Forward Deployed Engineer Jobs in San Jose, CA

Your Journey at Crowe Starts Here:

At Crowe, you can build a meaningful and rewarding career. With real flexibility to balance work with life moments, you’re trusted to deliver results and make an impact. We embrace you for who you are, care for your well-being, and nurture your career. Everyone has equitable access to opportunities for career growth and leadership. Over our 80-year history, delivering excellent service through innovation has been a core part of our DNA across our audit, tax, and consulting groups. That’s why we continuously invest in innovative ideas, such as AI-enabled insights and technology-powered solutions, to enhance our services. Join us at Crowe and embark on a career where you can help shape the future of our industry.

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

We expect the candidate to uphold Crowe’s values of Care, Trust, Courage, and Stewardship. These values define who we are. We expect all of our people to act ethically and with integrity at all times.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. Crowe is not sponsoring for work authorization at this time.

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.

The Crowe Global network consists of more than 300 independent accounting and advisory services firms in more than 150 countries around the globe, making it one of the largest accounting networks in the world*. As independent members of Crowe Global, Crowe LLP and Crowe Advisory LLC serve clients worldwide. (*As of July 2026)

Crowe LLP and Crowe Advisory LLC (and their respective subsidiary entities) provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetics, national origin, disability or protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

Crowe LLP and Crowe Advisory LLC (and their respective subsidiary entities) does not accept unsolicited candidates, referrals or resumes from any staffing agency, recruiting service, sourcing entity or any other third-party paid service at any time. Any referrals, resumes or candidates submitted to Crowe, or any employee or owner of Crowe without a pre-existing agreement signed by both parties covering the submission will be considered the property of Crowe, and free of charge.

Crowe will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance, San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the California Fair Chance Act.

Please visit our webpage to see notices of the various state and local Ban-the-Box laws and Fair Chance Ordinances, where applicable.

We are committed to a merit-based hiring process, evaluating all candidates consistently using objective, job-related criteria such as relevant experience, demonstrated skills, measurable impact, and alignment with the role’s responsibilities, and making employment decisions in a fair and inclusive manner free from discrimination.

If you are interested in applying for employment with Crowe and are in need of an accommodation or require special assistance to navigate our website or to complete your application, please visit our Applicant Assistance and Accommodations page for more information: https://careers.crowe.com/crowe-applicant-assistance-and-accommodation