Forward Deployed Engineer / AI Product Engineer- Investment Management - Chicago 12 months

Saragossa; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Saragossa is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer in the Chicago area to build AI-enabled capabilities hand in hand with the asset management business.

You will work directly with investment and business stakeholders to understand needs, design and build practical solutions, and own outcomes from concept to production. A strong CS and software foundation is essential, with prior asset management experience preferred.

Qualifications

• Strong software development foundation with production-grade coding experience.
• Experience shipping AI solutions in a business context.
• Context in asset management or hedge funds helps understand domain needs.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into engineered systems.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with investment and business stakeholders to understand needs and design solutions.
• Write production code and integrate AI capabilities into existing platforms.
• Develop model-side functionality from the ground up and drive ownership of outcomes.

Skills

Software engineering

AI integration

Cloud platforms

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Python

PyTorch

Job description

A leading investment management firm is looking to add a Forward Deployed Engineer who will build AI-enabled capabilities hand in hand with the asset management business. This is a hands‑on, high-impact role for an engineer who wants to be close to the people using what they build, not several layers removed from them.

You’ll work directly with investment and business stakeholders to understand their needs, then design and build solutions that address them. Some days that means shaping requirements and aligning technology choices to business goals. Other days it means writing production code, integrating AI into existing platforms, or developing model-side functionality from the ground up. The right person moves comfortably between business conversations and technical execution, and takes ownership of outcomes rather than tickets.

The ideal candidate brings a very strong software development and computer science foundation, along with hands‑on experience building and shipping AI solutions. Prior experience in asset management, a hedge fund, or a similar investment environment is required. You’ll need that context to understand how the business operates and where technology can create real value. You should also be able to translate ambiguous business problems into well‑engineered systems and communicate clearly with both technical and non‑technical partners.

This is a 3-4x week onsite hybrid contract, so you must live in Chicago or surrounding areas for this role.

They’ll need someone who’s fully authorized to work in the US without any sponsorship / visa (cannot support H-1B visa).

C2C must be through your own LLC (CANNOT be through an employer) and if need be we can do W2 at a reduced rate.