Forward Deployed Engineer — AI Solutions

M&T Bank Corporation; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 116,000 - 194,000; Full time

Job summary

M&T Bank Corporation in Buffalo, NY seeks a strategic AI solution leader operating at the intersection of business strategy and AI delivery. You will identify opportunities, design and develop AI solutions, navigate governance, and lead implementations through production deployment.

You will own outcomes end-to-end, serving as the critical link between business demand and governed, scalable AI solutions that create measurable impact. Location: Buffalo, New York, United States.

Qualifications

• Requires 5+ years in software engineering, applied AI, or solutions engineering.
• Has shipped production software, not just prototypes.
• Experience translating business problems into technical AI solutions.
• Comfort with governance, risk reviews, and architecture approvals.

Responsibilities

• Identify opportunities at the intersection of business strategy and AI.
• Design and develop AI solutions that are governed and scalable.
• Lead implementations through production deployment and adoption.
• Own outcomes end-to-end as the link between demand and delivery.

Skills

Business problem translation

Delivery ownership

Builder mentality

Pattern thinking

Education

Bachelor's degree with 5+ years systems analysis and/or application development

Associate's degree with 7 years systems analysis and/or application development

9+ years combined education/experience in lieu of degree

Tools

LLMs / foundation models

RAG pipelines

Agent frameworks

Tool calling

Production-grade integration

Job description

This role sits at the intersection of business strategy, AI innovation, and execution. Embedded within a business line, you’ll identify opportunities, design and develop AI solutions, navigate enterprise governance processes, and lead implementations through production deployment. You will own outcomes end-to-end, serving as the critical link between business demand and governed, scalable AI solutions that create measurable impact.

Skills and Indicators

• Business fluency: You can sit in a room with a Commercial Banking RM or a Risk Officer and understand their problem in their language. You translate it into an AI solution design, not the other way around.
• Delivery ownership: You do not hand off. You own the use case from problem statement through production adoption. If it stalls in governance, you unstick it. If adoption lags, you fix it.
• Builder mentality: You prototype fast, iterate with stakeholders, and ship governed solutions. You are not a consultant who writes a deck and leaves.
• Pattern thinking: Every use case you deliver produces a reusable pattern for the next one. You document what works and feed it back to the hub.

Required Qualifications

• Associate's degree and a minimum of 7 years' systems analysis and/or application development work experience or Bachelor's degree and a minimum of 5 years' systems analysis and/or application development work experience. In lieu of a degree, a combined minimum of 9 year's education and/or relevant work experience, including a minimum of 5 years' system analysis and/or application development work experience.
• 5+ years in software engineering, applied AI, or solutions engineering.
• You have shipped production software, not just prototypes.
• Hands-on experience building applications that use LLMs or foundation models (prompt engineering, RAG pipelines, agent frameworks, tool calling).
• You have built at least one system that calls a model in production.
• Experience working directly with business stakeholders to translate a problem into a technical solution.
• You can run a discovery session, not just take a requirements document.
• Ability to work across the full stack: API integration, data pipeline, model integration, front-end or workflow integration. You are not specialized in one layer.
• Comfort with governance and compliance processes. You navigate risk reviews and architecture approvals as part of delivery, not as obstacles.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in financial services, banking, or another regulated industry.
• You understand why governance exists and can work within it productively.
• Experience with agentic AI patterns: multi-step workflows, tool use, autonomous execution with guardrails.
• Familiarity with the M&T AI platform stack (Azure AI Foundry, Anthropic Claude, Azure APIM) or comparable enterprise AI platforms.
• Experience mentoring or training others on AI delivery practices.
• As the hub-and-spoke model scales, FDEs train divisional engineers.

M&T Bank is committed to fair, competitive, and market-informed pay for our employees.

The pay range for this position is $116,400.00 - $194,000.00 Annual (USD). The successful candidate's particular combination of knowledge, skills, and experience will inform their specific compensation.

Location Buffalo, New York, United States of America

Great companies have an enduring sense of purpose. At M&T, our purpose is a simple one: make a difference in people's lives and uplift the communities we serve.

M&T Bank Corporation is a financial holding company headquartered in Buffalo, New York.

M&T's affiliates offer advice, guidance, expertise and solutions across the entire financial spectrum, combining M&T Bank's traditional banking services with the wealth management and institutional capabilities offered by Wilmington Trust.

M&T Bank has a network of over 1,000 branches and 2,200 ATMs that span 12 states from Maine to Virginia and Washington, D.C.

For more than 165 years, M&T has strained to take an active role in our communities and build long-lasting relationships with our customers.

We are a bank for communities- combining the capabilities of a large bank with the care of a locally focused institution.

As an employer of choice, we are proud to offer competitive benefits ranging from medical and retirement to forty hours of paid volunteer time, each year.

Our core values – integrity, ownership, collaboration, curiosity, and candor – drive the work we do.

We seek to further build upon our record of success by bringing in top talent and fresh skill sets while continuing to support the growth and development of all our team members.

View M&T's Human Capital Report to learn more.

M&T Bank is unwavering when it comes to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, ethnicity, sex, gender identity, age, disability, citizenship, pregnancy, veteran status, military status, marital status, sexual orientation, genetic information or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or local laws.

M&T Bank Corporation has policies and procedures in place to promote a drug free workplace.