Lead Forward-Deployed AI Engineer

Location: Remote within the United States, with regular work at customer sites; must be within practical reach of a named US pharma hub.

Salary: $130,000–$200,000 per year

Company

hirify.global builds Digital Workers: pre-skilled AI workforces that perform knowledge work inside customer environments for pharma, life sciences, CRO, consultancy, and BPO partners.

What you will do

• Lead customer discovery and translate workflows into feasible scope, technical designs, and measurable acceptance criteria.
• Build and integrate agentic systems with enterprise data and APIs.
• Own evaluation, failure handling, testing, deployment, production delivery, and customer acceptance.
• Partner with Value Engineering on scope, dependencies, and progress.
• Guide engineers, review code and designs, collaborate with UK engineers, and turn delivery lessons into reusable approaches.

Requirements

• Hands-on ownership of production AI systems using Python, LLMs, and agentic workflows, with sound software engineering and measurable business impact.
• Independent client delivery experience, including onsite discovery, requirements clarification, technical blocker resolution, and risk communication with limited supervision.
• Experience leading a small engineering team or enterprise delivery workstream from discovery through production while remaining hands-on and accountable for technical outcomes.
• Experience evaluating and operating reliable systems.
• Based within practical reach of a named US pharma hub and willing to work regularly at customer sites.
• Pharma, life sciences, or regulated-enterprise delivery experience is preferred.
• The role excludes isolated laboratory R&D and product or platform development, which are handled by a separate internal team.

Culture & Benefits

• Culture emphasizes intellectual rigour, ownership, and winning.
• 20 days of paid holiday plus bank holidays.
• Carry-over or holiday-sale options of up to 5 days.
• Share options and a referral bonus program.
• Learning and development budget.
• Work directly with US customers and collaborate with UK engineers.

Hiring process

• Recruiter screen.
• 30-minute hiring manager/team interview covering past projects and recent codebases.
• Three-hour take-home challenge focused on structured thinking and practical coding/problem-solving, followed by a Day 0 onsite in Hammersmith with three 30-minute technical interviews and a founders/executive interview.