Forward Deployed Engineering Assoc Manager

Accenture UK & Ireland; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Accenture UK & Ireland is seeking a Forward Deployed AI Engineer to work embedded with client teams, deploying AI platforms and translating platform capability into measurable business value inside real enterprise environments.

You will own production outcomes end-to-end, drive rapid prototyping to production-ready systems, and design architectures across identity, data, security, governance, and workflow to deliver business impact for CTO/CFO/CISO.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years in engineering with cloud-native APIs, microservices, containerization, and serverless.
• At least 1 year designing and deploying agentic solutions in production.
• 3 years AI platform experience (OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI) plus open-source models.
• 10+ years deploying to production with CI/CD, IaC (Terraform, Helm), monitoring and debugging.
• Proven end-to-end delivery ownership in client-embedded environments.
• Ability to quantify business value for CFO-level stakeholders.
• Experience presenting to senior client stakeholders (CTO/CFO/CISO).
• Non-linear profiles welcomed; focus on deployment outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Embed with client teams to deploy and operationalize AI platforms inside enterprise environments.
• Own production outcomes end-to-end with time-to-value, reliability, and scalability.
• Prototype quickly from ambiguous problem to production-ready system.
• Design and govern AI architectures across identity, data, security, governance, and workflow.
• Translate architecture into business impact for CTO, CFO, and CISO; shape ROI backlogs.
• Build reusable patterns and accelerators for client ownership after engagement.
• Lead design workshops, proofs of concept, architecture walkthroughs with client teams.
• Codify patterns and lessons that scale across engagements and FDE practice.

Skills

Cloud-native systems

APIs

Microservices

Containerization

Serverless

Agentic solutions

AI platforms

OpenAI

Claude

Vertex AI

Open-source models

CI/CD

Tools

Terraform

Helm

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

Role Description

This is not a consulting role. It is not a project delivery role. It is not a research position. A Forward Deployed AI Engineer is a production engineer who works embedded inside a client's enterprise, shoulder to shoulder with their teams, to make complex AI platforms work in real, messy organizational environments. You own outcomes: time-to-value, adoption, reliability, and scalability. Not delivery milestones. Outcomes.

The market is beginning to understand what leading technology companies have demonstrated: AI products fail not because the models are weak but because deployment is broken. The gap between a successful AI pilot and an AI capability that scales is bridged by engineers who can translate platform capability into measurable business value inside a real enterprise environment. That is this role.

Forward Deployed AI Engineers form the execution spine of our Reinvention Deployment Engineering pods. We are building the largest FDE capability in the services industry. The engineers who join at this stage will define what the role looks like at scale and will have access to the hardest enterprise AI problems in the market across every industry.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed directly with client engineering and business teams to deploy, scale, and operationalize AI platforms — Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir — inside enterprise environments
• Own production outcomes end-to-end: time-to-value, reliability, adoption velocity, and scalability, with business metrics attached — not just delivery milestones
• Move from ambiguous business problem to working production system through rapid experimentation: days to prototype, weeks to production-ready
• Design and govern AI architectures across the full enterprise stack: identity, data, security, governance, platform layer, and workflow integration
• Translate technical architecture into business impact for client CTO, CFO, and CISO; shape use case roadmaps, ROI backlogs, and AI adoption strategy
• Build reusable patterns, playbooks, and accelerators that the client owns after you leave — enabling the client team to run it without you
• Lead design workshops, proofs of concept, architecture walkthroughs, and code-with sessions with client engineering and leadership teams
• Codify patterns and delivery learnings that scale across engagements and contribute to the growth of the FDE practice

Basic Qualifications

• 3-5 years engineering experience with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).
• Minimum of 1 years of deep expertise in designing and deploying agentic solutions (agents, orchestration, context engineering, RAG, workflows) in production environments.
• Minimum of 3 years of experience with AI platforms — OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, plus open-source models — including building abstraction layers to manage multi-provider pipelines.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience deploying to production , CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm), monitoring, and debugging.
• Demonstrated end-to-end delivery ownership in a client-embedded environment, internal projects, vendor labs, or team-only deployments do not qualify
• Proven ability to articulate business value: can quantify the impact of deployments in terms a CFO would recognize and act on
• Experience presenting to and building trust with senior client stakeholders, CTO, CFO, or CISO level
• Non-linear profiles are expected and welcomed, assessment is based on demonstrated deployment experience and outcome ownership, not CV pattern matching