Forward Deployed Engineer - Salesforce

NTT DATA, Inc.; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Travel to client sites

Job summary

NTT DATA is seeking a Senior, client-facing architect to guide enterprise AI initiatives across industries, spanning Salesforce, Data 360, MuleSoft, and agentic deployment. You will bridge executive strategy with technical delivery.

You will shape opportunities with clients, outline architectures, and lead cross-functional teams toward measurable outcomes, while staying hands-on enough to prototype and unblock paths to production.

Qualifications

• Real AI depth with frontier and open-weight models.
• Command of agentic design patterns: tools, planning, multi-agent orchestration.
• Clear view on AI direction and how Salesforce adapts.

Responsibilities

• Be the AI voice in clientrooms, briefing executives on frontier models and Salesforce strategy.
• Frame problems, set architecture, and pressure-test scope and estimates.
• Prototype with AI tools and engineers to deliver working agents.
• Lead delivery while addressing highest risks across multiple teams.

Skills

AI depth

Agentic design

AI strategy

Salesforce expertise

Production experience

Public speaking

Field CTO experience

Tools

Salesforce

Job description

Senior, client-facing · Full time · Regular travel to client sites

The opportunity

Agents are becoming the users of enterprise software. Salesforce is responding by moving its value beneath the screen: capabilities any agent can invoke, business logic packaged as Skills, trusted context in Data 360, orchestration across vendors in Agent Fabric, and a choice of models from Salesforce's own CRM reasoning model to the frontier labs.

Most enterprises can see the shift. Very few have someone who can explain where AI is going, decide what it means for their business and their Salesforce estate, and then make it work in production. That is this role.

Not a typical FDE role

• Wider. You work across industries and our most strategic clients, not inside a single deployment.
• Earlier. You shape the question with client executives before anyone designs a solution.
• Further ahead. You lead the conversation about where models, agents and Salesforce are heading, not only what ships this quarter.
• Lasting. What you learn in the field becomes how the whole practice sells and delivers.

What you will do

• Be the AI voice in the room. Brief client executives on where frontier and open-weight models, agents and Salesforce are heading, and what it means for their business and roadmap.
• Shape our most strategic pursuits. Frame the problem, challenge whether an agent is the right answer, set the architecture, and pressure-test scope and estimate.
• Choose the right intelligence for each step. Decide where a frontier model, an open-weight model, a CRM reasoning model, deterministic logic or a person belongs, and what each costs.
• Make it real, fast. Prototype with AI-assisted tools and our engineers so clients see a working agent, not a promise.
• Lead delivery while the risk is highest. Set direction with the architects, unblock the hardest problems, and lead escalations across Salesforce, MuleSoft, Data 360, models and enterprise systems, alongside Salesforce's own engineering teams.
• Hand off, then move on. Once the solution is proven in production, transition ownership to our delivery and managed-service teams and take on the next frontier problem.
• Lead our thought leadership. Publish, speak, and turn field patterns into the reference architectures and approaches the whole practice uses.

What this role is not

• Not a demo circuit. You stay with clients into production, where credibility is earned.
• Not a coding seat, and not a hands-off architect. You prototype, debug and unblock; our engineers build.
• Not delivery management or sales. Engagement managers run delivery and sales owns the commercial outcome; you own the technical truth.
• Not a permanent fixture on one account. You go where uncertainty is highest, then hand off.

What you will bring

• Real AI depth. Frontier models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini, and open-weight models such as Llama, Nemotron and Mistral: their trade-offs in capability, cost, privacy, sovereignty and hosting, and when each belongs in an enterprise.
• Command of agentic design patterns. Tool use, planning, multi-agent orchestration, retrieval and grounding, memory, evaluation, guardrails and human oversight, and where each fails in production.
• A point of view on where AI is going. And how it reshapes Salesforce: headless capabilities, Skills, trusted context, agent identity and authority, and pricing that moves from seats to actions.
• Deep Salesforce expertise. Real depth in at least one of Agentforce, Data 360 or MuleSoft, fluency across the rest, and the enterprise breadth to connect Salesforce to SAP, ServiceNow and the data estate.
• Production scar tissue. Enterprise AI or platform programs you took live, and honest stories about what broke and how you fixed it.
• A double register. Credible with a CIO at nine and with their most skeptical architect at ten, able to disagree with either without losing the room.
• A public voice. You write and speak, and you enjoy it. You use AI tools every day; you do not need to be a production software engineer.
• A Salesforce CTA or principal architect who has taken Agentforce or large platform programs live, and follows the AI frontier closely.
• A Forward Deployed Engineer or senior solution engineer at Salesforce, an AI lab or a major ISV, ready for a wider canvas.
• A field CTO or principal at a systems integrator or AI-native consultancy who has put enterprise AI into production.
• An enterprise AI leader who has run agentic programs inside a large organization and now wants to shape many.

Location: Any Major city in the US. (Dallas, Chicago, Austin, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlotte, San Francisco, Etc.)

• #LI-SGA
• #dreamforce, #DF26

About NTT DATA

NTT DATA is a $30 billion business and technology services leader, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100. We are committed to accelerating client success and positively impacting society through responsible innovation. We are one of the world's leading AI and digital infrastructure providers, with unmatched capabilities in enterprise-scale AI, cloud, security, connectivity, data centers and application services. our consulting and Industry solutions help organizations and society move confidently and sustainably into the digital future. As a Global Top Employer, we have experts in more than 50 countries. We also offer clients access to a robust ecosystem of innovation centers as well as established and start-up partners.NTT DATA is a part of NTT Group, which invests over $3 billion each year in R&D.

Whenever possible, we hire locally to NTT DATA offices or client sites. This ensures we can provide timely and effective support tailored to each client’s needs. While many positions offer remote or hybrid work options, these arrangements are subject to change based on client requirements. For employees near an NTT DATA office or client site, in-office attendance may be required for meetings or events, depending on business needs. At NTT DATA, we are committed to staying flexible and meeting the evolving needs of both our clients and employees. NTT DATA recruiters will never ask for payment or banking information and will only use @nttdata.com, @nttdatafed.com and @talent.nttdataservices.com email addresses. If you are requested to provide payment or disclose banking information, please submit a contact us form, https://us.nttdata.com/en/contact-us .

NTT DATA endeavors to make https://us.nttdata.com accessible to any and all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us at https://us.nttdata.com/en/contact-us . This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications. NTT DATA is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. For our EEO Policy Statement, please click here . If you'd like more information on your EEO rights under the law, please click here . For Pay Transparency information, please click here .

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