Forward Deployed Engineer/Chief role (relocation to Spain)

EPAM Systems; Georgia; Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private health insurance

EPAM Employees Stock Purchase Plan

100% paid sick leave

Referral Program

Professional certification

Language courses

Flexible working model with remotework

Job summary

EPAM Systems is seeking a senior engineer to design and ship AI-native systems end-to-end, including agents, workflows, RAG, and the harness. You will implement custom tool calling, sandboxing, and context engineering while ensuring observability and scale.

You will collaborate with SMEs and end-users to understand real value, build evaluation pipelines, and design for failure with retries and human-in-the-loop controls. A strong Python background and cloud deployment experience are essential.

Qualifications

• 7+ years engineering experience in production AI/LLM apps.
• Strong agent-design judgment for task-harness fit and context.
• Able to lead discovery with SMEs and end-users, explaining trade-offs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Hands-on with LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel and major LLM providers.
• Expert-level Python and solid software engineering fundamentals.
• Strong RAG and retrieval skills; experience with vector databases and context management.
• Experience with AWS/Azure/GCP and containerization; CI/CD.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and ship AI-native systems E2E — agents, workflows, RAG and the harness: custom tool calling, sandboxing, context engineering and sub-agents, caching.
• Build evaluation pipelines to prove usefulness of the system.
• Design for failure in agent loops: retries, model fallbacks, cost limits, human-in-the-loop.
• Capture domain expertise and repeatable workflows for reuse.
• Engage early with clients to shape use cases and assess feasibility.
• Work with SMEs and end-users through interviews, UAT and observing real workflows.

Skills

Python

Software engineering

English (C1)

RAG & retrieval

Observability & tracing

Cloud deployment

CI/CD

SME communication

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Semantic Kernel

OpenAI

Anthropic

Google Gemini

Job description

We are building AI-native solutions for our clients — products where LLM and its harness are the core of the value.

This is a builder's role: you and your team are responsible for building agentic systems, writing the production code, and standing up the evals and observability.

You will work closely with SMEs and end-users to understand where the real value lies, and you design the feedback loops.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and ship AI-native systems E2E — agents, workflows, RAG and the harness: custom tool calling, sandboxing, context engineering and sub-agents, caching, compaction
• Build the evaluation pipelines and use them to prove the system is genuinely useful
• Design for failure in the agent loop: retries, model fallbacks, cost limits and human-in-the-loop on consequential actions
• Capture domain expertise and repeatable workflows so what works on one engagement carries to the next
• Engage early to help shape the use case and check technical feasibility
• Work directly with SMEs and end-users through interviews, UAT and observing the real workflow, and validate that the system fits how people actually work

Requirements

• 7+ years of engineering experience, with a strong recent track record building production AI / LLM applications (not prototypes or research only)
• Strong agent-design judgment — task-harness fit, matching the harness to the context, failures and policies of the actual task rather than calling a model in a loop
• Capability to operate close to the client: lead discovery and feasibility conversations, work directly with SMEs and end-users, and explain technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel) and major LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini)
• Expert-level Python and solid software engineering fundamentals
• Strong RAG and retrieval skills: vector databases, embeddings, hybrid search, re-ranking, chunking and context management
• Proven experience evaluating generative AI quality — LLM-based evaluation, heuristics, custom eval frameworks — and using observability/tracing tools (LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, Langfuse)
• Production deployment experience on at least one major cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) with containerization, CI/CD
• Sound judgment under ambiguity — scoping, sequencing and making the call on speed vs. quality vs. scope
• English at C1 level

Nice to have

• Experience designing experiments, A/B testing and iterating on AI products against real user behavior and business metrics
• Background in NLP, Data Science or applied ML, with experience moving models into production
• Familiarity with MCP, A2A and Agent Skills, and emerging agent standards
• Experience with enterprise AI platforms (AWS Bedrock AgentCore, Databricks Genie, Microsoft Foundry)
• Exposure to AI governance, security and compliance (guardrails, prompt-injection prevention)

We offer

• Private health insurance
• EPAM Employees Stock Purchase Plan
• 100% paid sick leave
• Referral Program
• Professional certification
• Language courses
• Permanent contract with a competitive salary
• Flexible working model with remote work options
• Personalized career plan and continuous learning (certifications, English training, etc.)
• Participation in stable projects with a strong technical focus
• Flexible working hours and a strong focus on work-life balance
• Benefits package tailored to your needs
• Pension
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Enhanced Maternity policy
• Give as You Earn
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee Referral Bonus Scheme
• Diversity Networks
• Access to a range of skills and certifications

EPAM is a leading digital transformation services and product engineering company with 61,700+ EPAMers in 55+ countries and regions. Since 1993, our multidisciplinary teams have been helping make the future real for our clients and communities around the world. In 2018, we opened an office in Spain that quickly grew to over 1,450 EPAMers distributed between the offices in Málaga, Madrid and Cáceres as well as remotely across the country. Here you will collaborate with multinational teams, contribute to numerous innovative projects, and have an opportunity to learn and grow continuously.

• Why Join EPAM
• WORK AND LIFE BALANCE. Enjoy more of your personal time with flexible work options, 24 working days of annual leave and paid time off for numerous public holidays.
• CONTINUOUS LEARNING CULTURE. Craft your personal Career Development Plan to align with your learning objectives. Take advantage of internal training, mentorship, sponsored certifications and LinkedIn courses.
• CLEAR AND DIFFERENT CAREER PATHS. Grow in engineering or managerial direction to become a People Manager, in-depth technical specialist, Solution Architect, or Project/Delivery Manager.
• STRONG PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY. Join a global EPAM community of highly skilled experts and connect with them to solve challenges, exchange ideas, share expertise and make friends.