Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Accenture Federal Services

$70,500 - $203,400 / year

Arlington, VA; Washington, DCFull-timeOn-siteIntermediate

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Description

At Accenture Federal Services, nothing matters more than helping the US federal government make the nation stronger and safer and life better for people. Our 13,000+ people are united in a shared purpose to pursue the limitless potential of technology and ingenuity for clients across defense, national security, public safety, civilian, and military health organizations.

Join Accenture Federal Services, a technology company within global Accenture. Recognized as a Glassdoor Top 100 Best Place to Work, we offer a collaborative and caring community where you feel like you belong and are empowered to grow, learn and thrive through hands-on experience, certifications, industry training and more.

Join us to drive positive, lasting change that moves missions and the government forward!

About the APX Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Program

APX (Advanced Partnership Accelerator) is a Center of Excellence under AFS’ Data & AI capability. The APX Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) Program represents a strategic initiative to position Accenture Federal Services at the forefront of artificial intelligence innovation in government. This program embeds elite technical talent directly with federal clients to accelerate the adoption and implementation of frontier AI capabilities from leading laboratories including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and other cutting-edge AI partners.

As an FDE, you will serve as the critical bridge between breakthrough AI technology and mission-critical federal applications. You'll work hands-on with the most advanced AI models available, translating their transformative potential into tangible value for defense, intelligence, civilian, and public health missions. This is not a traditional consulting role; FDEs are technical practitioners, innovators, and trusted advisors who operate at the cutting edge of what's possible with AI in highly regulated, high-security federal environments.

What You Will Do

The APX FDE program exists because federal missions cannot wait for slow, siloed development cycles. They need embedded engineers who move with urgency, autonomy, and precision. As an experienced hire, you will lead the rapid engineering, deployment, and scaling of mission-critical AI native solutions for the federal government. You will shape solution architectures, drive delivery for clients, and serve as the technical anchor embedded at the mission edge.

Lead and Drive Mission Embedded Build Teams

Serve as the technical lead working within federal client teams, guiding engineering decisions in fast, complex conditions (e.g., autonomous AI at the edge)
Architect, build, and deploy rapid prototypes using frontier AI tools and frameworks
Translate complex, ambiguous mission problems into actionable technical roadmaps and implementable designs to build production-grade systems.
Support integration of AI-native solutions into diverse client environments, including legacy platforms, regulated data ecosystems, and classified environments
Operate across the tech stack, frontend, backend, APIs, orchestration layers, data pipelines, with autonomy and engineering depth
Drive development of applications and workflows that interact with structured and unstructured enterprise data at scale

Lead AI Native Engineering Practices

Leverage advanced GenAI tooling, agentic frameworks, and autonomous workflows as core components of daily engineering delivery
Design and implement sophisticated GenAI solutions such as RAG architectures, semantic search systems, and agentic orchestration
Evaluate model performance, improve generations and pipelines, and uphold responsible AI practices in mission critical settings
Drive fast experimentation cycles, ensuring close operator feedback loops and rapid iteration

Delivery Excellence, Leadership, and Collaboration

Set engineering direction for sprint cycles, mission outcomes, and client facing delivery expectations
Work on a team of FDEs on architecture, debugging patterns, quality engineering, and deployment best practices
Coordinate reach back to broader AFS resources to leverage the deep expertise across the firm on our client’s hardest problems.
Contribute to and refine APX reusable assets, accelerators, templates, and mission deployment playbooks
Surface mission feedback, field intelligence, friction points, and integration challenges to APX leadership to strengthen future delivery strategies
Serve as a technical representative in client working sessions, ensuring clarity, trust, and precise communication

What You Bring

Mission-first Mindset & Relentless Problem Solving: You move fast because the mission can’t wait. You make smart bets in ambiguous terrain, taking ownership early and giving every challenge your full drive before ever considering stepping back. You push through ambiguity, communicate risks and trade-offs, investigate solutions independently to forge the future, and maintain momentum even when the path forward is unclear.
Grit & Tenacity to Engineer at the Edge: You remain steady when projects get messy and can keep pushing forward through rapid experimentation cycles. You show up confidently in client working sessions, support other FDEs at the mission edge, adapt in real time, and help teams operate decisively even in uncertainty.
Bias for Building: You iterate quickly, communicate plainly across technical and nontechnical teammates, ask sharp questions, and summarize decisions in a way that moves teams forward with confidence and alignment. You build work that adds value for our clients, making bold ideas happen fast.
Limitless Curiosity & Frontier Learning: You learn rapidly across a wide, rapidly changing technical frontier, from LLMs and agent frameworks to cloud platforms and enterprise AI ecosystems. You approach new tools with curiosity, adaptability, and velocity, and you prefer building and testing over long specification cycles.

