Forward Deployed Engineer - AI

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Forward Deployed Engineer - AI

Location

Chicago, IL, United States

Department

Sales

Posted Date

9/2/2026

About AvePoint

AvePoint is the unifying Trust Layer for AI. AvePoint enables more than 28,000 organizations and 6,000 channel partners to protect, secure, and govern their entire AI estate across data, infrastructure, AI and agents for Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and other leading cloud environments — so that enterprises can deploy AI with confidence and scale innovation without scaling risk. To learn more, visit www.avepoint.com.

About AvePoint

AvePoint is the global leader in data protection, unifying data security, governance, and resilience to provide a trusted foundation for AI. More than 28,000 customers rely on the AvePoint Confidence Platform to secure, govern, and rapidly recover data across Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and other cloud environments. With a single platform for lifecycle control, multicloud governance, and rapid recovery paired with clear ownership across the business, we prevent overexposure and sprawl, modernize legacy and fragmented data, and minimize data loss and interruption. Our global partner ecosystem includes approximately 6,000 MSPs, VARs, and SIs, and our solutions are available in over 100 cloud marketplaces. To learn more, visit www.avepoint.com.

About the Role

Enterprises are adopting AI faster than they can govern it — and they are looking for a partner who can do two things at once: speak credibly about AI trust, governance, and security, and actually build. The Forward Deployed Engineer (AI) is that partner.

You are the technical face of AvePoint inside client organizations: equally comfortable whiteboarding AI trust and governance concepts with a CISO, translating a business problem into a scoped AI build project, and writing the first working prototype yourself. You embed with clients, ship real outcomes, and own the engagement end to end.

This is not a pre-sales role with a demo script, and not a back-office delivery role.It is the engagement model pioneered by leading

AI companies for their strategic enterprise customers

a senior engineer deployed forward, with the autonomy to own the problem from first workshop to production.

What you'll do

Advise on AI trust and governance.

Lead workshops that help clients understand and take control of their AI landscape — agents, copilots, models, and the data behind them, including the shadow AI they didn't know about. Explain AI governance, security posture, and resilience concepts credibly to both technical teams and executives. Guide clients through obligations such as the EU AI Act, NIS2, and ISO 42001, and help them stand up practical operating models: AI inventories, approval workflows, risk classification, and audit evidence.

Scope and shape AI build projects.

Sit with business stakeholders to understand the underlying need behind "we want AI for X." Identify the highest-value use cases, define success criteria, and translate ambiguous requirements into concrete, estimable technical scopes — architecture outlines, data and integration requirements, delivery phases, effort and risk assessments. Write statements of work that engineering teams can actually deliver and clients can actually sign.

Build and deliver.

Develop prototypes and production components for client

AI solutions

agent workflows, RAG pipelines, LLM integrations (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Anthropic), MCP-based tool integrations, and the governance and security controls around them. Deliver custom adapters and local tooling for regulated, cloud-restricted, or air-gapped environments where standard SaaS approaches cannot go.

Own the relationship through delivery.

Act as the trusted technical advisor from first workshop through go-live: run enablement sessions, support adoption, troubleshoot in production, and expand the engagement where you see genuine value for the client.

What we're looking for

Must-haves

• 5+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, with at least 2 years hands-on with modern AI/LLM systems in real projects (not only experimentation).
• Practical experience building with LLM APIs and frameworks (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex, LangChain, Semantic Kernel) and patterns such as RAG, agentic workflows, and tool/function calling.
• Machine Learning Expertise: Hands-on machine learning experience spanning model development, evaluation, deployment, and operationalization, with a focus on enterprise AI solutions, predictive analytics, and scalable MLOps practices.
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or C#/TypeScript, plus working fluency with at least one major cloud platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP), including identity, networking, and data services.
• Demonstrated ability to scope technical projects from ambiguous business requirements: you can run a requirements workshop, challenge assumptions constructively, and produce a credible plan with phases, estimates, and risks.
• Excellent communication in front of senior stakeholders — you can explain why AI governance matters to a board member and debate vector database trade-offs with a platform engineer in the same meeting.
• Willingness to travel to client sites and to operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving engagements.

Strong pluses

• Working knowledge of AI governance and compliance frameworks: EU AI Act, NIS2, ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, or Gartner's AI TRiSM model.
• Experience with AI security topics: prompt injection, data leakage, agent permissioning, model and data security posture (AI-SPM/DSPM concepts).
• Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent runtimes, or vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Weaviate, Chroma).
• Background in enterprise data governance, security, backup/resilience, or the Microsoft 365 / multi-cloud ecosystem where AvePoint operates.
• Experience delivering into regulated industries (public sector, defense, financial services, healthcare) or air-gapped/sovereign environments.
• Prior experience in a forward-deployed, embedded consulting, or customer-facing engineering role.
• Additional languages relevant to your region's client base.

How we'll measure success

Within your first 6–12 months, you will have led AI discovery and governance workshops for multiple enterprise clients, scoped and won at least one significant AI build or governance engagement, and delivered working software into a client environment.

Above all

clients ask for you by name.

Why this role, why now

AI adoption has outrun enterprise control, and regulators have noticed. Every large organization now needs to see, govern, secure, and sustain its AI estate — and most need a partner who can both advise and build. As an FDE at AvePoint you will help define this engagement model from the ground floor, work at the frontier of agentic AI and AI trust, and do it with two decades of enterprise data governance and resilience expertise behind you.

The Salary Range for this role is $180,000 - $230,000. At AvePoint, we strive to offer competitive, fair, and equitable total rewards. The listed salary range represents a good faith estimate, with final offers based on location, experience, skills, and qualifications. The listed range reflects base salary only; our total rewards include base salary, comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with match, unlimited PTO), and depending on the role, bonuses, commissions, or equity (RSUs). We welcome compensation discussions—apply even if your expectations fall outside the range.

Any personal data you share with us during the application process will be processed strictly in compliance with applicable data protection laws and our Privacy Notice.

#LI-SB1

Any personal data you share with us during the application process will be processed strictly in compliance with applicable data protection laws and our Privacy Notice.

Why AvePoint?

We are invested in the success of our colleagues, partners, customers, and community. We do this by promoting global collaboration and taking pride in helping, sharing, mentoring, and coaching each other.

Life at AvePoint

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