Forward Deployed Engineer - Contract

hedgehog lab; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 92,000 - 148,000; Full time

Job summary

Hedgehog Lab, a UK digital product consultancy, is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (Contract) to lead the earliest stage of a client engagement. You’ll be the first engineer in, before there’s a delivery team or a plan, shaping the solution and getting buy-in from the client.

The role is hands-on with significant client contact, allowing you to define architecture, build proofs of concept, and establish an engineering pipeline for AI-enabled delivery.

Qualifications

• Experience using AI agents to build production software.
• Ability to break down poorly defined problems and ship working solutions.
• Strong TypeScript or Python across the full stack with NestJS or FastAPI.
• Experience presenting to clients directly and clear written ADRs/docs.
• Consulting, professional services or forward-deployed experience.
• Practical approach to architecture sized to POC, pilot or production.

Responsibilities

• Turn client goals into a solution architecture and technology choices.
• Build proofs of concept that validate the design and hand off.
• Define the engineering pipeline, tooling, workflows and guardrails for AI coding agents.
• Set the quality approach, including testing and code review.
• Knowledge transfer through pairing, leaving patterns for the client's engineers.
• Produce architectural decision records.

Skills

AI agents

TypeScript

Python

Client communication

ADR/docs

Tools

NestJS

FastAPI

Job description

Job title: Forward Deployed Engineer (Contract)

Type: Contract, Outside IR35

Start: Immediate

Length: Three months, with potential to extend

Location: Within 50 miles of an office, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London. Remote, with occasional in-person client sessions

We're looking for a contract Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the earliest stage of a new client engagement.

You’ll be the first engineer in, before there's a delivery team or a plan.

The client wants to know what's possible. Your job is to work that out, then build the proof a delivery team can scale from.

It's hands-on technical work with a lot of direct client contact.

Why you'd want this

You decide how the work gets done.

We don't lock AI tools behind governance and access controls. Use whatever tools suit the problem, swap them, wire them into your stack. No permission needed.

On a recent 19-week build, an AI insights platform producing multilingual analysis from complex data, AI was embedded from day three and 80.5% of authored commits carried verifiable AI co-authorship.

About Hedgehog Lab

We're a UK digital product consultancy and a certified B Corp, with 20 years behind us and offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London.

Our client work spans healthcare, commerce, media and education.

What The Engagement Covers

• Turning the client's goals into a solution architecture and technology choices
• Building proofs of concept that validate the design and hand off cleanly
• Defining the agentic engineering pipeline: tooling, workflows and guardrails for AI coding agents
• Setting the quality approach, including testing and code review
• Knowledge transfer through pairing, leaving patterns the client's engineers can own
• Producing the architectural decision records

Who This Suits

You’ll be in front of the client from the first week.

Shaping unclear problems and explaining your thinking to non-technical people is a big part of the work. If you'd rather stay heads-down coding, this one won't suit you.

Experience You'll Need

• Real experience using AI agents to build production software
• A track record of breaking down poorly defined problems and shipping something that works
• Strong TypeScript or Python across the full stack, with frameworks such as NestJS or FastAPI
• Experience working with and presenting to clients directly
• Clear written communication, especially ADRs and docs others rely on
• Consulting, professional services or forward-deployed experience
• A practical approach to architecture, sized to POC, pilot or production