Director Forward Deployed AI Engineering

About Indicium AI

Indicium AI was Anthropic’s first European launch partner - and sits among a handful of organisations globally trusted by Anthropic to deploy Claude at enterprise scale. We are also one of the first four OpenAI partners in the UK, and Databricks Ventures has invested in our business and holds a seat on our board. Our engineers have access to the latest AI tools and models, partner technical teams, and early capability previews that the wider market does not.

We are deploying production AI systems into the world's most complex organisations across Financial Services, Energy, and Healthcare. We exist to make AI a genuine competitive advantage for our clients, not in a presentation but in production.

The Role

This is a technical leadership role at the centre of our Forward Deployed AI Engineering practice. Reporting to the CTO, you will lead a team of Forward Deployed AI Engineers who embed directly with our most strategic clients to ship production AI systems that solve real business problems.

You will own how we show up in the market - from the quality of individual engagements to the patterns and playbooks that let the practice scale. This means managing hands-on technical delivery in enterprise, shaping architecture on complex engagements, developing vertical fluency across the team, and partnering with Sales to shape the pipeline. It is a player-coach role: your primary impact will come from the people you hire, the standards you set, and the culture you create - but you will stay close enough to the work to review architectures, unblock production issues, and pair with your team when it matters.

You will work directly with clients at the most senior level, with Anthropic teams, and with Indicium AI leadership to define the direction of our AI engineering practice. The best FDE leaders we have seen do not just run a team - they define what good looks like, and they build the organisation that delivers it consistently.

What You Will Do

• Lead, hire, and develop a high-performing team of Forward Deployed AI Engineers - setting a high bar for technical talent, client instincts, and delivery quality
• Own the technical and operational bar for AI engineering engagements - reviewing SOWs, shaping architecture on complex deployments, and ensuring your team ships production-grade systems
• Build the playbooks and repeatable patterns that turn one-off successes into a scalable , long term customer engagements
• Manage hands-on technical delivery in enterprise - you are comfortable moving fluidly between strategic conversations with C-suite stakeholders and debugging sessions with your engineers
• Develop vertical fluency across the team in Financial Services, Energy, and Healthcare - ensuring credibility with domain-expert clients
• Partner with Sales to shape pipeline, scope engagements, and identify expansion opportunities within existing accounts
• Work alongside Anthropic field teams on joint engagements - representing Indicium AI at the highest level and influencing partner product direction through field insights
• Provide technical mentorship, conduct regular 1:1s, and invest in the career growth of each team member
• Drive knowledge sharing and raise the bar for the practice through codified patterns, internal training, and a culture of engineering excellence

What We Are Looking For

• 8+ years in technical roles with at least 3 years leading engineering or delivery teams - in forward deployed engineering, technical consulting, applied AI, or solutions architecture
• Production experience building AI applications including agentic systems, multi-agent orchestration, advanced RAG, evaluation frameworks, and deployment at scale in regulated enterprise environments
• A track record of building teams from early stage - hiring, developing, and retaining strong engineers, not just inheriting an existing organisation
• Experience working directly with enterprise clients on technical implementations, including comfort navigating complex organisational dynamics, procurement, compliance, and resistant stakeholders
• Executive presence - you can hold your own in a C-suite conversation and translate technical complexity into clear narratives for diverse audiences
• Strong Python proficiency and genuine comfort with production code - you are a builder at heart
• Vertical depth in at least one of Financial Services, Energy, or Healthcare
• High agency and comfort with ambiguity - you have built something from zero before and know what it takes

Nice to Have

• Former technical founder or CTO - you have built products and teams under commercial pressure and client scrutiny
• Experience with MCP server development, tool ecosystem integration, and enterprise agent deployment patterns
• Experience working alongside or within partner ecosystems such as Anthropic, or AWS at a senior level
• External presence - writing, speaking, or thought leadership in the AI Engineering space
• Experience in a Palantir, Anthropic, DeepMind, or similar forward-deployed engineering model

Why Indicium AI

Access to leading AI Labs: Anthropic’s first European launch partner. One of the first four OpenAI UK partners. Databricks Ventures invested and on our board. Our engineers work with capabilities before the wider market does and work jointly with teams from leading AI Labs on customer delivery.

We are builders: We embed, we architect, we build - and we stay until it works. Our engineers make real decisions on live systems, for clients in industries where getting it wrong has consequences. There are no layers between you and the work.

Problems worth solving: No two engagements are the same. The variety and complexity of enterprise AI problems at Indicium AI is something a product company simply cannot offer. If you want engagements that test every dimension of what you can do, this is where they are.

Investment in staying at the frontier: The best engineers we know are relentlessly curious - and we build an environment that supports learning and growth. Every engineer has access to leading AI training and tools, career development pathways, and a flexible L&D budget. We think that’s how it should be.