Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (AI)

Job Description

Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (AI)

Campus Hiring | Incedo

United States (onshore) | Class of 2026 | Full-time | Client-site travel as needed

The Role

A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is embedded with Fortune 500 client teams to turn AI from a demo into a working business solution. You start as an Associate in a small delivery pod, learn from senior FDEs, and grow into a full FDE in about 12 months.

What You Will Do

• Solve complex business problems. Work inside client domains such as banking, wealth management, life sciences and telecom. Frame ambiguous problems, test assumptions and decide what to build, so the solution moves a business metric.
• Deliver AI-native and self-serve. Use Cursor, GitHub Copilot and Claude Code across design, build, test and documentation. Own your deliverable end to end, with high accountability and direct exposure to client leaders.
• Take solutions from design to deployment. Own the full stack of an AI-powered system: application and data design, agents and GenAI components, APIs, cloud deployment and monitoring.
• Integrate with the enterprise. Connect your solution to enterprise systems and manage business, IT and security stakeholders to resolve ambiguity and keep delivery moving.

What You Will Do

• Solve complex business problems. Work inside client domains such as banking, wealth management, life sciences and telecom. Frame ambiguous problems, test assumptions and decide what to build, so the solution moves a business metric.
• Deliver AI-native and self-serve. Use Cursor, GitHub Copilot and Claude Code across design, build, test and documentation. Own your deliverable end to end, with high accountability and direct exposure to client leaders.
• Take solutions from design to deployment. Own the full stack of an AI-powered system: application and data design, agents and GenAI components, APIs, cloud deployment and monitoring.
• Integrate with the enterprise. Connect your solution to enterprise systems and manage business, IT and security stakeholders to resolve ambiguity and keep delivery moving.

What You Bring

1. Mindset: Critical thinking and structured problem-solving on complex business problems. Learns new domains fast, adapts when requirements change, stays calm in ambiguity and takes accountability for outcomes.
2. AI and Data : Agents (tool calling, workflows, LangChain or LangGraph) · GenAI (LLM APIs, prompting, RAG, embeddings) · ML techniques (classification, regression, NLP basics, evaluation) · SQL and NoSQL, schema design and data pipelines. Works self-serve with AI tools and reviews their output with judgment.
3. Full Stack: Application design through deployment: front end (React or similar), backend (Python, Node or Java), APIs, cloud (AWS, Azure or GCP), containers and CI/CD. At least one internship project built and deployed end to end, with a live link.
4. Enterprise and Communication: Understands how APIs, data flows and enterprise systems connect. Listens, explains in plain language, manages expectations and resolves ambiguity with business and technical stakeholders.

Good to have: Domain exposure (finance, life sciences, telecom, retail), enterprise integration experience (REST, SSO/OAuth, ETL), vector databases, hackathons, open source or Kaggle.

How This Differs from a Regular Software Engineering Role

Software Engineer VS Forward Deployed Engineer

• You build for: A product used by many customers (SWE) | One client's real problem (FDE)
• You work with: Your own product team (SWE) | Client teams, often at their sites (FDE)
• You start from: A defined ticket or spec (SWE) | A vague problem you help frame (FDE)
• Success means: Code shipped, tickets closed (SWE) | A business outcome running in production (FDE)
• Skills mix: Depth in one area (SWE) | Breadth across AI, data, full stack, cloud, plus client skills (FDE)

Eligibility and How to Apply

• Pursuing or recently completed a B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science or a related field, graduating in 2026.
• Apply with your GitHub and a link to a project you built and deployed. Shortlisted candidates complete an online assessment, a small build task, a project deep-dive and a client-scenario conversation.