Head of AI in Production — Forward Deployed Engineering

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/dental/vision insurance

401(k) with company match

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

Bausch + Lomb is seeking a Head of Forward Deployed Engineer to translate AI pilots into production capabilities across manufacturing, supply chain, quality, procurement, engineering, and logistics. You will ship production-ready AI solutions and lead a small FDE team as a player-coach, setting technical standards and developing skills.

You will collaborate with business leaders, AI Delivery, Data, and IT to deliver as one team, balancing hands-on engineering with change management and adoption

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 (generative AI, agents, ML, workflow automation) that run reliably in production.
• 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 rather than layering tools on top of legacy steps.
• 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

Generative AI

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Cloud platforms

Production software engineering

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field

Tools

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud

Snowflake

Job description

Bausch + Lomb is seeking a Head of Forward Deployed Engineer to translate AI pilots into production capabilities across manufacturing, supply chain, quality, procurement, engineering, and logistics. You will ship production-ready AI solutions and lead a small FDE team as a player-coach, setting technical standards and developing skills.

You will collaborate with business leaders, AI Delivery, Data, and IT to deliver as one team, balancing hands-on engineering with change management and adoption