Staff/Director, Forward Deployed Engineer

GlaxoSmithKline plc; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

GlaxoSmithKline plc in the United Kingdom is seeking a Staff/Director, Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the FDE function within Enterprise AI and drive collaboration with BU sponsors. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on AI engineering at the frontier of production-ready solutions.

Based at GSK HQ in London with a hybrid work model, the job reports to Enterprise AI leadership and shapes standards across the FDE team while delivering high-impact AI initiatives for the business.

Qualifications

• Extensive software and AI/ML engineering leadership experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent.
• Master’s degree in CS or related field is advantageous.
• Experience turning AI ideas into working software quickly.
• Strong depth in GenAI patterns: agents, multi-agent orchestration, RAG.
• Daily use of AI coding agents as primary development mode.
• Experience hiring and developing senior engineering talent.
• Proven ability to present engineering perspectives to senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function — strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards.
• Hire and mentor the FDE team, creating career paths from G8 to G5.
• Set AI-native engineering standards — agent workflows, prompts, and handoff.
• Own relationships with BU sponsors bringing AI use cases to Enterprise AI.
• Lead strategic FDE engagements and defend portfolio decisions.
• Coordinate with Solutions & Operations on the delivery pipeline.

Skills

Software engineering

AI/ML engineering

People leadership

GenAI patterns

AI agents

Customer-facing engineering

Hiring & mentoring

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s in Computer Science

Master’s in CS advantageous

Tools

Claude Code

GitHub Copilot

Databricks AI Assistant

Job description

Staff/Director, Forward Deployed Engineer Business Introduction

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally. Our Ahead Together strategy is centred on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems. Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Position Summary

GSK’s Enterprise AI team builds AI solutions that prove value fast and scale to production. The Director, Forward Deployed Engineering leads the FDE function — the front of the Enterprise AI delivery pipeline that proves AI ideas with the business through PoCs, PoVs, MVPs and (where appropriate) first production versions, before handing proven solutions off to the Solutions Engineer for scale-up. The pattern is proven by AI-native companies — Anthropic, Palantir, OpenAI — and this role brings that model to GSK. This Staff role leads the Forward Deployed Engineering function with direct line management of the FDE team (Lead, Senior, and Forward Deployed Engineers, flat reporting structure). The Staff sets FDE strategy and engagement priorities, owns Director-level BU sponsor relationships, and represents Enterprise AI on FDE matters to GSK leadership. The role continues to contribute technically at the frontier of AI-augmented engineering — humans steer, agents execute.

Responsibilities

FDE Function Leadership

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function — strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards.
• Hire, mentor, and develop the FDE team — creating development paths from G8 through to G5.
• Set the standards for AI-native engineering practice within the function — agent workflows, prompt and pattern libraries, handoff hygiene.

BU Engagement & Strategic Delivery

• Own relationships with Director and Senior Director-level BU sponsors across business units that bring AI use cases to Enterprise AI.
• Take on the most strategic FDE engagements personally — the ones that set precedents for the function.
• Make and defend portfolio-level kill/continue decisions across FDE engagements with BU and Enterprise AI leadership.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Coordinate with the Solutions Engineering and Operations Engineering functions on the delivery pipeline; represent FDE in Enterprise AI leadership forums.
• Influence vendor strategy and tooling choices for AI-native engineering practice within Enterprise AI.

Governance & Reporting

• Ensure the FDE function operates within Code Orange, Responsible AI, and Accountability Report governance from the prototype stage onward.
• Provide regular reporting to Enterprise AI leadership on FDE function performance — engagement pipeline, outcomes, team development, and capacity.

Qualifications/Skills

Basic Qualifications

• Extensive experience in software engineering and AI/ML engineering, with significant time leading senior engineering teams or functions.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field is advantageous.
• Demonstrated experience taking AI ideas from sketch to working software at speed, in customer-facing engineering roles.
• Strong technical depth in GenAI patterns: agents, multi-agent orchestration, RAG, and evaluation.
• Daily use of AI coding agents (Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Databricks AI Assistant) as the primary mode of development.
• Experience hiring, mentoring, and developing senior engineering talent.
• Track record of representing engineering functions to senior business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior leadership experience at an AI-native company (Anthropic, Palantir, OpenAI, or similar) — Head of Forward Deployed Engineering, Director of Solutions, or equivalent.
• Experience in regulated industries (pharma, healthcare, financial services).
• Experience setting AI engineering standards at organisational scale.

Work Location

This role is based at GSK HQ, London and offers a hybrid working model, combining on-site and remote work.

Closing Date for Applications

25th November 2026

Why GSK?

Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company with a purpose to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We aim to positively impact the health of 2.5 billion people by the end of the decade, as a successful, growing company where people can thrive. We get ahead of disease by preventing and treating it with innovation in specialty medicines and vaccines. We focus on four therapeutic areas: respiratory, immunology and inflammation; oncology; HIV; and infectious diseases – to impact health at scale. People and patients around the world count on the medicines and vaccines we make, so we’re committed to creating an environment where our people can thrive and focus on what matters most. Our culture of being ambitious for patients, accountable for impact and doing the right thing is the foundation for how, together, we deliver for patients, shareholders and our people.

Equal Opportunity and Accessibility

GSK is an Equal Opportunity Employer. This ensures that all qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), military service or any basis prohibited under federal, state or local law.

Flexibility and Adjustments

If flexibility is important to you, we encourage you to explore with our hiring team what the opportunities are. Should you require any adjustments to our process to assist you in demonstrating your strengths and capabilities contact us at [e-mail] where you can also request a call. Please note should your enquiry not relate to adjustments, we will not be able to support you through these channels. However, we have created a Recruitment FAQ guide.

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