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

EY; Tucson (AZ); Hybrid; USD 126,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental coverage

401(k) plans

Paid time off

Hybrid work model

Job summary

EY is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own end-to-end delivery of AI-enabled systems within a client engagement in highly regulated industries. The role embeds with the client, leading a small cell and driving production-grade outcomes while balancing technical judgment and client trust.

The position requires strong hands-on skills, 8+ years delivering enterprise systems, and experience with cloud, distributed architectures, and AI governance.

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, or solutions-architecture 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 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.

Skills

Hands-on engineering depth

Client-facing experience

AI-enabled systems

Solutions delivery

Team leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

Cloud platforms

Distributed systems

AI governance/security

Job description

EY is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer to own end-to-end delivery of AI-enabled systems within a client engagement in highly regulated industries. The role embeds with the client, leading a small cell and driving production-grade outcomes while balancing technical judgment and client trust.

The position requires strong hands-on skills, 8+ years delivering enterprise systems, and experience with cloud, distributed architectures, and AI governance.