limited level of direct supervision, exercising independence of judgement and autonomy while acting as an evaluation SME to pod team members.
• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm’s reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency.

Qualifications

• Relevant software engineering or systems analysis experience or a specialized focus in Python and Generative AI application development).
• Solid Python programming proficiency, with practical experience integrating REST/gRPC APIs, Docker containers, and Git workflows.
• Strong working knowledge of AI evaluation frameworks, benchmarking methodologies (BLEU, ROUGE, semantic similarity, LLM-as-a-judge), and automated testing suites.
• Experience in managing and implementing automated test pipelines in CI/CD environments (Lightspeed, Tekton, Jenkins).
• Ability to work effectively under pressure, managing tight sprint deadlines and unexpected changes in model outputs or LOB requirements.
• Good written and verbal communication skills with a methodical, detail‑oriented approach to software quality and data integrity.

Education

• Bachelor’s/University degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Data Science, or related quantitative discipline.

What we’ll provide you

This is a unique role that will put you in the position to be part of a new venture and actively drive change. Every day there will be new challenges that will help you develop new skills that can drive your career.

By joining Citi London, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:

• 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• A discretional annual performance related bonus
• Private Medical Care & Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Pension Plan
• Paid Parental Leave
• Special discounts for employees, family, and friends

Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self, every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay and empowered to thrive.

#LI-AH4

Job Family Group

Technology

Job Family

Applications Development

Time Type

Full time

Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.