Head of AI Deployment and Forward-Deployed Engineering

Bausch + Lomb; Madison (WI); On-site; USD 190,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) plan

Tuition reimbursement

Paid vacation

Well-being benefits

Job summary

Bausch + Lomb is seeking a Head of Forward Deployed Engineer to scale AI from pilots to production inside manufacturing, supply chain, and quality. You will lead a small FDE team, build production-ready AI, and partner with AI Delivery, Data, and IT to set standards and drive adoption.

You will design, deploy, and validate AI-enabled solutions, mentor engineers, and ensure compliant, well-documented deployments across plant operations and enterprise systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or a related field.
• 10+ years in software engineering, solution implementation, digital transformation, with a strong record of shipping production code.
• Proficiency in Python and modern API and integration development, with experience building on cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud.
• Hands-on experience with generative AI, agents, ML, and workflow automation in production.
• Demonstrated experience deploying enterprise technology directly with business users, including driving adoption.
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers while remaining an active contributor.
• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate between plant floor and engineering language.

Responsibilities

• Design, code, and deploy AI-enabled solutions that run reliably.
• Integrate with enterprise systems such as SAP and plant, quality, and supply chain platforms through APIs and data pipelines.
• Own the path from prototype to production: testing, user acceptance, security and compliance review, release, monitoring, and post-deployment support.
• Apply validation and documentation practices appropriate to a regulated environment.
• Work side by side with plant leaders, planners, buyers, and quality teams to understand how work actually gets done.
• Run workflow assessments, identify high-value use cases, and redesign processes around AI.
• Resolve technical and operational issues quickly in the field.
• Treat adoption as a deliverable. Define adoption and value metrics for every deployment and track them after go-live.
• Build training materials, user guides, and deployment playbooks.
• Facilitate workshops and train end users.
• Identify and develop local champions within each function.
• Capture user feedback and deployment learnings and feed them to the Enterprise AI team to shape product priorities.
• Coach and mentor FDEs, setting standards for code quality, deployment, and documentation.
• Prioritize work across GPS functions with business owners and the AI leadership team.
• Build reusable assets (patterns, templates, connectors, playbooks) so each deployment makes the next one faster.
• Partner with AI Delivery, Data, and IT on architecture, data access, security, and platform standards.
• Escalate platform gaps and reuse enterprise components instead of building one-off solutions.

Skills

Python

API development

Cloud platforms

Mentoring engineers

Stakeholder management

Production-grade software

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems

Tools

Azure

Google Cloud

SAP integration

Job description

Bausch + Lomb is seeking a Head of Forward Deployed Engineer to scale AI from pilots to production inside manufacturing, supply chain, and quality. You will lead a small FDE team, build production-ready AI, and partner with AI Delivery, Data, and IT to set standards and drive adoption.

You will design, deploy, and validate AI-enabled solutions, mentor engineers, and ensure compliant, well-documented deployments across plant operations and enterprise systems.