Senior Manager, Forward Deployed Engineer - Squad Lead
Location: London
Other locations: Primary Location Only
Salary: Competitive
Date posted: 9 Apr 2026
Job Description
At EY, we’re all in to shape your future with confidence. We’ll help you succeed in a globally connected powerhouse of diverse teams and take your career wherever you want it to go. Join EY and help to build a better working world.
Job Title: Forward Deployed Engineer - Squad Lead
EY Grade: Senior Manager (UK)
Location: UK (London CP / Manchester / Birmingham / Edinburgh/ Belfast) – Hybrid working with client‑site travel as required.
Contract: Permanent, full‑time
Why EY
EY is investing in engineering‑led AI at scale. EY has been selected for the inaugural Frontier Firm AI Initiative – a collaboration between Microsoft and Harvard’s Digital Data Design Institute – recognising EY’s leadership in shaping enterprise‑grade human‑AI operating models. In parallel, EY is expanding its collaboration with OpenAI and Microsoft, bringing advanced AI capabilities to clients through Microsoft’s secure Azure OpenAI Service. Joining this team means being part of a growing engineering capability focused on building production‑grade AI systems for major organisations across sectors.
The opportunity
Organisations are moving rapidly from AI experimentation to operational adoption. However, many struggle to translate ideas into secure, scalable and reliable production solutions. As a Forward Deployed Engineer‑ Squad Lead, you will act as a senior engineering and product leader, guiding squad teams in building and scaling AI‑enabled solutions. You will shape the technical direction, product vision and delivery approach for applied AI systems across engagements, ensuring that solutions deliver measurable value while meeting enterprise standards for reliability, security and responsible AI. You will lead a 4‑7 person FDE squad, bringing together engineers, architects and designers to deliver AI systems. You will ensure technical coherence across delivery, establish strong engineering practices and help organisations successfully operationalise AI capabilities.
What You’ll Do
Client‑Facing Engineering & Delivery
- Define the strategic direction for the squad, including roadmap priorities, solution scope and delivery outcomes.
- Partner with senior client stakeholders to shape AI solution vision, adoption strategies and value realisation.
- Drive delivery across complex programmes, managing dependencies, risks and delivery transparency.
Solution Design & Implementation
- Lead the end‑to‑end delivery of AI‑enabled systems, including agents, retrieval systems and supporting services.
- Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture standards, responsible‑AI requirements and operational readiness practices.
- Establish strong engineering ways‑of‑working across the squad, including review practices, reliability patterns and observability.
Product Mindset & Continuous Improvement
- Shape product thinking around applied AI solutions, helping teams translate opportunities into scalable solution designs.
- Mentor engineers and develop high‑potential talent across the capability.
- Contribute to thought leadership and help represent EY’s Applied AI Engineering capability in market‑facing initiatives.
What We’re Looking For
Essential skills & experience
- Expert software and systems engineering: Python/TypeScript, distributed systems, API/microservice architecture and cloud‑native patterns.
- Deep applied AI/ML mastery: NLP/CV/transformers, generative models (GANs/VAEs), reinforcement learning, classical ML and statistical modelling.
- Advanced LLM/RAG engineering: prompt pipelines, embeddings, vector stores (FAISS/Milvus/Pinecone), hybrid retrieval, grounding, hallucination mitigation and evaluation frameworks.
- LLMOps/MLOps: automated testing, drift monitoring, safety/guardrails, CI/CD for ML, telemetry, lineage and governance.
- Cloud architecture leadership: Azure (preferred), AWS/GCP; Kubernetes/Docker; serverless; IAM, VNETs, zero‑trust patterns and secure network architecture.
- Data engineering architecture: Spark/Databricks, ETL/ELT frameworks; big‑data/graph stacks (Hadoop, Cassandra, Neo4j); streaming (Event Hub/Kafka).
- Enterprise integration: legacy/LOB systems, event workflows, case management platforms; design for high availability, resilience and observability.
- Product leadership: conducting discovery, framing hypotheses, shaping MVPs, backlog ownership, value/adoption metrics and client‑ready PRDs.
- Responsible AI & compliance: privacy‑by‑design, auditability, fairness and transparency; strong awareness of UK financial‑services regulatory context (FCA, PRA, GDPR).
- Consulting leadership: stakeholder management, commercial awareness, proposal shaping, solution positioning and creation of thought leadership.
- Demonstrated ability to lead multi‑disciplinary squads (engineering, data science, architecture, product, design) through complex delivery cycles.
Nice to have
- Governance/model‑risk/responsible‑AI certifications.
Technical Certifications (preferred)
- Azure AI Engineer (AI‑102) or Azure Data Scientist Associate.
- AWS Machine Learning Specialty or Google Professional ML Engineer.
- Databricks Machine Learning Engineer, Kubernetes (CKA/CKAD).
- Azure/AWS Solutions Architect certifications.
- Governance/model‑risk/responsible‑AI certifications.
How You Work
- You’re hands‑on when needed, but primarily you create the conditions for repeatable delivery: clear direction, strong ways‑of‑working, and high engineering standards.
- You earn trust with senior stakeholders by explaining trade‑offs simply and steering delivery through ambiguity with strong governance and transparency.
What We Offer
High‑impact work with leading organisations across sectors, within a collaborative engineering‑led AI capability.
You Will Benefit From
- Continuous development through the FDE Academy, where you both advance your expertise in scalable AI system design and contribute to the evolution of engineering standards, reusable accelerators and capability development across the team.
- Opportunities to participate in innovation challenges, internal accelerators and capability showcases.
- Learning and certification support across cloud, AI and engineering platforms.
- Competitive compensation and benefits.
- Flexible hybrid working arrangements depending on client needs.
Travel & Working Model
Hybrid working and periodic travel to client sites across the UK (and occasionally internationally), discussed based on projects and location.
Inclusion and accessibility
EY is committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive. If you require adjustments or support during the recruitment process, we encourage you to let us know.
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