Lead AI Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer Location: New York City, five days per week in office Compensation: $180,000 base plus uncapped quarterly bonuses ($300k+ typical total compensation) Our client is a fast-growing, bootstrapped AI company helping Fortune 500 businesses become AI-native. The team embeds directly with customers to identify high-impact opportunities and build the production AI systems that deliver them. Engineers work alongside leading AI labs and technology partners on complex enterprise problems across industries including healthcare, insurance, finance, retail, and private equity. About the Role This is a hands-on software engineering role, not a traditional Solutions Engineer or consulting position. You will enter unfamiliar client environments, understand existing systems, and own AI applications from architecture through deployment and ongoing support. Every engineer is client-facing and must be able to explain technical concepts clearly to both engineers and nontechnical stakeholders. What You’ll Do Build and deploy production AI workflows and agentic systems Own architecture, implementation, testing, deployment, and iteration Ramp quickly into complex or legacy enterprise codebases Work directly with client engineering teams Use tools such as Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor to increase development speed Design reliable, auditable systems that continue operating without your direct involvement Travel occasionally for client engagements What You’ll Bring 2–8 years of professional software engineering experience Evidence of personally shipping production software end to end Strong full-stack or product engineering fundamentals Experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure High agency, urgency, and comfort with ambiguity Clear communication and confidence working with customers Interest in AI systems and agentic development tools Willingness to work in person five days per week in NYC Strong backend, infrastructure, distributed systems, security, or ML engineers may also fit if they are open to working broadly across the stack. Bonus Points Experience shipping a production AI agent or LLM application Former founder or founding engineer experience Open-source contributions or public technical projects Experience with agent evaluation, tracing, guardrails, or human-in-the-loop systems Compensation and Benefits The role offers a guaranteed $180,000 base salary plus uncapped quarterly bonuses tied to engineering output. Strong performers may earn approximately $300,000+ in total annual cash compensation . Benefits include medical, dental, vision, commuter benefits, employer-paid life and disability insurance, and responsible PTO. Show more Show less