Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Shift Paradigm; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote across the United States

Job summary

TachyonShift is seeking a senior engineer to build, run, and govern production AI and cloud systems for customers. You will be the named engineer on engagements, writing the plan, leading the build, and taking accountability for the result after launch.

Working directly with customer teams, you'll design end-to-end AI workflows, select appropriate models, and ensure governance and audit trails. Remote across the United States, with small teams led by senior engineers and a strong focus on

Qualifications

• Eight or more years building and running production software.
• Hands-on delivery of LLM-based systems.
• Experience integrating with enterprise systems such as CRM, ERP, ticketing, identity, or a data warehouse.
• Comfort working directly with customer teams and executives.
• Proven track record owning a system after launch.
• Ability to communicate what is known, what is not known, and cost implications.

Responsibilities

• Design and build production AI systems on the customer's real data.
• Choose models and keep the system model-neutral for easy swaps.
• Write evaluation tests and design audit trails for outputs.
• Demo working software to the customer weekly.
• Operate and monitor deployments with runbooks and incident response.
• Mentor engineers and set the technical bar on engagements.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

LLM systems

Cloud architecture

Enterprise integration

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

CRM systems

ERP systems

Job description

TachyonShift builds, runs and governs AI and cloud systems for customers. We started as a managed cloud practice. Customers asked for AI in production, the missing piece was governance, and we built UnifAI, an enterprise AI platform with governed agents, every major model and one audit trail. Today one team builds the system, operates it after launch and stays accountable for the result. Every engagement has a named senior engineer, written success metrics and a working demo in front of the customer every week.

The role

Build things that run in production. Lead the work that puts a governed, working AI system in front of a customer in weeks.

A forward deployed engineer works inside the customer's business. You sit with the people who do the work, learn the process and the data, and build the system that replaces the manual steps. As a senior engineer you are the named engineer on the engagement: the customer's technical point of contact, the person who writes the plan, leads the build, and answers for the result after launch.

What you will do

• Work backwards with the customer: write the announcement, the success metrics, and the hard questions before the first line of code
• Design and build production AI systems on the customer's real data: retrieval, multi-step agents, workflow automation, integrations, and the code that makes them dependable
• Choose the right model for each step, from any provider, and keep the system model-neutral so a model swap is a configuration change
• Write evaluation tests before launch and design the human verification and audit trail for every output where an error costs money
• Demo working software to the customer every week and change course on what you learn
• Operate what you ship under the operating agreement: monitoring, incident response, runbooks, and a monthly results review
• Mentor engineers and set the technical bar on your engagement

What success looks like in your first 90 days

• Lead an engagement from working-backwards document to a working version on real data, demoed weekly
• Ship evaluation tests and a monitoring plan with the first release
• Leave runbooks that let another engineer or the customer operate the system
• Raise one improvement to how the team scopes, builds, or verifies AI systems

What you bring

• Eight or more years building and running production software, including hands‑on delivery of LLM‑based systems
• Strong Python or TypeScript, and sound judgment on data models, APIs, and cloud architecture
• Experience integrating with enterprise systems such as CRM, ERP, ticketing, identity, or a data warehouse
• Comfort working directly with customer teams, executives included, and saying plainly what will and will not work
• A record of owning a system after launch, not only building it
• The habit of telling the customer what you know, what you do not know, and what it will cost

Helpful, not required

• Experience with agent frameworks, fine‑tuning, or evaluation tooling
• Work in finance, professional services, or the public sector, where audit requirements are real
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP at the platform level

How we work together

• Customer Value First: we measure success by the customer's outcome, not by features shipped.
• Full Ownership Mindset: we own problems end to end and fix what needs fixing, whoever's job it is.
• Results Drive Recognition: we recognize contribution, capability and results.
• Integrity: we do the right thing even when nobody is looking.
• Respect for Every Person: we treat everyone with dignity and listen first, whether they are a customer, a colleague or a candidate.

Remote across the United States. Small teams led by senior people, on customers' real data and systems. You see what your work does.

TachyonShift is an equal opportunity employer. We hire, assign and promote on demonstrated capability and results, and we do not discriminate on any basis protected by law.