Director, Forward Deployed Engineer

In this role, you'll make an impact in the following ways: Lead a portfolio of FDE engagements across business and platform domains; set priorities, allocate engineering capacity, and ensure engagements are scoped to deliver measurable value within time-boxed windows. Serve as the senior technical voice in discovery with executive sponsors and business leaders; translate ambiguous, high-stakes opportunities into feasible, production-ready delivery plans. Own and evolve the FDE playbook: define discovery-to-production standards, engagement entry and exit criteria, handoff protocols, and working norms that govern how the team operates. Drive the reuse-first mandate across the FDE team: establish patterns for when to build, extend, or standardize; ensure field learnings are converted into firm-wide reference architectures and platform contributions. Set quality and governance standards for the FDE function: secure-by-default practices, observability, testability, and operational readiness expectations applied consistently across all engagements. Define the institutionalization model for forward deployment: ensure every engagement ends with a clear handoff, documented ownership, and a capable owning team — not a dependency on FDE. Represent the FDE function to architecture, control, security, compliance, and senior technology leadership; shape firm-wide AI and platform strategy based on production delivery evidence. Identify capability gaps and platform investment opportunities surfaced through FDE field work; translate these into actionable recommendations for platform and engineering leadership. Build and grow the FDE team: recruit, develop, and retain senior engineers; set a high technical bar and a culture of disciplined, evidence-backed delivery. Stay at the frontier of AI, platform engineering, and regulated delivery practices; bring that knowledge back into the function and the broader technology organization To be successful in this role, we're seeking the following:

Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent work experience required; advanced degree is beneficial. 14+ years of software development and technical leadership experience, including direct accountability for production systems and cross-functional delivery programs; experience in the securities or financial services industry is a plus. Strong foundational understanding of modern AI and agentic application patterns, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, and agent-based system design. Hands-on experience building backend services, APIs, and production systems. Experience working across architecture, data, and platform concerns rather than only within a narrow laye.

Track record of building or scaling a delivery capability (e.g., solutions engineering, forward deployment, platform engineering) within a large enterprise or regulated environment. Demonstrated experience delivering AI, data, or workflow-heavy solutions at scale in regulated environments, with accountability for production outcomes. Strong systems-thinking and architecture judgment across services, data, and infrastructure; able to evaluate and influence technology choices at a divisional level. Experience defining and operating delivery standards, playbooks, or center-of-excellence functions. Experience balancing speed with governance, security, and operational rigor across a team or portfolio. Deep familiarity with reusable platform patterns, internal developer platforms, and productized infrastructure. Technical Skills Strong software engineering skills in one or more of: Java, TypeScript/JavaScript, Python. Experience with APIs, service integration, and secure-by-default engineering practices. Ability to work across data, AI, workflow, and platform layers as needed. Comfort using modern AI tooling pragmatically without confusing prototypes for production systems. Familiarity