Forward Deployed Engineer - AI SOC

AHEAD; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance

401(k)

Paid company holidays

Paid time off

Parental and caregiver leave

Additional benefits

Job summary

AHEAD is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to deploy, integrate, and operationalize next-generation security and AI capabilities in real-world customer environments. You will bridge engineering, security operations, data, and customer success to translate complex requirements into scalable, production-ready solutions.

The ideal candidate blends hands-on engineering with a deep SOC operations understanding, cloud platform expertise, automation, and customer-facing delivery.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in security engineering, platform engineering, forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or related technical roles.
• Hands-on experience implementing and operating modern SOC technologies such as SIEM, XDR, and SOAR.
• Experience deploying cloud-native architectures on at least one major cloud provider such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Strong background in data integration, telemetry pipelines, normalization, and security analytics workflows.
• Experience working directly with customers, internal stakeholders, or cross‑functional delivery teams in implementation-focused environments.
• Ability to lead technical engagements, drive execution, and influence outcomes without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead for deploying and operationalizing security and AI solutions in customer or enterprise environments.
• Translate business, operational, and security requirements into deployable architectures and implementation plans.
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to ensure solutions are aligned to operational goals, compliance requirements, and long‑term platform strategy.
• Act as a trusted advisor during onboarding, implementation, rollout, and optimization phases.
• Design and implement integrations across SIEM, XDR, SOAR, case management, data platforms, and AI‑enabled tooling.
• Build and configure cloud‑native data ingestion, normalization, and enrichment pipelines for security telemetry.
• Integrate APIs, webhooks, message queues, and automation workflows across identity, endpoint, cloud, network, and application ecosystems.
• Develop reusable deployment patterns, templates, and technical assets to accelerate future implementations.
• Operationalize AI and automation use cases within security workflows, including alert enrichment, triage support, summarization, clustering, playbook selection, and analyst copilots.
• Work with detection engineering and data teams to support implementation of behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, risk scoring, and other AI‑assisted security use cases.
• Help define data requirements, feedback loops, and operational guardrails needed to support effective AI outcomes in production environments.
• Ensure deployed solutions are practical, measurable, and aligned to analyst workflows and response objectives.
• Implement secure and governed automation for investigation and response use cases across heterogeneous environments.
• Support resiliency, observability, performance, and scale requirements for deployed solutions.
• Troubleshoot integration issues, deployment blockers, and production challenges in partnership with platform, cloud, and security teams.
• Improve reliability and maintainability through documentation, testing, monitoring, and standardized engineering practices.
• Collaborate across Security Operations, Security Engineering, Detection Engineering, Data Science, Infrastructure, and product or customer teams.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to best practices for implementation, delivery, and technical solution design.
• Provide field feedback to influence platform roadmap, product direction, and architectural standards.

Skills

Security engineering

Platform engineering

Forward deployed engineering

Solution engineering

Customer delivery

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

SIEM

XDR

SOAR

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD.We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived.

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD.

The Forward Deployed Engineer is responsible for deploying, integrating, and operationalizing next-generation security and AI capabilities in real-world customer and enterprise environments. This role works at the intersection of engineering, security operations, data, and customer success to translate complex requirements into scalable, production-ready solutions.

This individual partners closely with security leaders, analysts, platform teams, data scientists, and infrastructure stakeholders to implement AI-enabled SOC workflows, integrate security tooling, improve analyst experience, and accelerate time to value. The ideal candidate combines strong hands‑on engineering skills with a deep understanding of SOC operations, cloud platforms, automation, and customer‑facing delivery.

Responsibilities

Customer and Stakeholder Delivery

• Serve as the technical lead for deploying and operationalizing security and AI solutions in customer or enterprise environments
• Translate business, operational, and security requirements into deployable architectures and implementation plans
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to ensure solutions are aligned to operational goals, compliance requirements, and long‑term platform strategy
• Act as a trusted advisor during onboarding, implementation, rollout, and optimization phases

Solution Implementation and Integration

• Design and implement integrations across SIEM, XDR, SOAR, case management, data platforms, and AI‑enabled tooling
• Build and configure cloud‑native data ingestion, normalization, and enrichment pipelines for security telemetry
• Integrate APIs, webhooks, message queues, and automation workflows across identity, endpoint, cloud, network, and application ecosystems
• Develop reusable deployment patterns, templates, and technical assets to accelerate future implementations

AI-Enabled Security Operations

• Operationalize AI and automation use cases within security workflows, including alert enrichment, triage support, summarization, clustering, playbook selection, and analyst copilots
• Work with detection engineering and data teams to support implementation of behavioral analytics, anomaly detection, risk scoring, and other AI‑assisted security use cases
• Help define data requirements, feedback loops, and operational guardrails needed to support effective AI outcomes in production environments
• Ensure deployed solutions are practical, measurable, and aligned to analyst workflows and response objectives

Automation and Reliability

• Implement secure and governed automation for investigation and response use cases across heterogeneous environments
• Support resiliency, observability, performance, and scale requirements for deployed solutions
• Troubleshoot integration issues, deployment blockers, and production challenges in partnership with platform, cloud, and security teams
• Improve reliability and maintainability through documentation, testing, monitoring, and standardized engineering practices

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Collaborate across Security Operations, Security Engineering, Detection Engineering, Data Science, Infrastructure, and product or customer teams
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Mentor engineers and contribute to best practices for implementation, delivery, and technical solution design
• Provide field feedback to influence platform roadmap, product direction, and architectural standards

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in security engineering, platform engineering, forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, or related technical roles
• Hands‑on experience implementing and operating modern SOC technologies such as SIEM, XDR, and SOAR
• Experience deploying cloud-native architectures on at least one major cloud provider such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
• Strong background in data integration, telemetry pipelines, normalization, and security analytics workflows
• Experience working directly with customers, internal stakeholders, or cross‑functional delivery teams in implementation‑focused environments
• Ability to lead technical engagements, drive execution, and influence outcomes without direct authority

Technical Skills

• Strong understanding of security operations, detection and response, cloud security, identity security, and endpoint security
• Experience with scripting and automation using tools such as Python, PowerShell, or Bash
• Familiarity with APIs and integration patterns including REST, webhooks, and event‑driven workflows
• Working knowledge of AI and ML concepts relevant to SOC use cases, including anomaly detection, behavior analytics, LLMs, vector search, and AI assistants
• Experience with security data and analytics platforms such as Kafka, Kinesis, Pub/Sub, Spark, Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake, or similar technologies is a plus
• Strong problem‑solving skills, execution mindset, and ability to operate effectively in ambiguous, fast‑moving environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in MSSP, MDR, XDR, or other security service delivery environments
• Experience deploying solutions in regulated or compliance‑sensitive environments
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code, CI/CD workflows, and production software delivery practices
• Experience building reusable implementation frameworks or field engineering playbooks
• Relevant certifications are a plus, including cloud, security, or platform‑specific certifications

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (\"OTE\") for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate's relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

Why AHEAD:Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.

We fuel growth by stacking our office with top‑notch technologies in a multi‑million‑dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.

USA Employment Benefits include:

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid company holidays
• Paid time off
• Paid parental and caregiver leave
• Plus more! See benefits for additional details.