Forward Deployed Engineer

About the Company
Join a technology-driven organization supporting clients across multiple industries. The organization delivers secure, scalable, and production-ready solutions across enterprise software, cloud, data, automation, and artificial intelligence. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will combine hands-on engineering with cloud deployment, applied AI, enterprise integration, and customer-facing delivery to turn high-impact business problems into working technology solutions.

Job Title: Forward Deployed Engineer
Employment Type: Full-Time
Work Location: Onsite
Experience Required: 5-10 Years

Summary
Build and deploy production-ready enterprise solutions directly with customers. This role is primarily focused on enterprise software engineering with Java, APIs, databases, and system design, while also requiring strong capability in cloud deployment, DevOps, and applied AI engineering. The Forward Deployed Engineer owns delivery from technical discovery and architecture through development, enterprise integration, production rollout, and adoption.

Role Focus & Responsibility Allocation

• 35% Enterprise Software Engineering: Java, Spring Boot, APIs, microservices, databases, testing, performance, and system design.
• 20% Cloud, DevOps & Deployment: Cloud platforms, containers, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability, reliability, and production operations.
• 20% AI Engineering: LLM-powered applications, RAG, agents, tool calling, evaluation, guardrails, and AI observability.
• 15% Enterprise Integrations & Business Workflows: System integration, messaging, data workflows, third-party platforms, identity, compliance, and legacy environments.
• 10% Customer Consulting & Solution Architecture: Discovery, solution design, stakeholder communication, technical guidance, rollout planning, and adoption.

Forward Deployed Engineer
Primary Skills: Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, Microservices, SQL, NoSQL, System Design, AWS/Azure/GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Python, LLM APIs, RAG, Agentic Workflows, Enterprise Integration
Secondary Skills: JavaScript/TypeScript, React or Angular, FastAPI, Kafka, Infrastructure as Code, Observability, SSO/IAM, Secure Coding, Solution Architecture, Customer-Facing Engineering

What You'll Do
Enterprise Software Engineering - 35%

• Design, build, test, and maintain production-grade backend or full-stack applications using Java, Spring Boot, and other appropriate languages and frameworks.
• Develop RESTful or GraphQL APIs, microservices, domain models, and data-access layers across relational and NoSQL databases.
• Apply strong system-design, software-architecture, object-oriented programming, design-pattern, testing, and clean-code practices to create scalable and maintainable solutions.
• Troubleshoot application, performance, reliability, security, and data issues; perform root-cause analysis and create reusable engineering components and implementation patterns.

Cloud, DevOps & Deployment - 20%

• Deploy and operate applications on AWS, Azure, or GCP using Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Move solutions from prototype or proof of concept to secure, scalable, observable, and supportable production systems.
• Implement monitoring, logging, tracing, release controls, capacity planning, and operational-readiness practices that improve availability and delivery quality.

AI Engineering - 20%

• Build and productionize LLM-powered applications using LLM APIs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agents, tool calling, and intelligent automation.
• Design AI evaluation, prompt and retrieval testing, guardrails, safety controls, responsible-AI practices, and AI observability for reliable production use.
• Integrate AI capabilities into enterprise applications and workflows using Python, FastAPI, Java services, cloud AI platforms, and appropriate data stores.

Enterprise Integrations & Business Workflows - 15%

• Develop integrations and data workflows across enterprise applications, databases, cloud services, messaging platforms, APIs, and third-party systems.
• Map business processes and technical dependencies while addressing legacy-system constraints, SSO, identity and access management, data governance, security reviews, and compliance requirements.

Customer Consulting & Solution Architecture - 10%

• Partner with customer teams to understand business workflows, technical environments, constraints, and measurable success criteria, then translate them into practical solution architectures and delivery plans.
• Communicate milestones, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations to technical and business stakeholders; support onboarding, production adoption, and travel to client locations when required.
  

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of experience in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, implementation, or customer-facing technical delivery.
• Strong production-level programming experience with Java and Spring Boot, including backend or full-stack applications, microservices, APIs, testing, and secure coding.
• Strong understanding of system design, software architecture, object-oriented programming, data structures, design patterns, performance optimization, and clean coding practices.
• Hands-on experience with relational and NoSQL databases, data modeling, SQL, caching, and data-intensive application design.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP; Docker and Kubernetes; CI/CD pipelines; infrastructure as code; observability; and production deployment practices.
• Practical experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications using RAG, agents, tool calling, evaluation methods, guardrails, prompt engineering, or AI observability.
• Experience integrating enterprise applications, APIs, databases, messaging systems, cloud services, and third-party platforms within complex business workflows.
• Good understanding of enterprise security, authentication and authorization, SSO, identity and access management, data privacy, governance, and regulated environments.
• Ability to own delivery in fast-moving and ambiguous environments, make sound technical trade-offs, manage multiple priorities, and move solutions from discovery to stable production adoption.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work directly with engineers, business users, executives, and customer stakeholders.
  

Preferred Skills & Certifications

• Advanced experience with LangChain, LangGraph, vector databases, AI evaluation frameworks, responsible AI, model governance, or LLMOps.
• Experience with React or Angular, FastAPI or similar frameworks, Kafka or messaging systems, and distributed or event-driven architectures.
• Knowledge of Linux, networking fundamentals, site-reliability practices, cloud security, monitoring, logging, and telemetry.
• Experience navigating enterprise SaaS, financial services, healthcare, government, manufacturing, or other complex and regulated customer environments.
• Cloud, Java, software architecture, DevOps, security, data, or AI certifications are a plus.

Education
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field. Equivalent professional experience will also be considered.

Equal Opportunity Statement
Cogent Infotech is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from individuals of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and experiences. Join a collaborative, purpose-driven organization where your ideas matter.