Sr Forward Deployed Engineer, AWS Forward Deployed Engineering

Amazon; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 168,000 - 227,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Forward Deployed Engineer in Arlington embeds with customer teams to design, build, deploy, and run production AI systems. You own end-to-end outcomes, craft scalable architectures, and drive enterprise savings with reusable patterns. You’ll lead multi-workstream programs, mentor engineers, and push rapid value delivery through AI platforms.

Travel 30–50% is expected. This role demands strong software craftsmanship, leadership, and the ability to translate complex problems into reliable

Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience.
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience.
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture of new and existing systems.
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team.
• Experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior stakeholders.
• Experience leading agentic and spec-driven development at production scale (AI = a plus).
• Experience with AI tools, eval frameworks, agent tooling, RAG pipelines, and prompt engineering.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical delivery across customer engagements.
• Architect and build production AI systems at scale.
• Own production excellence across workstreams.
• Scale the team's effectiveness.
• Accelerate customer transformation.

Skills

Software development

Programming experience

Technical leadership

AI tooling

Communication to stakeholders

Education

Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

Tools

AWS Services

React

TypeScript

Python

Go

Job description

Description

A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) embeds directly inside a strategic enterprise customer to design, build, deploy, and run AI-powered production systems alongside the customer's engineering team. FDEs write production-grade software and own outcomes end-to-end, from prototype through enterprise-scale deployment combining the technical rigor of an AWS SDE with the urgency and ownership required to deliver measurable customer business outcomes. They create reusable architectures, patterns, and engineering mechanisms that scale the entire FDE practice.

Key job responsibilities

Lead technical delivery across customer engagements

• Own the technical strategy and execution for complex, multi-workstream customer AI programs. Make architecture decisions that span multiple services and organizational boundaries. Align technical approach with the customer's long-term technology strategy. Requires 30–50% travel.

Architect and build production AI systems at scale

• Design the foundational architectures — multi-agent orchestration, enterprise retrieval systems, decision intelligence platforms — for the most complex customer engagements. Drive clarity where neither the business problem nor technology approach is fully defined. Build production systems that handle enterprise-scale traffic and reliability requirements.

Own production excellence across workstreams

• Define operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria for AI systems across your engagement scope. Establish mechanisms (testing strategies, observability standards, incident response playbooks) that ensure AI systems remain healthy. Drive operational improvements that raise the bar for the team.

Scale the team's effectiveness

• Define engineering patterns, contribute to the interview and hiring process, and mentor junior FDEs into independent contributors. Coach others on system design, customer engagement, and production operations. Drive engineering excellence standards within your scope.

Accelerate customer transformation

• Identify systemic opportunities to expand AI adoption across the customer organization. Create accelerators and reusable platforms that reduce time-to-value from months to weeks. Feed learnings back into AWS services and the FDE practice.

About the team

ABOUT AWS:

Diverse Experiences

Amazon values diverse experiences. Even if you do not meet all of the preferred qualifications and skills listed in the job description, we encourage candidates to apply. If your career is just starting, hasn’t followed a traditional path, or includes alternative experiences, don’t let it stop you from applying.

Why AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. We pioneered cloud computing and never stopped innovating — that’s why customers from the most successful startups to Global 500 companies trust our robust suite of products and services to power their businesses.

Work/Life Balance

We value work-life harmony. Achieving success at work should never come at the expense of sacrifices at home, which is why we strive for flexibility as part of our working culture. When we feel supported in the workplace and at home, there’s nothing we can’t achieve in the cloud.

Inclusive Team Culture

AWS values curiosity and connection. Our employee-led and company-sponsored affinity groups promote inclusion and empower our people to take pride in what makes us unique. Our inclusion events foster stronger, more collaborative teams. Our continual innovation is fueled by the bold ideas, fresh perspectives, and passionate voices our teams bring to everything we do.

Mentorship and Career Growth

We’re continuously raising our performance bar as we strive to become Earth’s Best Employer. That’s why you’ll find endless knowledge-sharing, mentorship and other career-advancing resources here to help you develop into a better-rounded professional.

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Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience

• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience

• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience

• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team

• Experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior stakeholders

• Experience leading agentic and spec-driven development at production scale (developing AI agents a plus)

• Experience with AI tools: eval frameworks, agent tooling, RAG pipelines, and prompt engineering

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

• Experience working with AWS Services

• Experience building or deploying AI/ML applications at enterprise production scale

• Background as a founder, engineering lead, or startup builder with high ownership and urgency

• Experience architecting and delivering complex, multi-component systems in customer production environments

• Experience with React, TypeScript, Python, and/or Go

• Experience leading customer-facing technical projects or managing external stakeholder relationships

• 3+ years of experience working in an Agile, startup, or rapidly scaling environment

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Los Angeles County applicants: Job duties for this position include: work safely and cooperatively with other employees, supervisors, and staff; adhere to standards of excellence despite stressful conditions; communicate effectively and respectfully with employees, supervisors, and staff to ensure exceptional customer service; and follow all federal, state, and local laws and Company policies. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some of the material job duties of this position. These include the duties and responsibilities listed above, as well as the abilities to adhere to company policies, exercise sound judgment, effectively manage stress and work safely and respectfully with others, exhibit trustworthiness and professionalism, and safeguard business operations and the Company’s reputation. Pursuant to the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .

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