Forward Deployed Engineer

Talance Group; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

The Talance Group is seeking a hands-on Forward Deployed AI Engineer to join our global AI team in a hybrid role across engineering and commercial domains. You will work directly with commercial users, building agentic solutions and communicating technical requirements back to foundational engineering teams.

You will own technical design and delivery from prototype to production, shaping what gets built and ensuring it is used.

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science, statistics, mathematics, data science, or a related quantitative field.
• Fluency in Python for both applied AI and engineering purposes: clean, modular, well‑documented code, with strong understanding of software engineering best practices including version control, testing, and code review
• Minimum 3 years of experience in software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning, data science or a related hands‑on technical role
• Practical understanding of generative AI concepts, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, model evaluation, and responsible AI considerations. Including proficiency with modern GenAI orchestration and tooling frameworks (e.g. LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent)
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal; able to engage effectively with technical teams and commercial stakeholders
• Self-motivated and comfortable working autonomously in a fast-paced environment, with a collaborative, non-political style and high personal integrity
• Strong curiosity for emerging AI developments, with a proactive commitment to continuously learning, experimenting and expanding your skills
• Genuine intellectual curiosity about commodities markets, global energy flows, and the commercial dynamics of trading; willingness to develop deep domain knowledge as part of the role
• Strong management commitment to putting AI at the heart of the future of the firm's operations

Responsibilities

• Embed with commercial teams to understand their workflows, constraints, and business objectives; identify high-value opportunities for AI solutions
• Translate business problems into clear technical requirements, solution designs, and delivery plans to build, integrate, and deploy agentic solutions
• Development of the firm's internal GenAI platform, extending its capabilities through new integrations, data connectors, MCP servers, tool-calling, and domain-specific skills
• Apply a broad range of AI and modelling techniques, including LLMs, RAG, NLP, time-series forecasting, and optimization, to commodity pricing, supply/demand signals, trade flow analysis, and operational optimization problems
• Communicate requirements, technical constraints, and reusable patterns back to the foundational AI and platform engineering teams
• Present capabilities, assumptions, and limitations clearly to traders and senior management, supporting confident commercial decision-making and building trust in AI outputs among technical and non-technical audiences
• Champion AI best practice on the desk and across the team: participate in code reviews, experiment and evaluation design, and tooling decisions; mentor colleagues and help raise the overall standard of engineering and applied-AI practice

Skills

Python

Software engineering

AI engineering

Prompt engineering

GenAI orchestration

LangChain

LlamaIndex

AWS

Education

Degree in computer science / statistics / mathematics / data science

Tools

LangChain

LlamaIndex

Job description

Job Description

We are looking for a hands-on Forward Deployed AI Engineer to join our global AI team. This is a hybrid role across engineering and commercial teams. You will sit directly with commercial users, build and ship agentic solutions that solve real workflow problems, and communicate technical requirements back to our foundational engineering teams.

You will own technical design and delivery from prototype to production. As the firm's AI portfolio grows, you will help shape what gets built, in what order, and make sure what the team builds gets used.

The successful candidate will join a growing, collaborative team of experienced practitioners who are solving some of the most challenging and impactful problems the energy industry is facing, as well as pushing the boundaries around the 'art of the possible'.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed with commercial teams to understand their workflows, constraints, and business objectives; identify high-value opportunities for AI solutions
• Translate business problems into clear technical requirements, solution designs, and delivery plans to build, integrate, and deploy agentic solutions
• Development of the firm's internal GenAI platform, extending its capabilities through new integrations, data connectors, MCP servers, tool-calling, and domain-specific skills
• Apply a broad range of AI and modelling techniques, including LLMs, RAG, NLP, time-series forecasting, and optimization, to commodity pricing, supply/demand signals, trade flow analysis, and operational optimization problems
• Communicate requirements, technical constraints, and reusable patterns back to the foundational AI and platform engineering teams
• Present capabilities, assumptions, and limitations clearly to traders and senior management, supporting confident commercial decision-making and building trust in AI outputs among technical and non-technical audiences
• Champion AI best practice on the desk and across the team: participate in code reviews, experiment and evaluation design, and tooling decisions; mentor colleagues and help raise the overall standard of engineering and applied-AI practice

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science, statistics, mathematics, data science, or a related quantitative field
• Fluency in Python for both applied AI and engineering purposes: clean, modular, well-documented code, with strong understanding of software engineering best practices including version control, testing, and code review
• Minimum 3 years of experience in software engineering, AI engineering, machine learning, data science or a related hands-on technical role
• Practical understanding of generative AI concepts, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation, tool use, agentic workflows, model evaluation, and responsible AI considerations. Including proficiency with modern GenAI orchestration and tooling frameworks (e.g. LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent)
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS preferred)
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal; able to engage effectively with technical teams and commercial stakeholders
• Self-motivated and comfortable working autonomously in a fast-paced environment, with a collaborative, non-political style and high personal integrity
• Strong curiosity for emerging AI developments, with a proactive commitment to continuously learning, experimenting and expanding your skills
• Genuine intellectual curiosity about commodities markets, global energy flows, and the commercial dynamics of trading; willingness to develop deep domain knowledge as part of the role
• Strong management commitment to putting AI at the heart of the future of the firm's operations