Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

Full job description

Job Title:Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

Company: 167 Solutions

Location: Bristol, London, Manchester

Salary: £70,000 - £100,000 per annum (DOE)

Contract Type: Permanent

Experience Level: Minimum 3 years' commercial experience

Start Date: ASAP

About the Role

167Solutions seeking a Lead Forward Deployment Engineer to lead the design, development, and deployment of enterprise-scale AI solutions. This role combines deep technical expertise with customer engagement, solution architecture, and engineering leadership to deliver innovative AI applications that solve complex business challenges.

As a technical leader, you'll work closely with executive stakeholders, engineering teams, and customers to define AI strategies, rapidly prototype solutions, and guide deployments from concept through production. You'll also mentor engineers, establish engineering best practices, and help shape the future direction of our AI platform.

What You'll Do

• Lead the architecture, design, and deployment of enterprise Generative AI solutions.

• Partner directly with customers to understand strategic business objectives and translate them into scalable technical solutions.

• Drive rapid prototyping initiatives, validating ideas and delivering production-ready applications at speed.

• Design and build cloud-native applications using TypeScript and AWS.

• Lead technical discovery workshops and solution architecture sessions with customer stakeholders.

• Develop AI-powered applications leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, and modern AI frameworks.

• Design scalable data pipelines, integrations, and AI workflows to support enterprise use cases.

• Provide technical leadership across customer engagements, ensuring high-quality architecture, security, and operational excellence.

• Mentor engineers through code reviews, architecture guidance, and technical coaching.

• Establish engineering standards, deployment patterns, and AI best practices across the organization.

• Collaborate with Product, Engineering, and Customer Success teams to define product direction based on customer feedback.

• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and recommend their adoption where they create customer value.

What We're Looking ForRequired Skills

• Extensive experience designing and delivering enterprise software solutions.

• Expert-level proficiency with TypeScript and modern backend development.

• Deep experience building and deploying applications on AWS.

• Hands-on experience designing and implementing Generative AI applications using modern LLMs.

• Strong understanding of AI architecture, distributed systems, APIs, and cloud-native design.

• Experience designing scalable data architectures and integrating multiple data sources.

• Proven ability to lead technical customer engagements from discovery through production deployment.

• Experience leading engineering teams, mentoring developers, and influencing technical direction.

• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage both technical teams and executive stakeholders.

• Excellent problem-solving skills with the ability to navigate ambiguity and deliver pragmatic solutions.

Nice to Have

• Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex, or similar AI orchestration frameworks.

• Knowledge of vector databases and semantic search technologies.

• Experience with Python alongside TypeScript.

• Familiarity with Kubernetes, Docker, Infrastructure as Code, and CI/CD pipelines.

• Experience implementing enterprise security and compliance requirements.

• Background in solution architecture or technical consulting.

• Experience leading cross-functional or distributed engineering teams.

Technologies You'll Work With

• Generative AI

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• AWS

• TypeScript

• Large Language Models (LLMs)

• Rapid Prototyping

• Data Engineering

• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)

• Vector Databases

• APIs

• Node.js

• React / Next.js

• Docker

• Kubernetes

• Git

• CI/CD

What Success Looks Like

• Lead successful enterprise AI deployments that deliver measurable business outcomes.

• Architect scalable, secure, and maintainable AI solutions for production environments.

• Build trusted relationships with customer technical leaders and executive stakeholders.

• Accelerate customer adoption through rapid delivery and continuous innovation.

• Raise engineering standards through mentoring, technical leadership, and best practices.

• Influence product strategy by bringing customer insights back into engineering.

Ideal Candidate

You're a technical leader who combines deep software engineering expertise with strong customer engagement skills. You enjoy solving complex business problems using Generative AI, leading engineering teams, architecting cloud-native solutions on AWS, and delivering high-impact applications through rapid prototyping and iterative development. You thrive in fast-paced environments where innovation, ownership, and collaboration are essential to success.