Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

Elios AI; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Elios AI in Los Angeles is seeking a seasoned software engineering leader to own delivery of production AI engagements from scoping conversations through deployment.

You'll stay hands-on with architecture and code while guiding a small team of engineers and serving as the technical voice clients trust, balancing delivery velocity with quality and stakeholder communication.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of production software engineering with substantial LLM work.
• Experience leading client-facing delivery with shipping, reliable deployments.
• Deep experience with retrieval metrics, hallucination mitigation, latency & cost optimization.
• Full-stack capability across Python, TypeScript, React, and modern backends.
• Ability to lead a team while remaining a hands-on contributor.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end delivery of production AI engagements from scoping to deployment.
• Architect LLM-powered systems: multi-agent platforms, hybrid RAG pipelines, integrations with cost controls and fallbacks.
• Present technical recommendations to stakeholders and then deliver on them.
• Guide and review the work of other engineers while writing code.
• Establish evals, observability, and quality bars to ensure production readiness.
• Direct agentic coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) with ownership over outputs.

Skills

LLM-focused

Client-facing delivery

Production AI patterns

Full-stack (Python/TypeScript/React)

Technical leadership

Code ownership

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher in CS or related field

Job description

Location: Los Angeles, CA | Type: Full Time | Setup: Hybrid | Experience: 7+ years

About the Role

You'll lead client engagements building production AI systems, owning delivery from the first scoping conversation through deployment. You stay hands-on with the architecture and the code while guiding a small team of engineers and serving as the technical voice clients trust.

Our client is an organization putting AI into production at enterprise scale, where engagements succeed on both engineering quality and stakeholder communication. Building the right thing matters as much as building the thing right.

This role is for engineers who lead from the front: still shipping, still reviewing code, still fluent in current tooling, while carrying the client relationship.

What You'll Do

• Lead delivery of production AI engagements end to end, from scoping through deployment
• Architect LLM-powered systems: multi-agent platforms, hybrid RAG pipelines, and integrations with cost controls and fallback strategies
• Present technical recommendations to stakeholders and then deliver on them
• Guide and review the work of other engineers without stepping out of the code yourself
• Establish evals, observability, and quality bars so what ships holds up under real usage
• Direct agentic coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex) with intent, owning every line that goes out

Qualifications

• 7+ years of production software engineering, including substantial LLM-focused work
• A track record of leading client-facing delivery, with projects that shipped and ran reliably
• Deep experience with production AI patterns: retrieval metrics, hallucination mitigation, latency and cost optimization
• Full-stack capability across Python, TypeScript, React, and modern backend frameworks
• Able to lead a team while remaining a hands-on technical contributor

Why Join Us

You'll own meaningful engagements with real authority over how they're delivered, alongside practitioners who build the same systems daily. Competitive compensation and benefits.