Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - Director

Citi; New York (NY); On-site; USD 170,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Citi is seeking a senior leader to head the Forward Deployed Engineering squad, embedding within Citi's Lines of Business in NYC and London. You will drive end-to-end AI agent delivery, architecture, and enterprise integration in a high-velocity, compliant environment.

You will steer 3-5 concurrent projects, mentor senior engineers, and ensure alignment with architectural blueprints and Lakera Guardrails while managing risk and regulatory considerations.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of technology experience in banking/fintech.
• 8+ years leading engineering squads in regulated environments.
• Hands-on understanding of modern AI paradigms including LLMs and autonomous agents.
• Proven ability to manage high-bandwidth client relationships.
• Strong knowledge of financial products and capital markets.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary delivery partner to CIOs, and business heads across NYC and London.
• Direct sprint planning, architecture, and rapid delivery for 3-5 concurrent AI agent projects.
• Ensure all agentic software adheres to enterprise blueprints and evaluation gates.
• Mentor and coach a squad of 8 senior Forward Deployed Engineers.
• Drive integration between autonomous agents and core banking backends and APIs.
• Collaborate to refine factory delivery playbooks and provide feedback to platform teams.
• Assess risk and enforce compliance with laws, policy, and Citi standards.

Skills

AI architectures

Engineering leadership

Client relationships

Financial markets knowledge

Recruiting talent

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

The Applied AI and Agents Factory brings together ambitious engineers to turn advanced AI capabilities into production-ready solutions. Working directly with business and technology teams, you’ll tackle complex engineering challenges, build intelligent agents and take ideas from initial concept through to live deployment.

This is an opportunity to work at the cutting edge of AI engineering, developing systems that go beyond conversational tools to reason, plan and execute multi-step workflows. You’ll take ownership of the full engineering lifecycle, from agent architecture and orchestration to enterprise integration, security and observability.

With a strong focus on hands-on engineering, collaboration and rapid delivery, the Factory gives you the opportunity to solve challenging technical problems, influence architectural decisions and help shape reusable tools and engineering standards adopted across Citi.

The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Director is a senior management level position responsible for leading and directing a high-performing Forward Deployed Engineering squad embedded directly within Citi's Lines of Business. The overall objective of this role is to serve as the primary delivery executive partnering with LOB Managing Directors and CIOs to translate complex business challenges into production-ready, enterprise-grade AI agents while enforcing architectural standards, evaluation gates, and engineering excellence.

Responsibilities:

• Serves as the primary delivery partner to Line of Business Managing Directors, CIOs, and business product heads across NYC and London hubs.
• Directs sprint planning, resource allocation, technical architecture, and rapid delivery for 3-5 concurrent AI agent projects within the pod.
• Ensures all agentic software built by the pod strictly adheres to enterprise architectural blueprints, Agentflow evaluation gates, and Lakera Guardrails.
• Manages, mentors, and coaches an embedded squad of 8 senior Forward Deployed Engineers (Assistant Vice President - Senior Vice President), fostering a high-velocity culture of technical rigor, customer empathy, and rapid prototyping.
• Drives the design and implementation of system integrations between autonomous agents and core banking backends, databases, and third-party APIs.
• Collaborates with the Principal AI Architect Director and TPM Senior Vice President to refine factory delivery playbooks and provide structured feedback to platform teams.
• Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citigroup, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency, as well as effectively supervise the activity of others and create accountability with those who fail to maintain these standards.

Qualifications:

• 15+ years of relevant technology experience, with 8+ years leading engineering squads in Tier-1 banking, top-tier tech, or fintech environments.
• Hands-on technical understanding of modern AI paradigms, including Large Language Models (LLMs), autonomous agents, embeddings, vector search, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Proven track record of managing high-bandwidth client relationships and delivering complex distributed software systems into regulated production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to attract, recruit, develop, and retain elite senior engineering talent.
• Strong working knowledge of financial products, capital markets, wealth management, or enterprise banking operations.

Education:

• Bachelor’s/University degree or equivalent experience
• Master’s degree preferred.

Job Family Group:

Technology

Job Family:

Applications Development

Time Type:

Full time

Primary Location:

New York New York United States

Primary Location Full Time Salary Range:

$170,000.00 - $300,000.00

In addition to salary, Citi offers competitive employee benefits, including: medical, dental & vision coverage; 401(k); life, accident, and disability insurance; and wellness programs. Citi also offers paid time off packages, including planned time off (vacation), unplanned time off (sick leave), and paid holidays. For additional information regarding Citi employee benefits, please visit citibenefits.com. Available offerings may vary by jurisdiction, job level, and date of hire.

Most Relevant Skills

Please see the requirements listed above.

Other Relevant Skills

For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.

Anticipated Posting Close Date:

Automated Processing and AI

We use automated processing, including artificial intelligence, for our legitimate business interests (or our reasonable and appropriate business purposes) to identify and align the candidate’s skills and abilities with a specific job opening. Additionally, if you so choose, or consent, we can match your skills and abilities to other suitable roles at Citi.

Importantly, all our hiring processes and decisions, including determining your suitability for a role, are conducted, checked, and decided by individuals. Our automated processing and AI do not involve relying on automatic or autonomous decision-making. Please refer to any Jurisdictional Considerations, with specific provisions for your country (where relevant) for further details.

Illinois residents - AI Notice and Right

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