Senior Forward Deployed AI Engineer

TachyonShift; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

TachyonShift is seeking a senior engineer to lead engagements that deploy governed AI systems for customers across the United States. You will own the plan, build with real data, and deliver a working solution within weeks.

You will work closely with customers, write the plan and success metrics, and mentor engineers while ensuring integrity and outcomes. Remote across the United States, with senior guidance and measurable results.

Qualifications

• Eight+ years building and running production software (LLM-based systems preferred).
• Strong Python or TypeScript and cloud-architecture judgment.
• Experience integrating CRM, ERP, ticketing, identity, or data warehouses.
• Ability to work directly with customer teams and executives.
• Proven ownership of systems after launch.
• Honest communication about know/unknown costs.

Responsibilities

• Write announcements, success metrics, and questions before first line of code.
• Design and build production AI systems on customer data (retrieval, agents, automation, integrations).
• Choose the right model for each step and keep the system model-neutral for swaps.
• Write evaluation tests and design audit trails for outputs with cost impact.
• Demo working software to the customer weekly and adjust based on feedback.
• Operate what you ship: monitor, incident response, runbooks, monthly review.
• Mentor engineers and set the technical bar on the engagement.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

System ownership

Customer-facing

LLM-based systems

Tools

CRM

ERP

Cloud platforms

APIs

Job description

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.

Working here

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

Equal Opportunity

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.