Job Description:
About Crowe Studio
Crowe Studio is a business unit dedicated to helping clients scale smarter, transform faster, and lead in a platform-driven economy. Built for speed and flexibility, Crowe Studio operates outside the constraints of traditional professional services delivery models, giving clients access to cross-disciplinary innovation, embedded AI capabilities, and global delivery resources—all in service of solving complex business challenges in faster, smarter ways.
Through Crowe Studio, the firm provides clients with an innovation partner focused on rapid execution, deep technology integration, and high-impact results. We’re building the next generation of business models for professional services, where human expertise and AI are embedded within clients’ operations to drive ongoing impact, not just deliver isolated projects.
As a member of Crowe Studio, you will help distinguish Crowe in the market and drive the firm’s technology and innovation strategy. The future is powered by AI—come build it with us.
About Forward Deployed Engineering
The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Practice drives AI transformation through embedded consulting and engineering, enabling clients to accelerate delivery, scale solutions, and capture value faster. Our approach helps companies prove AI in their own environments, delivering results in weeks, not months.
We embed our Forward Deployed Engineers side-by-side with client teams to spot opportunities, make AI concepts real, and deploy solutions rapidly. Unlike traditional consulting approaches that rely on documented requirements and lengthy development cycles, FDEs blend engineering, product thinking, workflow design, and business understanding to achieve shared, outcome-driven ownership until measurable results are achieved.
Our engagements range from 2-hour AI Immersion Labs that turn AI noise into real use cases, to multi-week Proof of Value Sprints that prototype and deploy game-changing AI solutions. We help companies de-risk AI adoption while demonstrating solid ROI.
About the Team
- We invest in expertise. You’ll have the time, space, and support to go deep on client engagements and build lasting technical and strategic mastery. You’ll work with cross-functional teams and client teams as a trusted advisor and domain expert.
- We believe in continuous growth. Our team is committed to professional development and knowledge-sharing.
- We protect balance. Our distributed team culture is grounded in trust and flexibility. We offer unlimited PTO, a flexible remote work policy, and a supportive environment that prioritizes sustainable, long-term performance.
About the Role
As a Forward Deployed AI Architect (Manager), you will serve as a hands-on technical authority responsible for designing, developing, and delivering innovative, production-ready AI solutions for our clients. You will own solution architecture, technical feasibility, engineering quality, and production readiness while remaining actively involved in coding, prototyping, and complex technical problem-solving.
Working within Crowe Studio's Forward Deployed Engineering practice, you will collaborate directly with clients and cross-functional teams to translate complex business challenges into scalable, secure, and maintainable AI applications. Your work will span agentic AI systems, generative AI applications, enterprise integrations, cloud-native architectures, and production deployments.
This role is ideal for an experienced engineer who wants to expand their technical leadership and architectural influence without moving away from hands-on engineering. You will guide technical decisions, establish engineering standards, mentor engineers, and communicate architectural tradeoffs with confidence. You will also be empowered to challenge technical approaches that introduce unacceptable risk or will not meet production requirements.
What You’ll Do
- Architect and develop end-to-end applied AI solutions, including generative AI applications, agentic systems, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and AI-enabled enterprise workflows.
- Lead solution architecture for AI build and proof-of-concept engagements, ensuring solutions are technically feasible, scalable, secure, and aligned with client business objectives.
- Remain hands-on across solution development, including application coding, data integration, prototyping, debugging, and technical implementation.
- Design and implement cloud-native AI solutions using Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and relevant AI platforms and services.
- Define architecture and integration patterns for large language models (LLMs), vector databases, APIs, microservices, enterprise data platforms, and client systems.
- Take ownership of technical feasibility, solution design decisions, and build quality from initial discovery through production deployment.
- Guide solutions through Architecture Review Board processes, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, responsible AI principles, and production readiness expectations.
- Assess technical feasibility during client discovery sessions, solution scoping, and sales support discussions, clearly communicating technical tradeoffs, risks, and recommended approaches.
- Establish engineering standards, reusable architectural patterns, technical documentation, and development best practices across client engagements.
- Design solutions with appropriate evaluation frameworks, monitoring, observability, guardrails, and performance optimization to support reliable AI operations.
- Collaborate with AI engineering, data engineering, MLOps, DevOps, cloud infrastructure, and security teams to deliver integrated enterprise solutions.
- Evaluate technical tradeoffs among custom development, managed AI services, and low-code or automation platforms to select appropriate implementation strategies.
- Identify and address technical risks, including performance, scalability, security, reliability, and cost considerations.
- Mentor engineers through architecture reviews, code reviews, technical guidance, and hands-on problem-solving to strengthen engineering quality and team capabilities.
- Evaluate emerging AI frameworks, cloud capabilities, and engineering tools to identify opportunities for innovation and continuous improvement.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related technical field.
- Minimum of 6 years of experience in production software engineering, cloud engineering, AI/ML engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Strong hands-on software engineering experience, including proficiency in modern programming languages, application development, and the design and deployment of production-grade solutions.
- Demonstrated experience architecting cloud-native applications and distributed systems using Azure, AWS, or GCP, including APIs, microservices, enterprise integrations, and data workflows.
- Working knowledge of generative AI and LLM application patterns, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), embeddings, vector search, and agentic workflows.
- Ability to assess technical feasibility, evaluate architectural tradeoffs, and make sound engineering decisions considering scalability, security, performance, reliability, and cost.
- Understanding of software and AI application lifecycle management, including testing, evaluation, production deployment, monitoring, and operational support.
- Strong communication and client-facing skills, with demonstrated ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions, explain complex architectural decisions, and mentor engineering teams.
- Demonstrated ownership of technical delivery, engineering quality, and risk management in collaborative, fast-paced environments, with a commitment to remaining actively engaged in hands-on engineering.
- Ability to travel up to 80%, depending on client and engagement requirements.
Preferred Skills
- Master's degree in a technical field or relevant cloud or architecture certifications.
- Experience developing and deploying production AI applications using LLMs or agent frameworks from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or similar providers, including tool orchestration and multi-step agentic workflows.
- Experience designing evaluation frameworks for LLM and agentic systems, including quality, reliability, safety, performance, and responsible AI considerations.
- Advanced cloud and AI infrastructure experience, including Kubernetes, Terraform, observability, and managed AI services such as Azure AI, Amazon SageMaker, or Google Vertex AI.
- Experience architecting RAG solutions, integrating vector databases (such as Pinecone, Weaviate, or FAISS), and optimizing model inference or AI application performance.
- Familiarity with AI-assisted development and low-code automation platforms, such as Microsoft Power Platform, Cursor, Replit, Retool, or n8n, along with experience supporting client discovery, technical scoping, or proof-of-value engagements.
#Hybrid
The wage range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. At Crowe, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is $102,400.00 - $204,100.00 per year.
Our Benefits:
Your exceptional people experience starts here. At Crowe, we know that great people are what makes a great firm. We care about our people and offer employees a comprehensive total rewards package. Learn more about what working at Crowe can mean for you!
How You Can Grow:
We will nurture your talent in an inclusive culture that values diversity. You will have the chance to meet on a consistent basis with your Career Coach that will guide you in your career goals and aspirations. Learn more about where talent can prosper!
More about Crowe:
Crowe provides professional services through two separate entities: Crowe LLP delivers audit and attest services, and Crowe Advisory LLC provides tax, advisory, consulting, and other nonattest services.
