AI Forward Engineering Lead — Hands-On, Client‑Facing

EY; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 126,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental coverage

Pension and 401(k)

Paid time off

Job summary

EY is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own end-to-end delivery of AI-native systems within a single client engagement in regulated industries. The role blends hands-on coding with customer stewardship, directing a small cell and ensuring production-grade outcomes under real client constraints.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems, strong technical judgment, and a track record of leading technical teams while remaining an individual contributor.

Qualifications

• 8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems, ideally 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.

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 constraints.
• Serve as the primary technical interface and trusted advisor to client stakeholders, managing expectations and sustaining trust.
• Stay hands-on, designing and building critical parts of the solution, diving into the client’s systems and codebase as 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 every deployment meets safety, integrity, and cost constraints, partnering with control authorities.

Skills

Hands-on coding

Cloud platforms

Distributed systems

AI-enabled stacks

Client-facing

Engineering leadership

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or related field

Job description

EY is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own end-to-end delivery of AI-native systems within a single client engagement in regulated industries. The role blends hands-on coding with customer stewardship, directing a small cell and ensuring production-grade outcomes under real client constraints.

The ideal candidate has 8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems, strong technical judgment, and a track record of leading technical teams while remaining an individual contributor.