Forward Deployed Eng Director in London

This is not a consulting role. It is not a project delivery role. It is not a research position. A Forward Deployed AI Engineer is a production engineer who works embedded inside a client's enterprise, shoulder to shoulder with their teams, to make complex AI platforms work in real, messy organizational environments. You own outcomes: time-to-value, adoption, reliability, and scalability. Not delivery milestones. Outcomes.

The market is beginning to understand what leading technology companies have demonstrated: AI products fail not because the models are weak but because deployment is broken. The gap between a successful AI pilot and an AI capability that scales is bridged by engineers who can translate platform capability into measurable business value inside a real enterprise environment. That is this role.

Forward Deployed AI Engineers form the execution spine of our Reinvention Deployment Engineering pods. We are building the largest FDE capability in the services industry. The engineers who join at this stage will define what the role looks like at scale and will have access to the hardest enterprise AI problems in the market across every industry.

• Own account-level AI transformation across the client enterprise - from platform selection and architecture through to enterprise-wide adoption and reinvention at scale.
• Hold full accountability for deployment outcomes at account level: time-to-value, reliability, adoption, and ROI - directly reported to client executive leadership.
• Drive ambiguity to resolution at account scale: translate executive-level strategic intent into production AI systems operating across the enterprise.
• Define enterprise AI architecture standards and governance frameworks across the client organisation, spanning identity, data, security, multi-platform integration, and AI lifecycle management.
• Own the relationship with client CTO, CFO, and CISO: shape AI investment strategy, board-level narrative, and multi-year reinvention roadmap.
• Codify reusable patterns and playbooks that define what enterprise AI reinvention looks like - assets that scale across markets, industries, and the FDE practice globally.
• Lead executive workshops, board-level engagements, and cross-practice architecture reviews that shape the client’s AI reinvention trajectory.
• Define the FDE practice model: engineering standards, deployment playbooks, talent development frameworks, and the capability architecture that the practice is built on.

• Significant engineering experience with cloud-native systems (APIs, microservices, containerization, serverless).
• Deep expertise in designing and deploying agentic solutions (agents, orchestration, context engineering, RAG, workflows) in production environments.
• Considerable experience with AI platforms - OpenAI, Claude, Vertex AI, plus open-source models, including building abstraction layers to manage multi-provider pipelines.
• Substantial experience leading software engineering teams: overseeing delivery, allocating resources across workstreams, and owning the professional development of direct reports.
• Demonstrated end-to-end delivery ownership in a client-embedded environment; internal projects, vendor labs, or team-only deployments do not qualify.
• Proven ability to articulate business value: can quantify the impact of deployments in terms a CFO would recognise and act on.
• Experience presenting to and building trust with senior client stakeholders, CTO, CFO, or CISO level.
• Non-linear profiles are expected and welcomed; assessment is based on demonstrated deployment experience and outcome ownership, not CV pattern matching.

Locations: London

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement: All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. Job candidates will not be obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest as part of the hiring process. Accenture is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

About Accenture: We work with one shared purpose: to deliver on the promise of technology and human ingenuity. Every day, more than 775,000 of us help our stakeholders continuously reinvent. Together, we drive positive change and deliver value to our clients, partners, shareholders, communities, and each other. We believe that delivering value requires innovation, and innovation thrives in an inclusive and diverse environment. We actively foster a workplace free from bias, where everyone feels a sense of belonging and is respected and empowered to do their best work. At Accenture, we see well-being holistically, supporting our people’s physical, mental, and financial health. We also provide opportunities to keep skills relevant through certifications, learning, and diverse work experiences. We're proud to be consistently recognised as one of the World's Best Workplaces. Join Accenture to work at the heart of change.