Frontline AI Engineer: Lead Early-Stage Client Solutions

hedgehog lab

Leeds

Hybrid

GBP 90,000 - 130,000

Full time

2 days ago

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Job summary

Hedgehog Lab is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead early client engagements from day one, shaping architecture and technology choices with real ownership. You'll work directly with client teams, delivering proofs of concept and building patterns that scale into production, while traveling between Leeds or Manchester areas within a flexible hybrid model.

In this role you’ll own delivery decisions, communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders, and help shape engineering practices

Qualifications

Real experience using AI agents to build production software.
The ability to break down a complicated, poorly defined problem and ship something that works
Strong TypeScript or Python, comfortable across the full stack, with frameworks such as NestJS or FastAPI
Experience meeting and presenting to clients directly
Strong written communication, especially for ADRs and docs others rely on
Experience in consulting, professional services or a forward-deployed role
A pragmatic take on architecture, sized to POC, pilot or production

Responsibilities

Turn customer goals into a solution architecture and technology choices
Build proofs of concept that validate your design and hand off cleanly
Define the agentic engineering pipeline: tooling, workflows and guardrails for AI coding agents
Shape the quality strategy, including test approach and code review
Make other engineers more capable, pairing on real work and leaving patterns client teams can own
Own the architectural decision records