AI Forward-Engineering Lead | Enterprise AI Delivery

EY; St. Louis (MO); Hybrid; USD 126,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Medical & dental coverage

Pension & 401(k)

Job summary

EY is seeking 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. You’ll be the technical authority within an Advanced Forward Engineering cell, turning complex business problems into secure, production-grade solutions while partnering with the client.

Embedded with the client, you’ll set the cell’s direction, manage tradeoffs, and lead a small team, ensuring governance, cost controls, and readiness.

Qualifications

• 8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems in regulated or client-facing contexts.
• 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 roles, owning outcomes end to end.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a small technical team while remaining an individual contributor.
• Strong stakeholder-management skills, including managing client expectations under pressure.
• Solid understanding of software delivery lifecycle, quality gates, and production readiness.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end outcome delivery for the cell, including scoping, tradeoffs, technical direction, and production readiness.
• Embed directly with the client to define real problems and translate business needs into executable solutions.
• Serve as the primary technical interface and trusted advisor to client stakeholders.
• Stay hands-on, designing and building critical parts of the solution and diving into client systems when needed.
• Deploy, adapt, and stabilize solutions in the client environment, owning release readiness and runtime accountability.
• Direct the work of the cell’s Implementation Engineer and Data Engineer, ensuring integrations and data readiness.
• Ensure deployments meet safety, integrity, and cost constraints with governance on safe-to-ship decisions.

Skills

Outcome ownership

Client presence

Hands-on engineering

Technical judgment

Communication

Autonomy in small teams

Pragmatic mindset

Education

Bachelor or Master in CS or related field

Tools

Cloud platforms

AI orchestration frameworks

Data engineering tools

Job description

EY is seeking 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. You’ll be the technical authority within an Advanced Forward Engineering cell, turning complex business problems into secure, production-grade solutions while partnering with the client.

Embedded with the client, you’ll set the cell’s direction, manage tradeoffs, and lead a small team, ensuring governance, cost controls, and readiness.