Forward Deployed Engineer/Chief Role
We are building AI-native solutions for our clients — products where LLM and its harness are the core of the value.
This is a builder's role: you and your team are responsible for building agentic systems, writing the production code, and standing up the evals and observability.
You will work closely with SMEs and end-users to understand where the real value lies, and you design the feedback loops.
Responsibilities
- Design, build and ship AI-native systems E2E — agents, workflows, RAG and the harness: custom tool calling, sandboxing, context engineering and sub-agents, caching, compaction
- Build the evaluation pipelines and use them to prove the system is genuinely useful
- Design for failure in the agent loop: retries, model fallbacks, cost limits and human-in-the-loop on consequential actions
- Capture domain expertise and repeatable workflows so what works on one engagement carries to the next
- Engage early to help shape the use case and check technical feasibility
- Write production-grade Python: integrations, APIs, data access, deployment
- Work directly with SMEs and end-users through interviews, UAT and observing the real workflow, and validate that the system fits how people actually work
Requirements
- 7+ years of engineering experience, with a strong recent track record building production AI / LLM applications (not prototypes or research only)
- Strong agent-design judgment — task-harness fit, matching the harness to the context, failures and policies of the actual task rather than calling a model in a loop
- Capability to operate close to the client: lead discovery and feasibility conversations, work directly with SMEs and end-users, and explain technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Hands-on experience with agentic frameworks (LangChain, LangGraph, Semantic Kernel) and major LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini)
- Expert-level Python and solid software engineering fundamentals
- Strong RAG and retrieval skills: vector databases, embeddings, hybrid search, re-ranking, chunking and context management
- Proven experience evaluating generative AI quality — LLM-based evaluation, heuristics, custom eval frameworks — and using observability/tracing tools (LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, Langfuse)
- Production deployment experience on at least one major cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) with containerization, CI/CD
- Sound judgment under ambiguity — scoping, sequencing and making the call on speed vs. quality vs. scope
- English at C1 level
Nice to have
- Experience designing experiments, A/B testing and iterating on AI products against real user behavior and business metrics
- Background in NLP, Data Science or applied ML, with experience moving models into production
- Familiarity with MCP, A2A and Agent Skills, and emerging agent standards
- Experience with enterprise AI platforms (AWS Bedrock AgentCore, Databricks Genie, Microsoft Foundry)
- Exposure to AI governance, security and compliance (guardrails, prompt-injection prevention)
Benefits
We connect like-minded people
- Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact
- Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your own home
- Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year
- Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries
- Corporate and social events
We invest in your growth
- Leadership development, career advising, soft skills and well-being programs
- Certifications, including GCP, Azure and AWS
- Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database
- Free English classes with certified teachers
We cover it all
- Participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program
- Comprehensive medical & family care package
- Five trust days per year (sick leave without a medical certificate)
- Benefits package (sports activities, a variety of stores and services)
We connect like-minded people
- Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact
- Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your home
- Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year
- Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries
- Corporate and social events
We invest in your growth
- Leadership development, career advising, soft skills and well-being programs
- Certifications, including GCP, Azure and AWS
- Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database
- Free English classes with certified teachers
We cover it all
- Participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program
- Comprehensive medical & family care package
- Four trust days per year for personal needs
- Discounts for fitness clubs
- Benefits package (hotels, restaurants, stores and services)
We connect like-minded people:
- Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact
- Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your own home
- Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year
- Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries
- Corporate and social events
We invest in your growth:
- Leadership development, career advising, soft skills and well-being programs
- Certifications, including GCP, Azure and AWS
- Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database
- Free English classes with certified teachers
- Discounts in local language schools, including online courses for the Kazakh language
We cover it all:
- Participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program
- Medical & family care package
- Six trust days per year (sick leave without a medical certificate)
- Coverage of psychology sessions of your choice
- Benefits package (sports activities, a variety of stores and services)
- Housing support program: preferential mortgage access via Otbasy Bank partnership
We connect like-minded people:
- Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact
- Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your own home
- Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year
- Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries
- Corporate and social events
We invest in your growth:
- Leadership development, career advising, soft skills and well-being programs
- Certifications, including GCP, Azure and AWS
- Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database
- Free English classes with certified teachers
We cover it all:
- Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program
- Medical & family care package
- Six trust days per year (sick leave without a medical certificate)
- Coverage of psychology sessions of your choice
- Discounts for fitness clubs and sports programs
- Benefits package (sports activities, a variety of stores and services)
We connect like-minded people:
- Delivering innovative solutions to industry leaders, making a global impact
- Enjoyable working environment, whether it is the vibrant office or the comfort of your own home
- Opportunity to work abroad for up to two months per year
- Relocation opportunities within our offices in 55+ countries
- Corporate and social events
We invest in your growth:
- Leadership development, career advising, soft skills and well-being programs
- Certifications, including GCP, Azure and AWS
- Unlimited access to EPAM's internal learning database
- Free English classes with certified teachers
Discounts in local language schools, including offline courses for the Uzbek language
We cover it all:
- Monetary bonuses for engaging in the referral program
- Medical & family care package
- Four trust days per year (sick leave without a medical certificate)
- Discounts for fitness clubs, dance schools and sports programs
- Benefits package (sports activities, a variety of stores and services)
About the Company
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