AI Native Software Engineering Senior Manager/Assoc Director

Accenture; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 123,000 - 337,000; Full time

Job summary

Accenture is seeking a Forward Deployed AI Engineer to join our AI-native Reinvention Deployment Engineering pods in Arlington, VA. This production-focused role embeds with client teams to deploy AI platforms, drive time-to-value, reliability, and adoption at scale across complex enterprises.

You will own outcomes, shape playbooks, and publish reusable reinvention blueprints while collaborating with CTO/CFO/CISO to align architecture with business goals. Travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years engineering experience with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).
• Minimum of 1 year of deep expertise in designing and deploying agentic solutions in production environments.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience with AI platforms — OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, plus open-source models — including building abstraction layers to manage multi-provider pipelines.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience programming in Python, Java, or equivalent; familiarity with evaluation tooling, logging, monitoring, and agent observability.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience deploying to production — CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm), monitoring, and debugging.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in client communication and collaboration, including leading technical workshops and delivering under ambiguity.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent or (minimum 12 years) work experience. AI certifications or agentic tool experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise AI platform deployments across complex multi-stakeholder client environments — Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir — owning the full program from architecture through adoption.
• Own program-level delivery outcomes: time-to-value, reliability, adoption velocity, and scalability across multiple concurrent workstreams, with commercial metrics attached.
• Lead rapid experimentation at pace: drive ambiguous business problems to working production systems in days or weeks across complex enterprise environments.
• Architect and govern enterprise AI solutions across the full technology stack: identity, data, security, governance, platform layer, and multi-system workflow integration at program scale.
• Shape AI reinvention strategy for client CTO, CFO, and CISO: build value architecture, ROI backlogs, use case prioritization frameworks, and multi-year AI adoption roadmaps.
• Define and publish reusable reinvention blueprints, patterns, and accelerators that scale across multiple client engagements and grow the FDE practice.
• Lead architecture design sessions, executive workshops, and code-with sessions with client engineering and C-suite leadership teams.
• Codify delivery learnings, failure patterns, and engineering standards that shape the FDE practice and enable the next generation of forward deployed engineers.

Skills

Cloud-native systems

Agentic solutions design

AI platforms

Python/Java programming

CI/CD & IaC

Client communication & workshops

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Helm

CI/CD tooling

Containerization

Job description

We are:

A forward-thinking services company at the forefront of AI-native innovation. We partner with enterprise clients to create next-generation, agent-powered workflows engineered to scale in real-world settings. Our engineers embed deeply with customers, moving projects beyond experimentation into operational reality.

You are:

Forward Deployed AI Engineers form the execution spine of our Reinvention Deployment Engineering pods. We are building the largest FDE capability in the services industry. The engineers who join at this stage will define what the role looks like at scale and will have access to the hardest enterprise AI problems in the market across every industry. You are a critical thinker that thrives in ambiguity, delivering concrete results by designing, building, and running custom AI agents that augment workflows and scale across modern infrastructure. You’ll help shape the playbook for how enterprises adopt and scale AI-native engineering globally.

The Work:

This is not a consulting role. It is not a project delivery role. It is not a research position. A Forward Deployed AI Engineer is a production engineer who works embedded inside a client's enterprise, shoulder to shoulder with their teams, to make complex AI platforms work in real, messy organizational environments. You own outcomes: time-to-value, adoption, reliability, and scalability. Not delivery milestones. Outcomes.

The market is beginning to understand what leading technology companies have demonstrated: AI products fail not because the models are weak but because deployment is broken. The gap between a successful AI pilot and an AI capability that scales is bridged by engineers who can translate platform capability into measurable business value inside a real enterprise environment. That is this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead enterprise AI platform deployments across complex multi-stakeholder client environments — Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, SAP, or Palantir — owning the full program from architecture through adoption

• Own program-level delivery outcomes: time-to-value, reliability, adoption velocity, and scalability across multiple concurrent workstreams, with commercial metrics attached

• Lead rapid experimentation at pace: drive ambiguous business problems to working production systems in days or weeks across complex enterprise environments