Here’s What You Need

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional software engineering experience, including leading the design, build, and deployment of production systems
Working knowledge of platforms from frontier labs (Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Azure OpenAI, Claude, etc.)
Experience working with technical engineering teams, providing clear direction, and ensuring smooth delivery in demanding environments across a wide range of mission needs
Strong proficiency in a general programming language like Python or Rust, with full stack capability across APIs, backend services, frontend interfaces, and orchestration layers
Demonstrated experience building AI native solutions, LLM applications, agentic workflows, RAG systems, or semantic/knowledge applications
Strong data engineering foundation with proficiency in database and ontology modeling, data modeling techniques, plus front-end awareness of how data structures shape user-facing functionality
Experience developing reliable data ingestion pipelines that gracefully exit, detect and mitigate schema evolution and integrate structured and unstructured data reliably
Must be a U.S. Citizen and ability to obtain a federal security clearance

Bonus Points if You Have

Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering, Applied Sciences or a related technical field
Deep familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern tech infrastructure patterns
Experience integrating/deploying solutions within constrained or legacy environments
Demonstrated ability to take concepts from zero to production ready systems independently
Relevant Google, Anthropic, or OpenAI certifications or training courses
Ability to travel (up to 100%) depending on business need and client requirements
Active federal security clearance

As required by local law, Accenture Federal Services provides reasonable ranges of compensation for hired roles based on labor costs in the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia. The base pay range for this position in these locations is shown below. Compensation for roles at Accenture Federal Services varies depending on a wide array of factors, including but not limited to office location, role, skill set, and level of experience. Accenture Federal Services offers a wide variety of benefits. You can find more information on benefits here. We accept applications on an on-going basis and there is no fixed deadline to apply.

The pay range for the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia is:

$70,500—$203,400 USD

What We Believe

As a company wholly dedicated to serving the US federal government, we bring together the best talent to help reinvent how federal agencies operate and deliver greater value for their mission and the American people. We have an unwavering commitment to creating a culture in which all our people are respected, feel a sense of belonging, and have equal opportunity. As a business imperative, every person at Accenture Federal Services has the responsibility to create and sustain a culture where everyone feels welcomed and included. This is grounded in our core values and our experience that hiring and developing great people who reflect different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds is key to driving innovation and delivering the results that our clients and the country count on.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law. Our rich diversity makes us more innovative, more competitive, and more creative, which helps us better serve our clients and our communities. For details, view a copy of the Accenture Federal Services Equal Opportunity Policy Statement.

Accenture Federal Services is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Additionally, as an Affirmative Action Employer for Veterans and Individuals with Disabilities, Accenture Federal Services is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.

Requesting An Accommodation

Accenture Federal Services is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for persons with disabilities or religious observances, including reasonable accommodation when needed. If you are hired by Accenture Federal Services and require accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you will be asked to participate in our reasonable accommodation process. Accommodations made to facilitate the recruiting process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired.

If you are being considered for employment opportunities with Accenture Federal Services and need an accommodation for a disability or religious observance during the interview process or for the job you are interviewing for, please speak with your recruiter.

Other Employment Statements

Applicants for employment in the US must have work authorization that does not now or in the future require sponsorship of a visa for employment authorization in the United States.

Candidates who are currently employed by a client of Accenture Federal Services or an affiliated Accenture business may not be eligible for consideration.

Job candidates will not be obligated to disclose sealed or expunged records of conviction or arrest as part of the hiring process.

The Company will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. Additionally, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the Company's legal duty to furnish information.

California requires additional notifications for applicants and employees. If you are a California resident, live in or plan to work from Los Angeles County upon being hired for this position, please click here for additional important information.

About this role

Accenture Federal Services is embedding elite AI engineers directly with federal clients to accelerate adoption of frontier AI capabilities from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and similar labs. This Forward Deployed Engineer role is fundamentally different from traditional consulting—you'll be a hands-on technical practitioner operating at the cutting edge of AI in defense, intelligence, civilian, and public health missions, not an advisor sitting on the sidelines.

You'll lead rapid engineering and deployment of mission-critical AI-native solutions, architecting and building prototypes that translate complex federal problems into production-grade systems. This means working across the full tech stack (frontend, backend, APIs, data pipelines), designing sophisticated GenAI solutions like RAG architectures and agentic workflows, and integrating AI into legacy platforms and classified environments. You'll operate with significant autonomy, set engineering direction for sprint cycles, and serve as the technical anchor embedded with client teams in fast, ambiguous conditions.

The role demands a mission-first mindset, relentless problem-solving, and genuine grit to push through experimentation cycles and uncertainty. You need proven experience as an engineer who moves with urgency, takes ownership early, and can operate decisively when the path forward is unclear. This is in-office work in Arlington, full-time, with a salary range of $70,500–$203,400 depending on experience.

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$70,500 to $203,400 per year

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