Forward Deployed Engineer - Contract

Hedgehog Lab; Newcastle upon Tyne; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Hedgehog Lab is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the earliest stage of a client engagement. You will be the first engineer on the project, working directly with clients to define what is possible and how to scale a delivery team from that foundation.

This contract role emphasizes hands-on work, with strong autonomy to choose tools and approaches. Remote with occasional in-person client sessions within 50 miles of Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London.

Qualifications

• 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 modern frameworks.
• Experience directly presenting to clients and stakeholders.
• Clear written communication and ADRs/docs.

Responsibilities

• Turn client goals into solution architecture and technology choices.
• Build proofs of concept that validate design and enable handoff.
• Define the agentic engineering pipeline, tooling and guardrails.
• Set quality approach, including testing and code review.
• Transfer knowledge through pairing and documenting patterns.

Skills

AI agents

Problem solving

TypeScript

Python

Client communication

Documentation

Consulting

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