Forward Deployed AI Engineer REQ_55, REQ_56

3Pillar; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

3Pillar is an AI transformation partner on a mission to help enterprises build AI-native products and intelligent agents. The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is a highly technical, customer-facing role that sits at the intersection of software development and client architecture.

FDEs work with enterprise clients to understand architectures, rapidly build PoCs, and embed within client environments to deploy production-grade code.

Qualifications

• Senior/Staff-level background in software engineering, systems architecture, or data engineering.
• Proven ability to ship production-grade systems.
• Fluency in modern backend environments and API patterns.

Responsibilities

• Technical Discovery & Rapid Prototyping with early-stage client discovery.
• Hands-on client deployment of production-grade code.
• Integration & systems engineering across environments and clouds.
• Technical onboarding and hand-off with documentation and guardrails.

Skills

Senior/Staff-Level Engineering

Polyglot Systems Fluency

Cloud Architecture

Consultative Problem Solving

Execution Speed

Job description

3Pillar is an AI transformation partner on a mission to help enterprises build the AI-native products and intelligent agents that will define the next era of business. With teams across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia, we work with the most ambitious companies in financial services, healthcare, media, and technology - helping them move faster, modernize boldly, and compete on their own terms. Our HelixAI platform and Helix Pods delivery model put our engineers at the center of real agentic transformation - doing work that is open, portable, and built to last. We are building the future of enterprise AI.

Location: Canada (Remote/Hybrid), open to US

Position Overview

The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is a highly technical, customer-facing engineering role that sits at the intersection of complex software development and strategic client architecture. FDEs work directly with prospective and existing enterprise clients to understand their architectural challenges, rapidly build high-impact proofs-of-concept (PoCs), and embed within client engineering environments to deploy production-grade code.

This role balances technical execution with strategic consulting, shifting from early-stage architecture discovery to hands-on software delivery and integration.

Key Responsibilities

• Technical Discovery & Rapid Prototyping: Partner with sales and solutions teams during early-stage discovery to analyze a client's existing technical stack, data pipelines, and infrastructure. Rapidly construct working prototypes, mock integrations, and core code patterns to demonstrate technical feasibility and value.
• Hands-on Client Deployment: Embed directly with client engineering teams to transition a proposed architecture into a live production environment. Write robust, clean, and maintainable code to build out core platforms, data pipelines, or automated frameworks.
• Integration & Systems Engineering: Tackle complex systems integration challenges, working with diverse environments, cloud providers, and emerging automated frameworks to bridge gaps between disparate client architectures.
• Technical Onboarding & Hand-off: Deliver production-ready codebases with exceptional documentation and architectural guardrails. Partner with internal long-term product delivery teams to ensure a seamless technical hand-off, mentoring core engineers on the specific patterns and environments established during the deployment phase.

Core Qualifications

• Senior/Staff-Level Engineering Background: Extensive hands-on experience in software engineering, systems architecture, or data engineering, with a proven track record of shipping production-grade systems.
• Polyglot & Systems Fluency: Mastery of modern backend environments (such as Python), environment configuration management, and complex API/system integration patterns.
• Cloud Architecture: Deep engineering competence with at least one major cloud ecosystem (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud).
• Consultative Problem Solving: Strong communication skills with the ability to sit shoulder-to-shoulder with a client's engineering leadership, understand ambiguous requirements, and quickly translate them into an execution plan.
• Execution Speed: Ability to land in an unfamiliar codebase or architecture and confidently begin committing clean code and resolving technical hurdles on day one.