Staff - Forward Deployed Engineer

GlaxoSmithKline plc; United States; On-site; USD 200,000 - 350,000; Full time

Job summary

GlaxoSmithKline plc is building Enterprise AI capabilities to deliver rapid value to business units. The Forward Deployed Engineering lead will shape strategy, organization, and governance, while staying technically hands-on on strategic AI engagements.

You will guide multi-disciplinary teams, drive responsible AI, and influence vendor and tooling choices for AI-native engineering within Enterprise AI. The role requires extensive experience in software and AI/ML engineering, with a proven record

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software and AI/ML engineering.
• Experience leading senior engineering teams or functions.
• Proven track record delivering AI in customer-facing engineering roles.
• Strong depth in GenAI patterns, including agents and orchestration.
• Expertise in ML, DL, LLMs and foundation models, with evaluation experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, setting strategy and engagement priorities.
• Hire, mentor, and develop the FDE team with clear milestones.
• Define AI-native engineering standards and handoff hygiene.
• Ensure rigorous evaluation and model validation across engagements.
• Maintain sponsor relationships with Directors and Senior Directors at business units.
• Drive strategic engagements hands-on and translate AI engineering into business outcomes.

Skills

AI/ML leadership

GenAI patterns

Multi-agent orchestration

RAG

Foundation models

Evaluation methods

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS

Job description

Business Introduction

GSK remains committed to achieving bold commercial ambitions for the future. By 2031, we aim to deliver £40 billion in annual sales, leveraging our existing strong performance momentum to significantly increase our positive impact on the health of billions of patients globally.

Our Ahead Together strategy is centered on early intervention to prevent and alter the course of disease, thereby protecting people and supporting healthcare systems. Our diverse portfolio consists of vaccines, specialty medicines, and general medicines. Through continuous innovation and a dedicated focus on scientific and technical excellence, we strive to develop and launch new, groundbreaking treatments that address critical health challenges.

Position Summary

GSK's Enterprise AI team builds AI solutions that prove value fast and scale to production. Forward Deployed Engineering is the front of the Enterprise AI delivery pipeline - proving AI ideas with the business through PoCs, PoVs, MVPs, and, where appropriate, first production versions, before handing proven solutions to Solutions Engineering for scale-up - bringing to GSK a model proven by AI-native companies such as Anthropic, Palantir, and OpenAI.

You will lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, with direct line management of the FDE team (Lead, Senior, and Forward Deployed Engineers in a flat reporting structure), setting FDE strategy and engagement priorities, owning Director-level business unit sponsor relationships, and representing Enterprise AI on FDE matters to GSK leadership.

Enterprise AI's credibility with the business depends on engineers who can land inside business unit problems, prove value quickly, and hand off cleanly; you will build and lead the function that makes this happen. This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who keeps their judgment grounded in current AI engineering reality: continuing to contribute technically on the most strategic engagements at the frontier of AI-augmented engineering, while building a team that delivers at pace and grows toward greater seniority. Humans steer; agents execute.

Responsibilities

This role will provide YOU the opportunity to lead key activities to progress YOUR career. These responsibilities include some of the following:

• Lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, owning strategy, structure, hiring, development, and standards, with a clear engagement pipeline that delivers at pace.
• Hire, mentor, and develop the FDE team, creating development paths from G8 through to G5 with clear milestones and active coaching.
• Set the standards for AI-native engineering practice within the function - agentic delivery-automation workflows, delivery bot meshes, prompt and pattern libraries, and handoff hygiene - documented and actively used by the team.
• Set the bar for AI, ML, and data science rigor across the function, including evaluation standards, experimental design, and model validation, acting as the final technical authority on modeling approach for strategic engagements.
• Own relationships with Director and Senior Director-level business unit sponsors, bringing AI use cases to Enterprise AI and sustaining engagement through the delivery cycle as a credible, high-value partner rather than a vendor.
• Take on the most strategic FDE engagements personally, staying hands-on on the engagements that set precedents for the function.
• Make and defend portfolio-level kill/continue decisions across FDE engagements with business unit and Enterprise AI leadership, translating AI engineering possibility into business outcomes.
• Track the frontier of AI/ML research and translate advances into practical guidance for the team.
• Coordinate with Solutions Engineering and Operations Engineering on the delivery pipeline and represent FDE in Enterprise AI leadership forums.
• Influence vendor strategy and tooling choices for AI-native engineering practice within Enterprise AI.
• Build governance in by design, ensuring the FDE function operates within Code Orange, Responsible AI, and Accountability Report governance from the prototype stage onward, not bolted on afterward.
• Report to Enterprise AI leadership on FDE function performance - engagement pipeline, outcomes, team development, and capacity.

Why You ?

Basic Qualification

• 12 or more years of experience in software engineering and AI/ML engineering, with significant time leading senior engineering teams or functions.
• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Proven track record of taking AI ideas from sketch to working software at speed in customer-facing engineering roles.
• Strong technical depth in GenAI patterns, including agents, multi-agent orchestration, RAG, and evaluation.
• Recognized expertise in AI, ML, and data science - classical ML, deep learning, LLMs and foundation models, s