Forward Deployed AI Engineer

As a Forward Deployed AI Engineer, you will work directly with client executives, operators, and technical teams to turn high-value business problems into production AI systems.

You will own the full journey: understanding the workflow, defining what should be built, designing the technical approach, shipping the system, and improving it until it delivers measurable results.

This is a hands-on engineering role. You will write production code, make architecture decisions, and work directly with users. You will also need the judgment to prioritize the right problem, communicate clearly with clients, and keep an engagement moving through ambiguity.

We are not looking for someone who only wants to build prototypes or work from detailed specifications. We are looking for someone who wants to figure out what matters and own the outcome.

What You’ll Do

• Work directly with clients to understand their operations, data, systems, and business objectives
• Identify and prioritize AI applications based on feasibility and measurable financial impact
• Design, build, and deploy production AI systems, including agents, workflow automations, data pipelines, integrations, and internal applications
• Own technical workstreams from initial discovery through deployment, adoption, and iteration
• Build evaluation, monitoring, and human-review systems that make AI reliable in real-world workflows
• Communicate progress, decisions, risks, and tradeoffs to both technical teams and senior executives
• Turn lessons from client engagements into reusable tools, patterns, and engineering standards
• Step into whatever gaps stand between a promising idea and a successful production system

• 2+ years of experience building software or applied AI systems
• Strong Python fundamentals and comfort working across APIs, databases, cloud infrastructure, and unfamiliar systems
• Hands-on experience building with LLMs through professional work, research, or substantive independent projects
• Evidence that you have shipped something real and can explain how it evolved after reaching users
• The ability to move comfortably between a client conversation and a technical implementation
• Strong product and business judgment. You want to understand why something should be built, not just how to build it
• A high degree of ownership. You identify what needs to happen next and take responsibility for making it happen
• Clear communication and the ability to build trust with both engineers and operators
• Comfort operating in fast-moving environments where the problem is not fully defined

Experience with production LLM applications, agentic workflows, RAG, evaluation systems, TypeScript, React, or cloud deployment is helpful but not required. Experience in healthcare, education, financial services, or another regulated industry is also a plus.

Pulled from the full job description

• Health insurance
• Vision insurance
• Dental insurance
• Profit sharing, * Base salary of $165,000 to $225,000, depending on experience and level
• Uncapped profit-sharing tied to the performance of the team
• Equity compensation
• Health, dental, and vision coverage
• Direct ownership of projects with visible operational and financial impact
• Hands-on work with the latest AI models and tooling
• A small, high-trust team where initiative and strong judgment are rewarded

This role is based in New York City and follows a hybrid collaboration model.

Compensation Range: $165K - $225K

Transformworks is an AI implementation firm built for private equity. We partner with leading PE firms and their portfolio companies to identify where AI can create measurable value, then design and deploy the systems that capture it.

Our work spans healthcare, education, financial services, and other operationally complex industries. We build AI systems that increase capacity, improve revenue capture, and change how critical work gets done.

We are profitable, growing quickly, and intentionally lean. Our view is that AI has fundamentally changed what one exceptional engineer with strong business judgment can accomplish. We give people real ownership, keep teams small, and reward them based on the value they create., You will work directly alongside the founders and senior engineers from day one. As you develop, you will take ownership of larger technical workstreams, lead client engagements, manage teams, and help shape how Transformworks delivers AI at scale.

At a small company growing quickly, that progression can happen much faster than it would inside a traditional consulting firm or engineering organization.