Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Forward Deployed AI Engineering at Guidehouse is built around working closely with clients and delivery teams to turn real mission and business needs into working generative and agentic AI solutions. This onsite role in McLean, VA emphasizes rapid discovery, practical prototyping, and delivery-focused engineering practices, supported by a comprehensive total rewards package and ongoing learning opportunities.

Compensation: USD 113,000 - 188,000 per year. Experience: 3+ years. Travel: up to 10%.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with clients and technical leads to understand workflows, technical challenges, user needs, and opportunities for applying AI.
• Translate business, mission, and user requirements into technical designs, prototypes, and working solutions.
• Design, prototype, test, and deploy generative AI and agentic AI applications in enterprise environments.
• Build AI solutions using large language models, APIs, developer tooling, enterprise data, and modern application development practices.
• Develop agentic solutions using Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent-to-agent (A2A) communication, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool use, structured outputs, context management, orchestration, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Participate in client discovery sessions, technical working sessions, demonstrations, and solution design discussions.
• Collect feedback from users and stakeholders and rapidly incorporate it into working solutions.
• Troubleshoot technical issues and coordinate with client and delivery teams to implement practical fixes.
• Explore emerging AI technologies and evaluate how they can address real-world business and mission problems.
• Build and maintain integrations with enterprise systems, services, APIs, databases, data sources, and workflow tools.
• Develop AI applications and agents that interact with enterprise data, tools, systems, APIs, and other agents.
• Apply modern software engineering practices to deliver solutions that are reliable, maintainable, testable, and well documented.
• Support testing, evaluation, logging, monitoring, and troubleshooting for AI-enabled applications and agentic workflows.
• Participate in code reviews, technical design reviews, and other engineering quality practices.
• Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including explaining prototypes and solution approaches.
• Work effectively when requirements are ambiguous, evolving, or initially undefined.
• Contribute reusable code, technical patterns, documentation, and lessons learned to strengthen future implementations and the engineering culture.

Requirements

• Must be able to OBTAIN and MAINTAIN a Federal PUBLIC TRUST; approved adjudication of the PUBLIC TRUST is required prior to onboarding with Guidehouse.
• 3+ years of overall work experience.
• Experience in software engineering, AI/ML engineering, data engineering, solution engineering, or a related technical role.
• Experience performing forward deployed engineering or comparable client-facing technical delivery, translating business or mission needs into working technical solutions.
• Hands-on experience building generative AI, large language model, or agentic AI solutions.
• Hands-on experience with Claude APIs, Claude for Enterprise, Claude Code, and related enterprise LLM developer tooling (including tool use and Custom Skills), or comparable platforms.
• Hands-on experience with Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Experience with agent-to-agent (A2A) or multi-agent solution patterns for communication and coordination among multiple agents.
• Hands-on experience developing RAG solutions (retrieval, embeddings, vector search, and grounding with enterprise data or content).
• Experience developing agentic workflows using tool use, structured outputs, context management, orchestration, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
• Strong software development skills using modern programming languages, APIs, services, and application development frameworks.
• Experience integrating applications with APIs, databases, data sources, or enterprise systems.
• Understanding of modern software engineering practices, including source control, testing, debugging, code review, documentation, and maintainable code development.
• Strong client communication and interpersonal skills, including explaining technical concepts to technical and non-technical audiences.
• US Citizenship is contractually required.

Technologies

• Large language models, APIs, developer tooling
• Model Context Protocol (MCP)
• Agent-to-agent (A2A) communication
• Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, vector search, vector stores
• Tool use, structured outputs, context management, orchestration, human-in-the-loop patterns
• Claude APIs, Claude for Enterprise, Claude Code, Custom Skills
• Relational databases, vector databases
• Logging, monitoring, testing, evaluation
• Source control, debugging, code review, documentation

Benefits

• Medical, Rx, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Personal and Family Sick Time & Company Paid Holidays
• Position may be eligible for a discretionary variable incentive bonus
• Parental Leave and Adoption Assistance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Dental/Vision & Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Student Loan PayDown
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Employee Referral Program
• Corporate Sponsored Events & Community Outreach
• Emergency Back-Up Childcare Program
• Mobility Stipend

What Would Be Nice To Have

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university.
• Prior experience working as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Forward Deployed AI Engineer, or similar client-embedded engineering role.
• Additional hands-on experience developing Claude-based solutions, including Claude Code, API development, tool use, Custom Skills, or MCP.
• Anthropic Academy coursework or certificates related to AI Fluency, API development, Model Context Protocol, Claude Code, or related topics.
• Anthropic partner training or certification experience, or equivalent platform-focused training.
• Experience building end-to-end agentic AI applications from prototype through implementation.
• Experience with testing and evaluation of generative AI or agentic AI systems, including validation, quality review, or regression testing.
• Experience with relational databases, data modeling, vector databases, or modern data platforms.
• Experience with cloud environments such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud.
• Familiarity with AI safety, security, privacy, governance, and responsible AI practices.
• Experience with logging, monitoring, tracing, or observability for applications or AI-enabled systems.
• Experience delivering technology solutions in federal, regulated, or other complex enterprise environments.
• Experience delivering technology, data, AI, or digital solutions in healthcare, life sciences, public health, or other health-related environments.
• Familiarity with regulated health environments and considerations related to data privacy, security, governance, and responsible use of AI.
• Interest in continuing to develop expertise in forward deployed engineering, agentic AI, and client-facing technical delivery.

About Guidehouse

Guidehouse offers a comprehensive, total rewards package that includes competitive compensation and a flexible benefits package aligned with creating a diverse and supportive workplace. Guidehouse is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Accommodation requests: contact Guidehouse Recruiting at 1-571-633-1711 or [email protected]. Recruitment communications will come from Guidehouse email domains including @guidehouse.com or [email protected].

Guidehouse does not accept unsolicited resumes through or from search firms or staffing agencies.