Hands-On AI Forward-Engineering Cell Lead

EY; San Mateo (CA); Hybrid; USD 126,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and dental coverage

Pension and 401(k) plans

Paid time off

Job summary

EY is seeking a hands-on Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to own end-to-end delivery of AI-native systems for a single client engagement in regulated industries. The role is embedded with the client, driving technical direction and production readiness within an Advanced Forward Engineering (AFE) delivery cell.

As the cell lead, you’ll guide an Implementation Engineer and a Data Engineer, manage tradeoffs, and stay hands-on when necessary to deliver secure, production-grade outcomes in

Qualifications

• 8+ years delivering complex enterprise systems in regulated or client-facing contexts.
• Hands-on engineering depth across integration-heavy architectures and cloud platforms.
• Experience with AI-enabled stacks and forward-deployed, client-facing roles.
• Ability to lead a small technical team while remaining an individual contributor.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end outcome delivery for the cell, including scoping, tradeoffs, technical direction, and production readiness, taking accountability for the business outcome, not just the code.
• Embed directly with the client to define the real problem and translate ambiguous business needs into an executable technical solution under regulatory and environmental constraints.
• Serve as the primary technical interface and trusted advisor to client stakeholders, managing expectations, communicating tradeoffs, and sustaining the trust that drives adoption.
• Stay hands-on, personally designing and building critical parts of the solution, and diving deep into the client’s systems, data, and codebase when the engagement requires it.
• Deploy, adapt, and stabilize solutions in the client environment using supported templates and profiles, owning release readiness and runtime accountability for what the cell ships.
• Direct the work of the cell’s Implementation Engineer and Data Engineer, ensuring integrations, orchestration, and data readiness come together into a coherent, production-grade outcome.
• Ensure every deployment meets safety, integrity, and cost constraints, partnering with control authorities and the Distinguished AFE on safe-to-ship decisions for regulated environments.

Skills

Outcome ownership

Client presence

Hands-on engineering

AI-enabled systems

Technical judgment

Clear communication

Autonomy

Small teams

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science

Tools

Cloud platforms

Distributed systems

AI-enabled stacks

Job description

EY is seeking a hands-on Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to own end-to-end delivery of AI-native systems for a single client engagement in regulated industries. The role is embedded with the client, driving technical direction and production readiness within an Advanced Forward Engineering (AFE) delivery cell.

As the cell lead, you’ll guide an Implementation Engineer and a Data Engineer, manage tradeoffs, and stay hands-on when necessary to deliver secure, production-grade outcomes in