Principal Forward Deployed Engineer
Piper CompaniesAbout the role
Piper Companies is seeking a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer to join a leading AI and enterprise data technology organization. The Principal Forward Deployed Engineer will serve as a trusted technical advisor for strategic customers, partnering directly with executive stakeholders, architects, and AI teams to design and deploy scalable AI solutions. This role is ideal for a highly technical engineer who excels in customer-facing environments and has deep expertise in enterprise data architecture, AI applications, and governed access frameworks.
Responsibilities of the Principal Forward Deployed Engineer:
Lead technical discovery sessions with customer stakeholders to define AI use cases, data requirements, governance objectives, and deployment strategies.
Design end-to-end AI and data architectures leveraging MCP platforms, semantic context modeling, agent frameworks, and enterprise connectivity solutions.
Establish secure and scalable access models including RBAC, OAuth 2.1, audit logging, and governed data access for AI-powered applications.
Partner with Product and Engineering teams to identify platform enhancement opportunities and translate customer requirements into reusable technical frameworks.
Mentor engineers across engagements, provide technical leadership on complex implementations, and develop reference architectures that accelerate future deployments.
Qualifications of the Principal Forward Deployed Engineer:
7+ years of experience as a Solutions Architect, Principal Software Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Technical Lead, or similar role within an AI, enterprise software, or data platform organization.
Proven experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade AI applications, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and agent-based architectures.
Strong customer-facing background with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to architects, executive stakeholders, and architecture review boards.
Hands-on expertise with MCP, RBAC, OAuth, enterprise integrations, APIs, SQL, modern cloud platforms, and multi-source data environments.
Experience mentoring technical teams and serving as the senior technical authority within customer engagements.
Compensation for the Principal Forward Deployed Engineer includes:
Salary range: $170,000-$240,000 base
Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, retirement savings options, and paid time off
Remote work flexibility
Up to 25% travel to support strategic customer engagements
This job opens for applications on 08/30/2026. Applications for this job will be accepted for at least 30 days from the posting date.
Keywords: Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Architect, AI Architect, MCP, RAG, Agentic AI, Enterprise AI, Data Architecture, RBAC, OAuth, AI Engineering, Technical Leadership, Enterprise SaaS, Connect AI, Remote
Responsibilities
- Lead technical discovery sessions with customer stakeholders to define AI use cases, data requirements, governance objectives, and deployment strategies.
- Design end-to-end AI and data architectures leveraging MCP platforms, semantic context modeling, agent frameworks, and enterprise connectivity solutions.
- Establish secure and scalable access models including RBAC, OAuth 2.1, audit logging, and governed data access for AI-powered applications.
- Partner with Product and Engineering teams to identify platform enhancement opportunities and translate customer requirements into reusable technical frameworks.
- Mentor engineers across engagements, provide technical leadership on complex implementations, and develop reference architectures that accelerate future deployments.
Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience as a Solutions Architect, Principal Software Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Technical Lead, or similar role within an AI, enterprise software, or data platform organization.
- Proven experience designing, building, and deploying production-grade AI applications, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and agent-based architectures.
- Strong customer-facing background with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to architects, executive stakeholders, and architecture review boards.
- Hands-on expertise with MCP, RBAC, OAuth, enterprise integrations, APIs, SQL, modern cloud platforms, and multi-source data environments.
- Experience mentoring technical teams and serving as the senior technical authority within customer engagements.
Benefits
- Comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, retirement savings options, and paid time off.
- Remote work flexibility.
- Up to 25% travel to support strategic customer engagements.
Skills mentioned
About Piper Companies
At Piper, we obsess about the success of our customers and consultants. We believe the development and growth of our people is paramount to that success. Piper Companies provides staffing and professional services in Enterprise IT, Cyber Security and Health Sciences. Everything we do is deeply rooted in creating meaningful partnerships that drive positive impact—we fuel careers, strengthen businesses, and support missions that shape the future. Simply put, we inspire growth to change lives.