We are the leading provider of professional services to the middle market globally, our purpose is to instill confidence in a world of change, empowering our clients and people to realize their full potential. Our exceptional people are the key to our unrivaled, culture and talent experience and our ability to be compelling to our clients. You'll find an environment that inspires and empowers you to thrive both personally and professionally. There's no one like you and that's why there's nowhere like RSM.
A Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is a hands
on technical professional who sits close to clients and close to product/engineering teams
and within the business
. The role bridges solution architecture, engineering, and client delivery-deploying, adapting, and operationalizing complex technical solutions (often AI, data or platform
driven) in real client environments.
In AI
enabled managed services, FDEs are positioned to:
Embed AI capabilities into client operations
Stand up pointintime or alwayson AI services
Customize "platform + services" offerings at scalefor the services being engaged
Accelerate value realization postsale
The individual gets deployed primarily during the onboarding process and thereafter stays engaged through the client lifecycle as needed to optimize the managed services engagement model. This sustained involvement helps accelerate time-to-value, improve adoption and operational outcomes, and ultimately increases client lifetime value.
The individuals need to be able to talk to CTOs, CFOs, CIOs
or their
representatives
. Strong business acumen, business process understanding, and critical thinking skills are essential to connect technical decisions to measurable outcomes and value creation.
Responsibilities:
Client
Work directly with client stakeholders (technical and business) tooptimize current client environments and/orimplement solutions in live environments.
Translate ambiguous business problems into deployable technical architecturesand solutions.
Customize, configure, and extend platforms to meet clientspecific requirements.
Troubleshoot production issues and optimize performance postdeployment.
Engineering & Technical Execution
Write productionquality code, scripts, and integrations (Python, SQL, APIs, cloud services).
Build proofsofconcept and evolve them into scalable implementations.
Integrate client systems (ERP, finance, data platforms, cloud infrastructure).
Work with clients to ensuresolutions meet security, compliance and reliability requirements.
Product & Platform Feedback Loop
Act as a conduit between clients and internal product/engineering teams.
Provide structured feedback on feature gaps, usability issues, and scalability constraints.
Influence product roadmap based on realworld deployment learnings.
Managed Services Lifecycle (Outsourced & Co
Embed throughout transition-to-run and steady-state operations to optimize delivery, accelerate time-to-value, and drive measurable outcomes (adoption, reliability, cost-to-serve)-ultimately increasing client lifetime value.
Own transition-to-run (handoff + stabilization) with defined hypercare window and exit criteria (SLO attainment, runbooks complete, monitoring/alerting live, knowledge transfer signed off).
Operate an ongoing change/enhancement intake: shape requests into deployable backlog items (sizing, dependencies, risk/impact) and coordinate release readiness with delivery teams.
Work with Service Integration to identify Continuous Service Improvement (CSI) items to maintain a recurring optimization plan tied to outcomes (automation opportunities, defect reduction, performance improvements, cost-to-serve reduction).
Support renewal and expansion motions with an executive-ready technical narrative backed by evidence (adoption, reliability, automation ROI, realized business value).
Outsourced solutions (
RSM
runs operations)
Partner with service delivery leadership to manage service performance (SLA/OLAattainment plans, incident trends, problem management/root-cause analysis, prevention engineering).
Build and maintain runbooks, automations, and guardrails that standardize delivery and improve scalability (reduce hero-dependency).
Continuously improve observability (dashboards, alert thresholds, key health metrics) to detect issues early and shorten mean time to restore.
Co
Define and maintain the joint operating model (RACI, integration points, escalation paths, change/release responsibilities) so shared delivery is predictable.
Run enablement and knowledge transfer as an ongoing motion (playbooks, office hours, paired troubleshooting) to upskill client teams and sustain outcomes.
Establish shared telemetry (dashboards and outcome metrics) so both sides manage performance, adoption, and continuous improvement with the same facts.
Governance & client lifecycle engagement
Participate in onboarding checkpoints, monthly service reviews, and QBRs to align technical roadmap and operational performance to business outcomes.
Own or maintain key technical artifacts as a single source of truth (architecture decisions, integration maps, dependency register, operational risk log entries).
Provide early risk/health signals and mitigation plans ahead of renewals to protect and grow client lifetime value.
Cross
Partner with solution architects, data scientists, service ownersand delivery leads.
Support presales, pilot phases and client transition, where deep technical credibility is required.
Document deployment patterns, best practices, and reusable assets.
Required Skills & Experience:
Technical
Strong software engineering fundamentals.
Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP).
Data engineering, analytics, or AI/ML deployment experience (common but not universal).
APIs, system integrations, and automation.
Ability to operate in partially defined, fastchanging environments.
Work with Information Security team to ensure security is not compromised and pen testing is applied as needed.
Client & Consulting
Ability to explain complex technical concepts to nontechnical stakeholders.
Strong problemsolving in ambiguous, realworld client scenarios.
Executiveready communication when needed; handson execution always.
Business acumen and business process understanding to translate client objectives into workable operating models and solution requirements.
Strong critical thinking skills to diagnose root causes, evaluate tradeoffs, and make sound decisions in ambiguous environments.
Comfort traveling or embedding with client teams.
Comfort traveling or embedding with client teams.
At RSM, we offer a competitive benefits and compensation package for all our people.We offer flexibility in your schedule, empowering you to balance life's demands, while also maintaining your ability to serve clients.Learn more about our total rewards at https://rsmus.com/careers/working-at-rsm/benefits.
All applicants will receive consideration for employment as RSM does not tolerate discrimination and/or harassment based on race; color; creed; sincerely held religious beliefs, practices or observances; sex (including pregnancy or disabilities related to nursing); gender; sexual orientation; HIV Status; national origin; ancestry; familial or marital status; age; physical or mental disability; citizenship; political affiliation; medical condition (including family and medical leave); domestic violence victim status; past, current or prospective service in the US uniformed service; US Military/Veteran status; pre-disposing genetic characteristics or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state or
