TechYard
Senior Forward Deployed Engineer
Requirements
Candidates should have strong Python skills, substantial agent-building expertise, sound production judgment, and expert daily use of AI coding tools. The role typically requires 5+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years building production LLM applications, and at least two shipped AI systems beyond simple chat.
Job Description
Senior AI Forward Deployed Engineer
London · Full-time · In person
We’re recruiting on behalf of our client, a specialist AI consultancy that builds custom AI systems for portfolio companies and finance firms that can’t afford to get AI wrong.
The role
You’ll own the technical delivery of these systems end to end, from architecture and build to evaluation and production rollout, reporting directly to the co-founders. Most weeks are heads-down engineering. On the largest engagements, you’ll be embedded with the client for part of the week.
What you’ll do
- Own the codebase, engineering plan and AI system architecture for each engagement
- Build production LLM applications: agentic systems, retrieval-augmented copilots, multimodal analysis and workflow automation
- Make evals a deliverable and set guardrails for privacy, prompt injection and hallucination risk
- Deploy on GCP, Azure or AWS with Docker, CI/CD and observability
- Mentor junior engineers and build reusable tooling such as eval harnesses, agent skills and MCP servers
About you
- Daily, expert use of Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or similar tools, with intelligent supervision of what they produce
- At least two shipped AI systems beyond simple chat, which you can walk through in detail
- Strong Python, real agent depth, and production judgement on cost, latency, reliability and security
- Clear communication, from engineers to a client’s CFO
- Typically 5+ years in software engineering, including 2+ building production LLM applications
Nice to have: PE or portfolio-company experience, vision work, deep RAG, TypeScript, React, Postgres, LangGraph
What’s on offer
- Fully in-person London office, with flexibility and some client travel
- Market-rate base plus potential performance bonus
- Team plans on Claude Code and Codex, plus a structured AI learning curriculum
- Right to work in the UK required; visa sponsorship available for exceptional candidates
Interested? Get in touch with us to discuss the role in confidence.
Skills
About TechYard
The Data People Specialists. Welcome to TechYard, a data specialist recruitment agency. We connect the best data talent with the world’s most innovative and interesting companies.