Forward-Deployed AI Engineer: Governance & Security

AvePoint; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits

401(k) with match

Unlimited PTO

Bonuses/Equity

Job summary

AvePoint is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (AI) to be the technical face of the company inside client organizations. You will advise on AI trust, governance, and security, translate business problems into scoped AI builds, and ship prototypes end-to-end.

You'll lead workshops with CISOs and executives, define specifications, and deliver production components (LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, MCP tool calls) for regulated or air-gapped environments. Travel is required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, with at least 2 years hands-on with modern AI/LLM systems in real projects (not only experimentation).
• Practical experience building with LLM APIs and frameworks (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex, LangChain, Semantic Kernel) and patterns such as RAG, agentic workflows, and tool/function calling.
• Machine Learning Expertise: Hands-on machine learning experience spanning model development, evaluation, deployment, and operationalization, with a focus on enterprise AI solutions, predictive analytics, and scalable MLOps practices.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C#/TypeScript, plus working fluency with at least one major cloud platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP), including identity, networking, and data services.
• Demonstrated ability to scope technical projects from ambiguous business requirements: you can run a requirements workshop, challenge assumptions constructively, and produce a credible plan with phases, estimates, and risks.
• Excellent communication in front of senior stakeholders — you can explain why AI governance matters to a board member and debate vector database trade-offs with a platform engineer in the same meeting.
• Willingness to travel to client sites and to operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving engagements.

Responsibilities

• What you'll do
• Advise on AI trust and governance.
• Lead workshops that help clients understand and take control of their AI landscape — agents, copilots, models, and the data behind them, including the shadow AI they didn't know about. Explain AI governance, security posture, and resilience concepts credibly to both technical teams and executives. Guide clients through obligations such as the EU AI Act, NIS2, and ISO 42001, and help them stand up practical operating models: AI inventories, approval workflows, risk classification, and audit evidence.
• Scope and shape AI build projects.
• Sit with business stakeholders to understand the underlying need behind "we want AI for X." Identify the highest-value use cases, define success criteria, and translate ambiguous requirements into concrete, estimable technical scopes — architecture outlines, data and integration requirements, delivery phases, effort and risk assessments. Write statements of work that engineering teams can actually deliver and clients can actually sign.
• Build and deliver.
• Develop prototypes and production components for client AI solutions: agent workflows, RAG pipelines, LLM integrations (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Anthropic), MCP-based tool integrations, and the governance and security controls around them. Deliver custom adapters and local tooling for regulated, cloud-restricted, or air-gapped environments where standard SaaS approaches cannot go.
• Own the relationship through delivery.
• Act as the trusted technical advisor from first workshop through go-live: run enablement sessions, support adoption, troubleshoot in production, and expand the engagement where you see genuine value for the client.

Skills

AI/LLM experience

Python

TypeScript/C#

Cloud platforms

Stakeholder communication

Workshops & scoping

Prototyping & delivery

Tools

Azure OpenAI

Bedrock

Vertex AI

LangChain

Semantic Kernel

MCP

Vector databases

Job description

AvePoint is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (AI) to be the technical face of the company inside client organizations. You will advise on AI trust, governance, and security, translate business problems into scoped AI builds, and ship prototypes end-to-end.

You'll lead workshops with CISOs and executives, define specifications, and deliver production components (LLM integrations, RAG pipelines, MCP tool calls) for regulated or air-gapped environments. Travel is required.