Director, Forward Deployed Engineering (AI)

Location: Chicago, Illinois, United States. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship.

Salary: $180,000–$230,000 USD base pay.

Company

C3 AI develops enterprise AI application software, including the C3 Agentic AI Platform, industry-specific SaaS applications, and generative AI solutions.

What you will do

• Own delivery outcomes across a portfolio of strategic enterprise accounts from signed SOW through production go-live and expansion.
• Set engagement scope, milestones, dependencies, value hypotheses, technical roadmaps, and staffing plans.
• Lead executive briefings, steering committees, customer relationships, and escalation management.
• Manage, hire, develop, and allocate Forward Deployed Engineers and Team Leads across simultaneous engagements.
• Oversee technical discovery, data and integration assessment, MVP definition, architecture discussions, and feasibility validation.
• Drive use-case adoption, pilot-to-production conversion, account expansion, reusable delivery playbooks, and product feedback.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in management consulting or forward-deployed engineering and delivery leadership.
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.
• Prior experience hiring, developing, and performance-managing engineering or delivery teams.
• Experience owning complex, multi-workstream delivery for Fortune 500 or large public-sector clients across simultaneous engagements.
• Production experience with AI agent deployment, LLM-based systems, or enterprise AI platforms, including data architecture and integration patterns.
• Authorization to work in the United States without current or future company sponsorship is required.

Nice to have

• Consulting leadership experience at Associate Partner or Principal level at McKinsey, BCG, Bain, or equivalent.
• Experience in advanced manufacturing, energy, heavy industrial, CPG, agriculture, defense, or the public sector.
• Experience with a forward-deployed delivery model at an enterprise software or AI platform vendor.
• Experience building or scaling a delivery function or team.

Culture & Benefits

• Excellent benefits and a competitive compensation package.
• Generous equity plan.
• Leadership role with responsibility for team development and organizational contribution.