Staff - Forward Deployed Engineer

GSK plc; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

GSK plc is seeking a senior leader to head the Forward Deployed Engineering function within Enterprise AI. You will shape strategy, structure, and standards while remaining hands-on on strategic engagements with AI/ML technologies and vendor governance.

You will manage a team of engineers, establish delivery patterns, and sponsor senior business-unit collaborations to translate AI opportunities into tangible outcomes across vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines at scale.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software 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.
• Proven track record of taking AI ideas from sketch to working software at speed in customer-facing engineering roles.
• Strong technical depth in GenAI patterns, including agents, multi‑agent orchestration, RAG, and evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, owning strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards, with a clear engagement pipeline that delivers at pace.
• Hire, mentor, and develop the FDE team, creating development paths with milestones and active coaching.
• Set the standards for AI‑native engineering practice within the function — agentic delivery‑automation workflows, delivery bot meshes, prompt and pattern libraries, and handoff hygiene.
• Set the bar for AI, ML, and data science rigor across the function, including evaluation standards, experimental design, and model validation, acting as the final technical authority on modeling approach for strategic engagements.
• Own relationships with Director and Senior Director‑level business unit sponsors, bringing AI use cases to Enterprise AI and sustaining engagement through the delivery cycle.
• Take on the most strategic FDE engagements personally, staying hands‑on on engagements that set precedents.
• Make and defend portfolio‑level kill/continue decisions across FDE engagements with business unit and Enterprise AI leadership.
• Track frontier of AI/ML research and translate advances into practical guidance for the team.
• Coordinate with Solutions Engineering and Operations Engineering on the delivery pipeline and represent FDE in leadership forums.
• Influence vendor strategy and tooling choices for AI‑native engineering practice within Enterprise AI.
• Build governance in by design, ensuring FDE operates within governance from prototype onward.

Skills

AI Frameworks

Algorithm Optimization

Artificial Neural Networks

Computer Programming

Deep Learning

Feature Engineering

GCP ML

ML Operations

Azure AI

Model Evaluation

Model Training

Model Validation

SDLC

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science

Master's degree in CS or related field

Tools

Claude Code

GitHub Copilot

Databricks AI Assistant

Job description

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 centered 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. Forward Deployed Engineering is the front of the Enterprise AI delivery pipeline — proving AI ideas with the business through PoCs, PoVs, MVPs, and, where appropriate, first production versions, before handing proven solutions to Solutions Engineering for scale-up — bringing to GSK a model proven by AI-native companies such as Anthropic, Palantir, and OpenAI. You will lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, with direct line management of the FDE team (Lead, Senior, and Forward Deployed Engineers in a flat reporting structure), setting FDE strategy and engagement priorities, owning Director‑level business unit sponsor relationships, and representing Enterprise AI on FDE matters to GSK leadership. Enterprise AI's credibility with the business depends on engineers who can land inside business unit problems, prove value quickly, and hand off cleanly; you will build and lead the function that makes this happen. This is a hands‑on leadership role for someone who keeps their judgment grounded in current AI engineering reality: continuing to contribute technically on the most strategic engagements at the frontier of AI‑augmented engineering, while building a team that delivers at pace and grows toward greater seniority. Humans steer; agents execute.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, owning strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards, with a clear engagement pipeline that delivers at pace.
• Hire, mentor, and develop the FDE team, creating development paths from G8 through to G5 with clear milestones and active coaching.
• Set the standards for AI‑native engineering practice within the function — agentic delivery‑automation workflows, delivery bot meshes, prompt and pattern libraries, and handoff hygiene — documented and actively used by the team.
• Set the bar for AI, ML, and data science rigor across the function, including evaluation standards, experimental design, and model validation, acting as the final technical authority on modeling approach for strategic engagements.
• Own relationships with Director and Senior Director‑level business unit sponsors, bringing AI use cases to Enterprise AI and sustaining engagement through the delivery cycle as a credible, high‑value partner rather than a vendor.
• Take on the most strategic FDE engagements personally, staying hands‑on on the engagements that set precedents for the function.
• Make and defend portfolio‑level kill/continue decisions across FDE engagements with business unit and Enterprise AI leadership, translating AI engineering possibility into business outcomes.
• Track the frontier of AI/ML research and translate advances into practical guidance for the team.
• Coordinate with Solutions Engineering and Operations Engineering on the delivery pipeline and represent FDE in Enterprise AI leadership forums.
• Influence vendor strategy and tooling choices for AI‑native engineering practice within Enterprise AI.
• Build governance in by design, ensuring the FDE function operates within Code Orange, Responsible AI, and Accountability Report governance from the prototype stage onward, not bolted on afterward.
• Report to Enterprise AI leadership on FDE function performance — engagement pipeline, outcomes, team development, and capacity.

Why You ?

Basic Qualification

• 12 or more years of 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.
• Proven track record of taking AI ideas from sketch to working software at speed in customer-facing engineering roles.
• Strong technical depth in GenAI patterns, including agents, multi‑agent orchestration, RAG, and evaluation.
• Recognized expertise in AI, ML, and data science — classical ML, deep learning, LLMs and foundation models, statistical and causal inference, and MLOps at scale — with the credibility to evaluate and challenge modeling decisions across a portfolio of engagements.
• Demonstrated daily use of AI coding agents, such as Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, or Databricks AI Assistant, as the primary mode of development, going beyond vibe coding, with experience designing agentic delivery‑automation workflows and delivery bot meshes and setting standards for their use across a team.
• Experience hiring, mentoring, and developing senior engineering talent, and building an engineering function's structure, standards, culture, and ways of working.
• Track record of representing engineering functions to senior business stakeholders.

Preferred Qualification

• Prior leadership experience at an AI‑native company (Anthropic, Palantir, OpenAI, or similar), such as Head of Forward Deployed Engineering, Director of Solutions, or equivalent.
• Master's degree in computer science or a related field.
• Experience in regulated industries (pharma, healthcare, financial services).
• Experience setting AI engineering standards at organizational

Skills

• AI Frameworks
• Algorithm Optimization
• Artificial Neural Networks (ANNS)
• Computer Programming
• Deep Learning
• Feature Engineering
• Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for Machine Learning
• Machine Learning Operations
• Microsoft Azure Data and AI
• ML Frameworks
• Model Evaluation
• Model Training
• Model Validation
• Performance Optimizations
• Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

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.

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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.