Principal Forward Deployed Engineer - 171456

Zachary Piper Solutions; United States; Remote; USD 175,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Piper Companies is seeking a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer to serve as the senior technical authority on strategic customer initiatives, helping enterprises design, deploy, and scale AI solutions that securely connect intelligent applications to governed business data.

The role is fully remote, full-time, with heavy client engagement, travel up to 25%, and a focus on architecture leadership, governance, and scalable AI connectivity across enterprise data platforms.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in AI/enterprise software roles.
• Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and LLM-powered systems.
• Strong customer-facing communication and executive stakeholder engagement.
• Ability to design security controls, governance, and deployment roadmaps for complex AI initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and discovery engagements with enterprise stakeholders to evaluate AI objectives, data landscapes, governance requirements, and agent enablement strategies.
• Define solution scope, technical success criteria, security controls, and deployment roadmaps for complex AI and data integration initiatives.
• Develop executive-level architecture recommendations and present technical strategies, risks, and tradeoff analyses to senior leadership and C-suite stakeholders.
• Design scalable AI connectivity frameworks leveraging MCP, semantic context models, governed access controls, OAuth authentication, auditability, and enterprise data integrations.
• Create reusable implementation standards, reference architectures, and deployment patterns while mentoring engineering teams and influencing product direction through customer insights.

Skills

Executive communication

Architecture leadership

Customer engagement

Mentorship

Tools

MCP

RBAC

OAuth 2.x

API integrations

SQL

ETL

Job description

Piper Companies is seeking a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer to join a leading enterprise AI and data technology organization. The Principal Forward Deployed Engineer will serve as the senior technical authority on strategic customer initiatives, helping enterprise clients design, deploy, and scale AI solutions that securely connect intelligent applications to governed business data. This is a fully remote, full-time opportunity working Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with up to 25% travel for key customer engagements.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and discovery engagements with enterprise stakeholders to evaluate AI objectives, data landscapes, governance requirements, and agent enablement strategies.
• Define solution scope, technical success criteria, security controls, and deployment roadmaps for complex AI and data integration initiatives.
• Develop executive-level architecture recommendations and present technical strategies, risks, and tradeoff analyses to senior leadership and C-suite stakeholders.
• Design scalable AI connectivity frameworks leveraging MCP, semantic context models, governed access controls, OAuth authentication, auditability, and enterprise data integrations.
• Create reusable implementation standards, reference architectures, and deployment patterns while mentoring engineering teams and influencing product direction through customer insights.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience as a Solutions Architect, Principal Software Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Technical Lead, or similar role within AI, data platform, or enterprise SaaS environments.
• Proven track record delivering production-ready AI applications, including experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), LLM-powered systems, and agent-based architectures.
• Exceptional customer-facing communication skills with the ability to engage architects, technical teams, business leaders, and executive stakeholders.
• Hands-on expertise with MCP, RBAC, OAuth 2.x, API integrations, enterprise data platforms, SQL, ETL processes, and multi-source connectivity solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to combine deep technical engineering knowledge with strategic consulting, architecture leadership, and mentorship responsibilities.

Compensation

Salary Range: $175,000 - $240,000 annually

• Comprehensive Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, sick leave if required by law, and 401K