Forward Deployed Engineer – Enterprise AI

Salt; Riyadh; On-site; SAR 300,000 - 550,000; Full time

Job summary

Salt is seeking Forward Deployed Engineers to work directly with enterprise customers in Saudi Arabia. The role combines hands-on AI development with solution design, integrating GenAI-powered applications and automations into enterprise systems.

You will guide deployments from discovery to production, mentor peers, and lead technical discussions with business stakeholders in a fast-moving, customer-facing environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on software engineering experience with Python or a backend language.
• Experience building and deploying enterprise software applications.
• Familiarity with GenAI, LLM APIs, AI agents, RAG or related applied AI technologies.
• Experience integrating applications with enterprise platforms, APIs and cloud services.

Responsibilities

• Customer Discovery & Solution Engineering: Translate business problems into AI-powered solutions and design architectures.
• Hands-On AI Development: Build proofs of concept and production-grade AI applications, APIs, and workflows.
• Production Deployment: Deploy and troubleshoot solutions in production with reliability and monitoring.

Skills

Hands-on software engineering

Python or backend language

GenAI / LLM / RAG

Enterprise software deployment

APIs & cloud services integration

Customer stakeholder communication

Tools

GenAI frameworks

Cloud platforms

Job description

Industry: Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering & Enterprise Technology

The Opportunity: We are working with an ambitious enterprise AI technology company that is building advanced, customer-facing AI solutions for organisations across Saudi Arabia. We are seeking talented Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) and experienced technical leads who can work directly with enterprise customers to design, build and deploy production-grade AI applications. This is a hands-on engineering position for individuals who enjoy solving complex business problems through technology. Unlike traditional presales or solutions consulting roles, successful candidates will be responsible for writing code, developing solutions and helping customers move from initial discovery through to production deployment.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Discovery & Solution Engineering: Engage directly with enterprise customers to understand business challenges, technical requirements and operational workflows. Translate ambiguous business problems into practical AI-powered solutions. Conduct technical discovery sessions and design solution architectures. Collaborate with sales, product and engineering stakeholders to develop and validate customer use cases.

Hands-On AI Development

Design, develop and integrate AI applications, including GenAI solutions, intelligent agents and enterprise automation workflows. Build proofs of concept, prototypes and production-grade software. Develop APIs, integrations, orchestration workflows and customer-specific technical solutions. Work with large language models, retrieval-augmented generation and relevant AI development frameworks. Integrate AI applications with existing enterprise systems, databases and business processes.

Production Deployment

Take ownership of solutions from discovery and demonstration through to implementation and production. Troubleshoot integration challenges, performance issues and production incidents. Support reliability, scalability, monitoring and technical quality. Work with internal engineering and product teams to turn successful customer deployments into reusable capabilities.

Technical Leadership - FDE Lead

Provide technical direction to other engineers during customer engagements. Review solution architectures, engineering quality and deployment approaches. Support complex customer discussions and technical decision-making. Mentor engineering colleagues and promote consistent delivery standards.

Candidate Requirements

Strong hands-on software engineering experience, with practical programming skills in Python or another relevant backend language. Experience building and deploying enterprise software applications. Familiarity with GenAI, LLM APIs, AI agents, RAG or related applied AI technologies. Experience integrating applications with enterprise platforms, APIs and cloud services. Ability to work directly with business and technical customer stakeholders. Strong problem-solving ability and comfort working with incomplete or evolving requirements. Demonstrated ownership of software development beyond demonstrations and proofs of concept. Ability to operate in fast-moving, customer-facing environments.

Preferred Experience

Previous Forward Deployed Engineer, AI Engineer, Solutions Engineer or customer-facing Software Engineer experience. Experience within an AI startup, enterprise AI platform company or technology consultancy. Exposure to cloud infrastructure, containerisation, CI/CD and production application monitoring. Experience delivering solutions for regulated enterprises, financial services or government customers.

What Makes Someone Successful?

You are not simply someone who can demonstrate AI technology. You can meet a customer, understand their business problem, design an appropriate solution, write the code, deploy the application and take ownership of making it work. You are commercially aware without sacrificing engineering quality, comfortable working with customers and motivated by seeing your software create measurable business impact.

Why Consider This Opportunity?

Work on real enterprise AI implementations rather than isolated research projects. Build solutions across diverse industries and customer use cases. Work directly with enterprise stakeholders and experienced engineering teams. Contribute to an evolving AI product and services ecosystem. Take ownership of meaningful technical challenges from concept to production.

Confidential applications welcomed.