Forward Deployment Engineer AI

Theron Solutions; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Theron Solutions in Houston is seeking an experienced engineer to design and implement AI-enabled backend services and APIs. You will own end-to-end delivery from discovery to production, and collaborate across software, AI, data, and cloud teams.

You will guide engineers, review code for quality and security, and help translate business problems into scalable technical solutions that meet performance goals.

Qualifications

• Experience developing backend services, APIs and distributed applications.
• Experience processing and transforming structured and/or unstructured data.
• Hands-on with at least one major cloud platform: AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Experience with Git, testing frameworks, code reviews and modern software engineering practices.
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical discovery sessions to understand customer problems and constraints.
• Translate requirements into scalable technical solutions and architectures.
• Own end-to-end implementation from discovery to production deployment.
• Design and develop application services, APIs, and integrations including AI-enabled components.
• Mentor junior engineers and communicate decisions clearly to stakeholders.

Skills

Backend services

APIs & integration

Distributed systems

GenAI integration

Code reviews

Debugging & troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science

Master's degree in computer science or related field

Tools

Git

Testing frameworks

LLM APIs

Vector databases

Job description

Qualifications:

·Lead technical discovery sessions to understand customer business problems, existing technology landscape, data, applications and constraints.

·Translate customer requirements and business problems into scalable technical solutions.

·Own the end-to-end technical implementation from discovery and prototyping through production deployment.

·Design and develop application services, APIs, integrations and AI-enabled solutions.

·Remain hands-on with coding, debugging, code reviews and technical troubleshooting.

·Lead rapid prototyping and Proof-of-Concept development to validate solution approaches.

·Define application architecture, APIs, data flows, integration patterns and deployment approaches.

·Guide engineers across software, AI, data, cloud and platform technologies.

·Review code and ensure engineering quality, security, scalability and maintainability.

·Diagnose complex application, data, integration, infrastructure and production issues.

·Drive solutions from prototype to production-ready implementation.

·Mentor junior and graduate FDEs and provide technical support and guidance.

·Communicate technical decisions, trade-offs, risks and recommendations clearly to customer stakeholders.

·Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science or related field.

·Experience developing backend services, APIs, and distributed applications.

·Experience processing and transforming structured and /or unstructured data.

·Hands-on experience with at least one major cloud platforms: AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.

·Experience in Git, testing frameworks, code reviews and modern software engineering practices.

·Strong debugging and troubleshooting capabilities.

·Hands-on exposure to:

oLarge Language Models and Generative AI application development.

oLLM APIs and model integration.

oPrompt engineering and structured outputs.

oEmbeddings and vector search/vector databases.

oU nderstanding of AI application performance, security and cost considerations.

oIntegration of AI capabilities into enterprise applications.

·Understanding of production monitoring, logging and observability.

Good to Have

·Experience delivering solutions in customer-facing environments.

·Experience leading small Agile engineering teams.

·Hands-on experience with enterprise GenAI implementations.

·Experience with vector databases such as pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate, Milivus or similar technologies.

·Experience with frameworks for building AI applications and agents.

·Cloud and/or AI certifications.

EOE:

Our client is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. Employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, military service, genetic information, or any other status protected by law.