Principal Forward-Deployed Engineer
ThoughtWorks16 days ago
Barcelona, Spain or Madrid, SpainStaff+
Responsibilities
- Lead concept sprints with client executives, product managers, and designers to define scoped, testable opportunities and success criteria.
- Shape technical narratives, proposals, pod structures, pricing parameters, and technical scope for new pursuits with account leads.
- Set technical direction for prototypes, determining what to build, fake, or buy and defining the evidence each prototype must produce.
- Establish evaluation systems for AI-powered products, including golden datasets, offline evaluations, human review, guardrails, and cost and latency budgets.
- Own architectures that can ship quickly and operate sustainably, including delivery systems, agentic workflows, continuous delivery, testing, observability, security, and privacy by design.
- Maintain architectural alignment across multiple streams and pods on larger initiatives.
- Advise executives and key stakeholders through workshops, pitches, steering committees, and technology recommendations aligned to business outcomes.
- Pair with, review, mentor, and develop engineers while creating reusable practices and sharing knowledge internally and externally.
Requirements
- Strong proficiency in Python or TypeScript, working knowledge of the other, and production experience in at least one additional programming language.
- Hands-on experience with major LLM providers, retrieval-augmented generation, vector databases, and agent frameworks.
- Experience with AI evaluation and observability, including offline and online evaluations, golden datasets, LLM-as-judge patterns, tracing, and cost monitoring.
- Active use of AI-assisted development tools and rapid prototyping platforms.
- Deep expertise in AWS, GCP, or Azure, plus Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker, and automated CI/CD pipelines.
- Strong foundations in API design, event-driven streaming, microservices, and enterprise legacy-system integration.
- Experience with modern data platforms and orchestration tools for AI workload architectures.
- Ability to build prototypes with React and Next.js and apply practices such as TDD, pair programming, continuous deployment, and OWASP LLM threat modeling.
- Experience delivering in complex regulatory and high-security environments, including frameworks such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI-DSS, Saudi PDPL, or the EU AI Act.
- Experience in GCC markets or international settings; Arabic proficiency and public advocacy through talks, open source, or publications are strong pluses.
- Strong communication, facilitation, product-minded delivery, inclusive leadership, mentorship, adaptability, and collaborative feedback skills.
Benefits
- Work on highly visible flagship projects with meaningful client and industry impact.
- Collaborate across global markets, industries, and multidisciplinary teams.
- Remain hands-on with deep technical work while providing technology leadership.
- Help define AI-first product development practices at the intersection of technology, product strategy, and user experience.
- Receive tailored coaching, learning opportunities, development programs, and career support in an inclusive culture.
- Role is anchored in Riyadh, with regular GCC client-site travel of approximately 40% and occasional global travel of approximately 10%.
Tech Stack
Apache AirflowApache KafkaAWSAzureDatabricksdbtDockerGoogle BigQueryGoogle Cloud PlatformKubernetesNext.jsPythonReactSnowflakeTerraformTypeScript
Categories
Forward Deployed
About ThoughtWorks
Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that designs and builds custom software, data platforms, and cloud-native systems for enterprises across industries. Its services-based model spans product discovery, agile delivery, platform modernization, and advisory on digital transformation and AI. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Chicago, it listed on Nasdaq in 2021 (TWKS) and remains backed by private-equity firm Apax Partners.