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Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

Amazon· AWS Forward Deployed Engineering
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Hybrid (USA, WA, Seattle), Hybrid (USA, VA, Arlington), Hybrid (USA, NY, New York), Hybrid (USA, CO, Denver)$200.1k - $270.6kFull-timePosted 2w ago

About the role

A Principal Forward Deployed Engineer embeds across multiple strategic enterprise customers to define the technical strategy and engineering standards for AI-powered production systems at scale. They lead production-grade software delivery, set multi-workstream architecture direction, build reusable architectures, and raise engineering excellence across the FDE practice.

Responsibilities

  • Define technical strategy across engagements. - Set the technical direction for the most complex, highest-stakes customer AI programs. Be a key influencer for strategic decisions, bringing technology and industry context to business decisions. Make architecture decisions that span multiple workstreams, services, and organizational boundaries. Requires up to 25% travel.
  • Build production AI systems and reference architectures. - Design and build the foundational architectures — multi-agent orchestration frameworks, enterprise-grade retrieval systems, decision intelligence platforms — that become the template for future engagements. Tackle intrinsically hard problems, acquiring expertise as needed. Solve problems that are significantly complex not only because of technical complexity. Remain hands-on, focusing time on code and code reviews that have the most impact.
  • Own production excellence at scale. - Define the operational standards, evaluation frameworks, and production readiness criteria for AI systems across the FDE practice. Establish mechanisms that ensure AI systems remain healthy across all active engagements.
  • Accelerate customer transformation at the portfolio level. - Identify systemic opportunities to expand AI adoption across multiple customer organizations. Create accelerators, reference architectures, and reusable platforms that reduce time-to-value. Influence AWS product roadmaps based on patterns observed across customers.
  • Raise the bar for the practice. - Define engineering excellence standards for the FDE organization. Guide the career growth of the most senior technical talent. Participate in performance evaluations and advocate for the careers of others. Help the Principal Engineering community grow through internal reviews, interviews, and promotion assessments. Represent the FDE practice to AWS VP-level leadership and customer C-suite executives. Drive hiring bar and calibration for the FDE job family.

Qualifications

  • Current, active TS/SCI US Government Security Clearance
  • 10+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience
  • 8+ years of experience leading the design and architecture of large-scale production systems in customer-facing or enterprise environments
  • Experience building production AI or ML platforms used across multiple products or customers
  • Experience with enterprise-scale agentic workflows, multi-agent orchestration, or AI system governance

Skills

Required:TS/SCI clearancesoftware developmentarchitecture designproduction AI / ML platformsmulti-agent orchestration

Benefits

  • Health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription)
  • Basic Life & AD&D insurance; option for Supplemental life plans
  • EAP, Mental Health Support
  • Flexible Spending Accounts
  • Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage
  • 401(k) matching
  • Paid time off
  • Parental leave
Last updated Oct 25, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

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