Forward Deployed Engineer (Chief Role)

About the Position

We are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer (Chief Role) to build AI-native solutions where LLMs and their harness are the core of the value. This is a builder's role where you and your team are responsible for building agentic systems, writing production code, and standing up the evaluations and observability. You will work closely with SMEs and end-users to understand where the real value lies and design the feedback loops.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and ship AI-native systems end-to-end - 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 rather than 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 such as LangChain, LangGraph, or Semantic Kernel and major LLM providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google Gemini
• Expert-level proficiency in 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, and custom eval frameworks - and using observability/tracing tools such as LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, or Langfuse
• Production deployment experience on at least one major cloud such as AWS, Azure, or GCP with containerization and 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 such as AWS Bedrock AgentCore, Databricks Genie, or Microsoft Foundry
• Exposure to AI governance, security, and compliance including guardrails and prompt-injection prevention

We Offer

• Opportunity to Engineer your Future and to drive the world’s digital transformation with top industry clients
• Personal development program that will allow you to be valued for your strengths
• Wide range of professional trainings and workshops
• Being part of a collaborative, fast-growing, and innovative design team
• Established and accelerated growth toward different career paths, competencies, and roles
• Broad projects variety and possible mobility between projects over time
• Collaboration in a multicultural environment and exchange of best practices with colleagues around the world
• Varied social benefits, Sports, Transportation, and Health programs
• Work-life balance and flexible schedule, team buildings, and sport opportunities
• Modern office/collaboration spaces (incl. new Infinity Tower business center, Sofia)
• Hybrid By Design - we provide you with the best productivity options from the 2 worlds. Meet, socialize, and enjoy F2F time with your colleagues, while working from the modern EPAM's office for a few days per week and benefit from the EPAM's virtual working environment - making you able to be productive and work from remote for the rest of the week