AI Forward Engineering Cell Lead - Hands-On & Client-Facing

EY

Des Moines (IA)

Hybrid

USD 126,000 - 230,000

Full time

8 days ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Total Rewards package

Hybrid work model

Flexible vacation policy

Job summary

EY seeks a hands-on Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own end-to-end delivery of AI-native systems for a single client engagement in regulated industries. Embedded with the client, you will lead a small cell, set technical direction, and manage tradeoffs with senior stakeholders to ensure secure, production-grade outcomes.

You will stay hands-on, design key components, and drive production readiness while balancing regulatory constraints and client priorities.

Qualifications

8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems.
Hands-on engineering depth across integration-heavy architectures, cloud platforms, and distributed systems.
Experience with modern AI-enabled application stacks (e.g., agentic systems, orchestration frameworks, LLM-backed services).
Proven ability to operate in forward-deployed, customer-facing, or solutions-architecture roles, owning outcomes end to end.
Demonstrated ability to lead a small technical team while remaining an individual contributor.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end outcome delivery for the cell, including scoping, tradeoffs, technical direction, and production readiness, taking accountability for the business outcome, not just the code.
Embed directly with the client to define the real problem and translate ambiguous business needs into an executable technical solution under regulatory and environmental constraints.
Serve as the primary technical interface and trusted advisor to client stakeholders, managing expectations, communicating tradeoffs, and sustaining the trust that drives adoption.
Stay hands-on, personally designing and building critical parts of the solution, and diving deep into the client’s systems, data, and codebase when the engagement requires it.
Deploy, adapt, and stabilize solutions in the client environment using supported templates and profiles, owning release readiness and runtime accountability for what the cell ships.
Direct the work of the cell’s Implementation Engineer and Data Engineer, ensuring integrations, orchestration, and data readiness come together into a coherent, production-grade outcome.
Ensure every deployment meets safety, integrity, and cost constraints, partnering with control authorities and the Distinguished AFE on safe-to-ship decisions for regulated environments.