Forward-Deployed AI Engineer

Firm Overview:

H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm with $75 billion of assets under management with a focus on the mid cap segment of the market. The H.I.G. family of funds includes private equity, growth equity, real estate, direct lending, special situation credit, and growth-stage healthcare. We focus on providing capital to businesses with attractive growth potential and align ourselves with committed management teams and entrepreneurs to help grow businesses of significant value. Our team of over 500 investment professionals has substantial operating, consulting, technology, and financial management experience, enabling us to contribute meaningfully to our portfolio companies. H.I.G. is based in Miami, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, and affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, and Paris in Europe as well as Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo in Latin America, Dubai in the Middle East, and Hong Kong in Asia.

Role Overview:

The Forward-Deployed AI Engineer will be forward deployed to drive measurable business impact across H.I.G. Capital’s portfolio companies through AI-powered automation. H.I.G. Capital is building a small, high-impact AI team to accelerate value creation across our portfolio companies. This role sits within Portfolio Operations, reports to the Operating Partner, AI, and works alongside H.I.G.’s Strategy and Transformation Operating Partners, who identify high-value opportunities and direct focus areas.

As a Forward-Deployed AI Engineer, you will work directly with portfolio companies to identify, evaluate, implement, and measure AI solutions that generate tangible EBITDA impact. The majority of your work will involve selecting and deploying third-party AI platforms, integrating them with existing systems, measuring their impact, and training teams to use them effectively. You will also build custom solutions when off-the-shelf tools are insufficient - and your ability to build is what makes you great at everything else: evaluating vendor claims critically, troubleshooting integrations, training non-technical teams, and knowing when a simple custom solution beats an expensive SaaS contract.  This ranges from lightweight automations built with no-code and low-code platforms (e.g. Claude Cowork, n8n, or Zapier), which are often the fastest and most practical solutions, to fully custom agentic workflows built in LangGraph or equivalent frameworks when the use case demands it. Knowing which approach fits the problem is as important as being able to execute either one.

Role Responsibilities:

Third-Party Evaluation, Integration & Vendor Management:

• Evaluate and select third-party AI platforms and vertical SaaS tools using a structured build-vs.-buy framework; assess vendor architecture, identify failure modes, and make go/no-go recommendations backed by data rather than demos.
• Lead end-to-end implementation: configure workflows, integrate with existing enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, HRIS, data warehouses) via APIs, webhooks, and MCP connections, validate data integrity, and manage go-live.
• Run structured proofs of concept with upfront success criteria, instrumented measurement, and edge-case testing before committing to full rollout.
• Manage vendor relationships and hold partners accountable to delivery timelines and performance targets.

Measurement and ROI:

• Define baselines and success metrics before every deployment; build evaluation frameworks to monitor output quality, catch silent degradation, and track user adoption over time.
• Translate operational results into EBITDA impact and provide data-backed progress updates to H.I.G. Operating Partners and portfolio company leadership.
• Deliver measurable results within compressed private equity timescales, typically targeting quick wins within 30 to 60 days alongside longer-horizon transformation projects.

Custom Development & Deployment:

• Design and build targeted AI automation solutions using Python, Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, and other leading platforms (e.g. agentic workflows, document processing pipelines, RAG knowledge systems, and intelligent assistants), scoped to fill gaps that vendor products cannot address.
• Comfortable building lightweight automations using no-code and low-code platforms (Claude Cowork plugins, n8n, Zapier, Make) when simplicity and speed serve the use…