• Architect and govern enterprise AI solutions across the full technology stack: identity, data, security, governance, platform layer, and multi-system workflow integration at program scale

• Shape AI reinvention strategy for client CTO, CFO, and CISO: build value architecture, ROI backlogs, use case prioritization frameworks, and multi-year AI adoption roadmaps

• Define and publish reusable reinvention blueprints, patterns, and accelerators that scale across multiple client engagements and grow the FDE practice

• Lead architecture design sessions, executive workshops, and code-with sessions with client engineering and C-suite leadership teams

• Codify delivery learnings, failure patterns, and engineering standards that shape the FDE practice and enable the next generation of forward deployed engineers

Travel may be required for this role. The amount of travel will vary from 0 to 100% depending on business need and client requirements.

What You Need:

• Minimum of 10 years engineering experience with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).

• Minimum of 1 years of deep expertise in designing and deploying agentic solutions (agents, orchestration, context engineering, RAG, workflows) in production environments.

• Minimum of 2 years of experience with AI platforms — OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, plus open-source models — including building abstraction layers to manage multi-provider pipelines.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience programming in Python, Java, or equivalent; familiarity with evaluation tooling, logging, monitoring, and agent observability.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience deploying to production — CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm), monitoring, and debugging.

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in client communication and collaboration, including being capable of leading technical workshops and delivering under ambiguity.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent or (minimum 12 years) work experience. (If Associate’s Degree, must have minimum 6 years work experience), AI certifications or agentic tool experience is a plus.

Bonus Points If:

• You’ve served as an Agentic AI Engineer in an Enterprise environment

• You’ve defined or worked with enterprise-grade architectures for compound AI systems, orchestration frameworks, or agent registry/stream-based architectures.

• You understand the AI-native paradigm — blending cloud-native with generative model architectures — optimizing for performance, modularity, and efficiency.

• You’ve delivered solutions across multiple industries (e.g., finance, healthcare) by tailoring agentic workflows to industry needs.

Compensation at Accenture varies depending on a wide array of factors, which may include but are not limited to the specific office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. As required by local law, Accenture provides a reasonable range of compensation for roles that may be hired as set forth below. We anticipate this job posting will be posted until 10/16/2026. Accenture offers a market competitive suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, life, and long-term disability coverage, a 401(k) plan, bonus opportunities, paid holidays, and paid time off. See more information on our benefits here: U.S. Employee Benefits | Accenture

Role Location Annual Salary Range
California $132,500 to $366,300
Cleveland $122,700 to $293,000
Colorado $132,500 to $316,400
District of Columbia $141,100 to $337,000
Illinois $122,700 to $316,400
Maine $112,900 to $269,600
Maryland $132,500 to $316,400
Massachusetts $132,500 to $337,000
Minnesota $132,500 to $316,400
New York $122,700 to $366,300
New Jersey $141,100 to $366,300
Virginia $122,700 to $337,000
Washington $141,100 to $337,000

#LI-MP

Requesting an Accommodation

Accenture is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities or religious observances, including reasonable accommodation when needed. If you are hired by Accenture and require accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you will be asked to participate in our reasonable accommodation process. Accommodations made to facilitate the recruiting process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired.

If you would like to be considered for employment opportunities with Accenture and have accommodation needs such as for a disability or religious observance, please call us toll free at 1 [phone] or send us an email or speak with your recruiter.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences.All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities.

For details, view a copy of the Accenture Equal Opportunity and Affinitive Action Policy Statement

Accenture is an EEO and Affinitive Action Employer of Females/Minorities/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.

Accenture is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

Other Employment Statements

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.

Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.

Job candidates will not be obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest as part of the hiring process. Further, at Accenture a criminal conviction history is not an absolute bar to employment.

The Company will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. Additionally, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the Company's legal duty to furnish information.

California requires additional notifications for applicants and employees. If you are a California resident, live in or plan to work from Los Angeles County upon being hired for this position, please click here for additional important information.

Please read Accenture’s Recruiting and Hiring Statement for more information on how we process your data during the Recruiting and Hiring process.