Forward Deployed Engineer, Microsoft AI

ingrammicro; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Ingram Micro in Irvine, CA, is seeking a Forward-Deployed Principal Services Engineer to design, build, and deploy production AI agents using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Azure AI Foundry, and related services. You will work end-to-end from discovery through handoff, applying reference architectures and security standards to deliver production-grade solutions.

You will partner with architects, practice leads, and system integrator teams to translate customer priorities into repeatable, scalable

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, including 5+ years building enterprise cloud or AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Engineer production agents with customers using the practice's shared templates, components, and tooling, following standard build patterns so every solution is built the same way
• Build agents on the Microsoft frontier stack and select appropriate models from the Microsoft Foundry model catalog for each workload
• Prototype, validate architectures, and test approaches in real customer environments, and harden agents for production
• Apply security, data-boundary, and performance standards to every solution, including managed agent identity and guardrails
• Implement grounding and retrieval with Foundry IQ, integrate tools through Toolboxes, Model Context Protocol, and connectors, and build memory, tool use, and multi-step workflows
• Deploy the same solution across customers through standard pipelines, and publish and govern agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, and Agent 365
• Lead time-bound customer engagements, typically measured in weeks, with defined handoff and enablement milestones
• Work directly with customers and partners to understand their business priorities, use cases, and gaps, and translate them into solution designs
• Contribute reusable agents, workflows, and components to the practice library, built once and reused across customers
• Contribute to packaging mature agents into marketplace-ready offers and to enablement content for system integrator partners
• Co-deliver with system integrator partners and support them until they can deliver independently
• Share field feedback with the Senior Principal Services Architect to refine reference architectures and standards
• Coach and review the work of other engineers and partner delivery teams

Skills

Microsoft frontier AI

Agent development

Model catalog selection

Grounding and retrieval

Security and guardrails

Azure IaC and observability

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Foundry IQ

Toolboxes

Model Context Protocol

Connectors

Job description

Accelerate your career. Join the organization that's driving the world's technology and shape the future.

Ingram Micro is a leading technology company for the global information technology ecosystem. With the ability to reach nearly 90% of the global population, we play a vital role in the worldwide IT sales channel, bringing products and services from technology manufacturers and cloud providers to business-to-business technology experts. Our market reach, diverse solutions and services portfolio, and digital platform Ingram Micro Xvantage™ set us apart. Learn more at www.ingrammicro.com

Come join our team where you'll make technology happen in surprising ways. Let's shape tomorrow - it'll be a fun journey!

ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY

Ingram Micro is the largest IT distributor in the world and one of the largest Microsoft distribution partners globally. Its Forward-Deployed Engineering practice works embedded with customers to turn priority AI use cases into production solutions, then packages what works so partners can deliver it across markets.

The Forward-Deployed Principal Services Engineer designs, builds, tests, and deploys AI agents and applications using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, and related Microsoft cloud services. Working within the reference architectures, engineering standards, and reusable components set by the practice, the role ships production software rather than proofs of concept and works end to end from discovery through deployment and handoff. It serves as the in-house expert on the Microsoft agent stack for the engagements it leads.

The role works closely with the Senior Principal Services Architect, the Microsoft Practice Leads, and system integrator partners, and with business, technical, and regional stakeholders to turn prioritized use cases into secure, production-ready solutions. As the practice grows, the role offers a path to senior principal responsibilities, including setting the standards the practice builds on.

YOUR ROLE

• Engineer production agents with customers using the practice's shared templates, components, and tooling, following standard build patterns so every solution is built the same way
• Build agents on the Microsoft frontier stack and select appropriate models from the Microsoft Foundry model catalog for each workload
• Prototype, validate architectures, and test approaches in real customer environments, and harden agents for production
• Apply security, data-boundary, and performance standards to every solution, including managed agent identity and guardrails
• Implement grounding and retrieval with Foundry IQ, integrate tools through Toolboxes, Model Context Protocol, and connectors, and build memory, tool use, and multi-step workflows
• Deploy the same solution across customers through standard pipelines, and publish and govern agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, and Agent 365
• Lead time-bound customer engagements, typically measured in weeks, with defined handoff and enablement milestones
• Work directly with customers and partners to understand their business priorities, use cases, and gaps, and translate them into solution designs
• Contribute reusable agents, workflows, and components to the practice library, built once and reused across customers
• Contribute to packaging mature agents into marketplace-ready offers and to enablement content for system integrator partners
• Co-deliver with system integrator partners and support them until they can deliver independently
• Share field feedback with the Senior Principal Services Architect to refine reference architectures and standards
• Coach and review the work of other engineers and partner delivery teams

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE ROLE

• Microsoft frontier AI and agent stack: Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry and Azure AI Agent Service, Microsoft Agent Framework, and Agent 365
• Building production agents with shared reference architectures, reusable components, and standardized tooling
• Model selection from the Microsoft Foundry model catalog, including OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, and Microsoft models
• Grounding and retrieval with Foundry IQ, and tool integration using Toolboxes, Model Context Protocol, and connectors
• Security, data-boundary, and performance standards, including managed agent identity with Microsoft Entra and guardrails
• Azure services and infrastructure as code, with observability through tracing and evaluations
• Understanding of agent-based systems, human-in-the-loop design, and Responsible AI principles in enterprise production
• Ability to operate with autonomy and make progress with limited direction in ambiguous problem spaces
• Product-minded and quality-focused, covering error handling, edge cases, and reuse

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 8+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, including 5+ years building enterprise cloud or AI solutions
• Customer-fa