Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (P4570) Cincinnati, OH; Chicago, IL

84.51 Centre; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 125,000 - 207,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with employer match

Paid time off

Job summary

84.51° is seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join the AI Software Development Lifecycle team, embedding with delivery teams to accelerate AI-enabled SDLC across Kroger and 84.51°. You will write code alongside developers, promote tool adoption, and improve policies to scale across the enterprise.

In this generalist software engineering role, you will provide technical leadership spanning software development, observability, DevOps, security, and developer experience, while

Qualifications

• 4-year degree in a technology related discipline or equivalent work experience.
• 5+ years of experience producing high-quality software on Agile development teams (Python and Java preferred).
• 3+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, DevEx, or related roles.

Responsibilities

• Exemplify best-practice for software delivery with Agentic Coding tools and document learnings.
• Ensure observability of adoption and usage patterns using Datadog, Dynatrace, or similar tools.
• Bridge gaps between Platform offerings and user adoption; document capability gaps.
• Maintain internal Plugin Marketplaces to enhance usability.
• Hit SLAs and lead incident management procedures.
• Collaborate with technology, infrastructure and product teams to complete tasks.
• Participate in team on-call rotation and customer support during business hours.

Skills

Python

Java

Agile

Observability

Communication

Education

4-year degree in a technology related discipline

Tools

Claude Code

Codex

Cursor

Job description

84.51° is a retail data science, insights and media company. We help The Kroger Co., consumer packaged goods companies, agencies, publishers and affiliates create more personalized and valuable experiences for shoppers across the path to purchase.

Powered by cutting-edge science, we utilize first-party retail data from more than 62 million U.S. households sourced through the Kroger Plus loyalty card program to fuel a more customer-centric journey using 84.51° Insights, 84.51° Loyalty Marketing and our retail media advertising solution, Kroger Precision Marketing.

84.51° follows a 5‑day in‑office work schedule to support collaboration, alignment, and team connection.

Join us at 84.51°!

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PLEASE NOTE:

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United Stated and with the Kroger Family of Companies (i.e. H1-B visa, F-1 visa (OPT), TN visa or any other non-immigrant status).

We are seeking a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our AI Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) team and enable evolution of software development using AI tooling across Kroger and 84.51˚. The AI SDLC team provides access to Agentic Coding harnesses and agentic coding best practices in collaboration with Security, functional SDLC advisors, and development teams across the enterprise. The AI SDLC team also helps maintain an internal marketplace of Plugins for AI tooling, in tandem with teams offering other supporting services for AI Agents.

This role provides an opportunity to shape how thousands of developers adopt AI within a large enterprise. As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will spend time embedded directly with delivery teams and collaborating with platform and security stakeholders. Success for this role means accelerating AI-enabled SDLC - writing code alongside developers, finding where our AI tooling or policy falls short in their workflows, and turning that friction into platform improvements which scale across Kroger and 84.51˚.

This is a generalist Software Engineer role spanning the Software Development, Observability, DevOps, Security, and Developer Experience domains. This role is hands‑on and is expected to both provide technical leadership and to produce code.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Exemplify best-practice for software delivery with Agentic Coding tools (such as Claude Code
• Regularly document and present learnings gleaned from embedded work or experiments to the AI Enablement organization
• Ensure accurate observability of adoption and usage patterns of agentic Coding tools using Datadog, Dynatrace or other related observability tools
• Bridge the gap between Platform offerings and User adoption or usage patterns, discovering and documenting any gaps in capability and experience
• Closely monitor and maintain our internal Plugin Marketplaces or similar to enhance usability of offerings
• Ensure we hit SLAs and lead incident management procedures
• Engage with other technology, infrastructure, and product teams as necessary to complete tasks
• Participate routinely in team on-call rotation and customer support during business hours

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• 4-year degree in a technology related discipline (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, etc.) or equivalent work experience
• 5+ years of experience producing high-quality software on Agile development teams. (Python and Java preferred)
• 5+ years of experience with public cloud technologies (Azure preferred)
• 3+ years of experience in Platform Engineering, DevEx, or related roles
• Demonstrable experience working with Coding Agent Harnesses and related tooling in an enterprise setting (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, etc.)
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills with demonstrated experience leveraging these skills with technical teams and non-technical business units
• Desire to learn new technology and grow across different areas of technology
• Familiarity with AI-related concepts such as LLMs, Agents, Model Context Protocol (MCP)

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, AND EXPERIENCE

• Strong technical writing, documentation, or functional research skills
• Experience developing AI-powered features or applications
• Experience developing CI/CD workflows or other similar automations contributing to code safety and reliability
• Experience working with IAC systems, eg. Terraform/Spacelift, Kubernetes, Helm, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize own workload with multiple responsibilities and adaptability to changes in those priorities

#LI-SSS

Pay Transparency and Benefits

• The stated salary range represents the entire span applicable across all geographic markets from lowest to highest. Actual salary offers will be determined by multiple factors including but not limited to geographic location, relevant experience, knowledge, skills, other job‑related qualifications, and alignment with market data and cost of labor. In addition to salary, this position is also eligible for variable compensation.
• Below is a list of some of the benefits we offer our associates:
• Health: Medical: with competitive plan designs and support for self‑care, wellness and mental health. Dental: with in‑network and out‑of‑network benefit. Vision: with in‑network and out‑of‑network benefit.
• Wealth: 401(k) with Roth option and matching contribution. Health Savings Account with matching contribution (requires participation in qualifying medical plan). AD&D and supplemental insurance options to help ensure additional protection for you.
• Happiness: Paid time off with flexibility to meet your life needs, including 5 weeks of vacation time, 7 health and wellness days, 3 floating holidays, as well as 6 company‑paid holidays per year. Paid leave for maternity, paternity and family care instances.

Base Pay Range

$125,000 - $207,000 USD

84.51° Demographic Questions

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Together, we are stronger and can achieve more

At 84.51°, we believe a diverse and inclusive work environment is essential to the work we do as a data science company. Just as no two Kroger customers are alike, no two 84.51° associates are alike. We understand the importance of fostering an inclusive culture: to encourage our associates to bring their authentic selves to work – embracing who they are and celebrating what they can become.

We continually strive to ensure 84.51° is a place where all people feel like they belong, are respected and valued regardless of who they are, where they are from and what experiences they’ve had. By meeting our 3-year D&I roadmap goals and commitments, we will continue our journey towards becoming a destination for diverse, driven, and authentic minds.

Your responses will be used (in aggregate only) to help us identifyareas of improvement in our process.

Your responses will not be associated with your specific application and will not in any way be used in the hiring decision.