Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, HLS

Talkdesk; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Talkdesk is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer, Staff to lead and implement AI agent deployments for strategic enterprise customers. You will architect solutions, write production-grade code, and drive technical outcomes in high-stakes, customer-facing deployments.

You will mentor engineers, influence product direction, and collaborate with customer executives to ensure secure, scalable, and impactful deployments across complex environments.

Qualifications

• Minimum 6–10 years in software or solution engineering with 1+ years in AI/ML/Agentic deployments.
• Experience leading large-scale IT integration projects and client-side project leadership.
• Proven design and end-to-end implementation of complex multi-agent AI systems.
• Strong systems integration expertise (APIs, webhooks, queues) and secure data flow design.
• Expertise in prompt engineering, model optimization, and cross-agent collaboration.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers and communicating with customer executives.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical lead for complex AI agent deployments and design enterprise-grade architecture.
• Write production-grade code and leverage Talkdesk APIs/SDKs to deliver agents.
• Serve as trusted technical advisor for AI solutions and address deep technical inquiries.
• Synthesize deployment learnings into reusable patterns and tools for product teams.
• Mentor junior staff and promote best practices for production quality and client delivery.

Skills

AI architecture

Technical leadership

Client-facing

Multi-agent design

Prompt engineering

Data integration

Tools

APIs

Webhooks

Message queues

Vector databases

Job description

The Forward Deployed Engineer, Staff (FDE) is a high impact technical leader responsible for translating the immense power of Talkdesk's Agentic AI platform into transformative, production grade solutions for our strategic enterprise customers. You are a unique blend of a highly experienced software engineer, a technical project lead, and a hands-on builder. You own the technical execution for deployments, mitigate technical risks, and drive successful customer outcomes across assigned projects. This role is for the experienced builder who excels in high stakes, customer facing environments and is passionate about defining the future of Customer Experience Automation.

Responsibilities

• Technical Project Leadership & Architecture: Act as the technical lead for complex deployments. Design and implement the architectural blueprint for AI agent solutions, manage cross-system dependencies, and ensure designs meet stringent enterprise standards for security and scale.
• Hands-On Engineering & Delivery: Write production-grade code and leverage Talkdesk and 3rd-party APIs/SDKs to design, build, test, and deploy AI agents. Drive the execution from prototype through to production deployment, ensuring technical quality.
• Technical Consultation & Alignment: Serve as a trusted technical expert for our AI solutions. Confidently address deep technical inquiries, mitigate technical risk, and build trust with customer Engineering Directors, and technical architects.
• Influence Product & Engineering Roadmap: Synthesize and codify deployment learnings into reusable solution patterns and tooling. Provide actionable feedback to core Product and Engineering teams to help inform future product direction.
• Technical Guidance: Mentor junior FDEs and technical specialists on best practices for complex AI architecture, production quality, and client-facing technical delivery.

Who You Are

We are looking for an autonomous, results-driven technical leader who thrives at the intersection of breakthrough technology and measurable customer value.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of 6-10 years of progressive experience in software or solution engineering, with at least 1+ years focused on architecting and deploying AI/ML/Agentic solutions.
• Project implementation consulting experience in large scale IT integration projects, ERP projects or AI implementations including experience in client-side project lead experience.
• Strong Experience in Agentic AI System Architecture: Proven experience in the design and end-to-end implementation of complex multi-agent systems, encompassing sophisticated planning, memory, and tool-use frameworks.
• Deep expertise in systems integration (APIs, webhooks, message queues) and data architecture to ensure secure, compliant, and performant data flow for the agent across complex customer environments.
• Strong proficiency in prompt engineering, model optimization, and designing systems where agents collaborate to achieve complex outcomes.
• Proven ability to build credibility and consensus with customer executives, lead technical discussions, and drive alignment across internal and external teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, including hands-on experience with vector databases.
• Experience with health Care Systems such as Epic or Aetna or Retail Services system is a plus.
• Prior experience in the Contact Center (CCaaS), Unified Communications (UCaaS), or Customer Experience (CX) industry.