Forward Deployed Engineer, Agentic Product Management

NetApp, Inc.; Morrisville (NC); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Retirement or Pension Plans

Paid Time Off

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

NetApp is seeking a seasoned engineer to embed inside host product functions, architect and ship production AI agents, and own their reliability in live workflows. You will work across product operations, program management, UX design, and product management, delivering end-to-end systems with clear audit trails and bounded authority for trust.

You will lead the design of scalable AI solutions, ensure non-deterministic system evaluation, and partner with security, IT, and data owners to land

Qualifications

• Requires 8+ years shipping production software.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Hands-on fluency with AI tooling, LLMs, prompt and context engineering, tool/function calling, and evaluation for non-deterministic systems.

Responsibilities

• Embed inside a host function and build relationships with its leader and operators.
• Scope the technical solution including architecture and where agents remove toil or require human judgment.
• Build and ship the agent end-to-end in the host team’s live workflow.
• Make quality measurable with evaluations and regression checks.

Skills

AI tooling

LLM prompt engineering

Agent frameworks

Evaluation for non-deterministic AI

Context retrieval

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

LangGraph

LangSmith

Cursor

Claude Code

orchestration platforms

Job description

Job Summary

This role engineers and ships production AI agents into the way a function already works. You embed inside functions across NetApp’s product organization, working inside their environment, systems, and tools. You determine what to build and how, the technical approach and the architecture, by working the problem alongside them rather than from a written specification. You build and ship the system end to end and own that it works and holds up in production - reliable and safe on the function’s real workflows - before rotating to the next function. The role sits within the Agentic Product Management team under the VP, Analytics Growth and AI Native Engineering.

The role combines three skillsets that usually live in three different people: the engineer who architects, writes, and ships the production system; the product-minded builder who can scope the right solution inside an unfamiliar function; and the consultant who can deliver inside a team that is not their own. The engineer is the spine - the person who writes the production code also embeds and scopes inside a function they have never worked in. Building AI agents is the baseline; what you deliver is a working system the host function runs and trusts in production.

A few principles shape how the team approaches its work:

• We start from outcomes, not from tasks. The first question on any engagement is what the process is for and what good looks like, not how to automate the current steps.
• We deliver working solutions, not recommendations. Every engagement ends with a prototype that real users can run.
• We design with audit trails. Every workflow is inspectable: which agent did what, against what input, with what reasoning.
• We expand trust deliberately. Agents start with bounded authority, and authority grows as evidence accumulates.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed inside a host function.Drop into a Product Group function such as product operations, program management, UX design, or product management - one that is not your own - for the duration of the engagement, and build the relationship with its leader and the operators who do the work today.
• Scope the technical solution.Working from the problem the host team surfaces, decide what to build and how - the approach, the architecture, where an agent removes real toil, and where human judgment, relationships, or accountability must stay in the loop.
• Build and ship the agent end to end.Put a working system into the host team’s live workflow using their real systems and data - prompts, tools, retrieval, sub-agents, and the integration code the deployment requires. The deliverable is production code running in the host team’s live workflow.
• Make quality measurable.Build for non-deterministic systems: evaluations, golden sets, and regression checks that make the agent’s quality defensible before it touches real work. You can show the system is correct from the evidence.
• Own that it works in production.Success is a system the host team runs and trusts on live work. You are accountable for the agent being correct and dependable under production conditions, and you run the engagement to that bar.
• Deliver like a consulting engagement.Scope the work, set expectations with host-team leadership, deliver on a timeline, and hand off with enablement so the team can operate the system after you leave.
• Rotate across teams and domains.Each engagement is time-boxed. You move across multiple host teams over the year, applying the same discipline to a new problem each time.
• Partner with security, IT, and data owners.In each host environment, work with the relevant owners to land agents responsibly under NetApp standards for access, privacy, and acceptable use, and to get the workflow approved.
• Contribute patterns back.Capture reusable components from each engagement - agent designs, prompt patterns, evaluation harnesses, integration approaches - and add them to the team’s shared infrastructure so later deployments move faster. Feed what you learn in the field back to the platform and roadmap, including missing capabilities and what should become paved-road infrastructure.

Education and Experience

• Typically requires 8+ years shipping production software, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Hands-on fluency with current AI tooling, including LLMs, prompt and context engineering, tool and function calling, retrieval, agent frameworks, evaluation for non-deterministic systems, and protocols such as Model Context Protocol. Familiarity with Cursor and Claude Code is preferred, and experience with LangGraph and/or LangSmith is highly preferred; experience with other orchestration platforms and agent frameworks is welcome
• Strong problem discovery, structured thinking, and stakeholder management skills, including navigating security, IT, and data-owner review without losing the intent of the original design.
• Comfort operating in high ambiguity, including when the problem as described does not match the data and systems on the ground, and a preference for moving between engagements over owning one long-lived codebase. Breadth applied fast matters more here than deep specialization in one stack.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain technical limits to non-technical stakeholders, disagree productively, and adjust as evidence evolves.

Compensation:
The target salary range for this position is 170,000 - 220,000 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision‑making.