Senior AI Software Engineer – Forward Deployed

Software Guidance & Assistance, Inc. (SGA), is searching for a Senior AI Software Engineer - Forward Deployed for a direct-hire assignment with one of our premier Generative AI technology clients serving the financial services industry in New York City. This is a hybrid position requiring four days per week onsite at client locations in Manhattan .

Responsibilities: As a Senior AI Software Engineer - Forward Deployed, you will serve as the technical lead for enterprise AI deployments, partnering directly with hedge funds and investment management firms to customize, build, and deploy production AI applications. This is a highly technical, hands-on engineering role where approximately 80% of your time will be spent writing production software and 20% collaborating with client stakeholders to deliver scalable AI solutions. You will own engagements from discovery through production while working closely with portfolio managers, traders, operations, compliance, and technology teams.

• Lead end-to-end implementation of enterprise AI solutions for hedge funds, asset managers, and institutional investment firms.
• Design, develop, and customize production-grade applications using Python, TypeScript, and React.
• Build scalable backend services, APIs, integrations, and user-facing applications tailored to each client’s environment.
• Partner directly with business stakeholders to gather requirements and translate business needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Architect and implement production AI applications utilizing Large Language Models (LLMs), agentic AI frameworks, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Develop secure integrations with enterprise platforms, proprietary systems, market data providers, and third-party APIs.
• Design and develop scalable APIs and microservices following software engineering best practices, including code reviews, automated testing, documentation, and CI/CD.
• Evaluate and optimize AI workflows through prompt engineering, retrieval strategies, grounding techniques, and production evaluation frameworks.
• Manage technical deliverables, deployment timelines, stakeholder communication, and implementation milestones from kickoff through production.
• Collaborate with internal product and engineering teams to enhance platform capabilities based on client feedback and deployment experience.
• Serve as the primary technical lead throughout each client engagement, ensuring successful implementation, user adoption, and long-term customer success.

Required Skills:

• 5+ years of professional software engineering experience building production applications.
• Expert-level Python development experience.
• Strong TypeScript and React development experience.
• Experience designing RESTful APIs, microservices, and distributed backend systems.
• Hands-on experience building and deploying production AI or LLM-powered applications.
• Experience with agentic AI frameworks, LLM orchestration, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and AI evaluation methodologies.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, SDLC best practices, Git, automated testing, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience leading enterprise software implementations or customer-facing technical deployments.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with both technical and business stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own projects from requirements gathering through production deployment.

Preferred Skills:

• Financial Services, Hedge Fund, Asset Management, Investment Management, or Capital Markets experience is a big plus
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP cloud platforms.
• FastAPI, Docker, Kubernetes, and containerized application development.
• Experience integrating enterprise platforms and third-party APIs.
• Knowledge of vector databases, AI evaluation frameworks, prompt optimization, and modern LLM orchestration technologies.
• Previous experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Implementation Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or Technical Consultant supporting enterprise software deployments.
• Contributions to AI-related open-source projects or personal AI applications.

SGA is a technology and resource solutions provider driven to stand out. We are a women-owned business. Our mission: to solve big IT problems with a more personal, boutique approach. Each year, we match consultants l…