Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

Elios AI; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Autonomy and impact

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Elios AI in Boston is seeking a senior AI architect to set technical direction across enterprise engagements: architect clients' systems, balance cost and trust, and remain a builder.

You will lead architecture across orchestrator–worker patterns, advise executives on AI strategy, set engineering standards, and mentor senior engineers while staying hands-on with the latest LLM tech.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of production software engineering experience, with 3+ years focused on LLM-powered systems.
• Experience architecting and shipping production AI products with measurable scale and availability.
• Consulting or enterprise delivery background with executive-level communication.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture across engagements: orchestrator–worker patterns, MCP integrations, hybrid RAG systems, and scalable LLM platforms.
• Advise executive stakeholders on AI strategy and translate it into shippable systems.
• Set the technical bar across teams for evals, reliability, cost, and responsible AI tooling.
• Unblock the hardest problems hands-on; act as a player-coach at the highest technical level.
• Mentor senior engineers across distributed teams.
• Stay genuinely current with latest shipped solutions and tools.

Skills

Production engineering

LLM systems

Executive communication

Full-stack Python

Leadership across teams

Tools

Agentic tools

Job description

Location: Boston, MA | Type: Full Time | Setup: Hybrid | Experience: 10+ years

About the Role

You'll set technical direction across enterprise AI engagements: the architect clients bring in when the system has to work, the stakes are high, and the answer isn't in a playbook. You operate at the executive level without losing precision, and you remain a builder.

Our client deploys AI systems into production environments where availability, cost, and trust are non-negotiable. The bar here is architect, builder, communicator: a decade-plus of production engineering, deep LLM systems experience, and the judgment to direct AI tooling rather than hide behind it.

If you've architected multi-agent platforms, shipped AI products handling thousands of daily queries, and can defend every decision to a CTO, this is your level.

What You'll Do

• Own architecture across engagements: orchestrator-worker agent patterns, MCP integrations, hybrid RAG systems, and LLM platforms built for scale
• Advise executive stakeholders on AI strategy and translate it into systems that ship
• Set the technical bar across teams, including standards for evals, reliability, cost, and responsible AI tool use
• Unblock the hardest problems hands-on; this is a player-coach role at the highest technical level
• Mentor senior and lead engineers across distributed teams
• Stay genuinely current: what shipped this month, not what was in a course six months ago

Qualifications

• 10+ years of production software engineering, with 3+ years focused on LLM-powered systems
• Experience architecting and shipping production AI products with measurable scale and availability
• Consulting or enterprise delivery background with executive-level communication
• Full-stack depth across Python, TypeScript, React, and modern backend frameworks, plus current fluency in agentic coding tools
• History of leading engineers across distributed environments while staying hands-on

Why Join Us

Top-of-market scope: the engagements with the highest stakes, the most autonomy, and clients who listen. Competitive compensation and benefits.