Forward Deployed Engineer, Microsoft AI
About The Position
Ingram Micro is the largest IT distributor in the world and one of the largest Microsoft distribution partners globally. Its Forward-Deployed Engineering practice works embedded with customers to turn priority AI use cases into production solutions, then packages what works so partners can deliver it across markets. The Forward-Deployed Principal Services Engineer designs, builds, tests, and deploys AI agents and applications using Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry, and related Microsoft cloud services. Working within the reference architectures, engineering standards, and reusable components set by the practice, the role ships production software rather than proofs of concept and works end to end from discovery through deployment and handoff. It serves as the in-house expert on the Microsoft agent stack for the engagements it leads. The role works closely with the Senior Principal Services Architect, the Microsoft Practice Leads, and system integrator partners, and with business, technical, and regional stakeholders to turn prioritized use cases into secure, production-ready solutions. As the practice grows, the role offers a path to senior principal responsibilities, including setting the standards the practice builds on.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent experience
- 8+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, including 5+ years building enterprise cloud or AI solutions
- Customer-facing delivery experience, with a record of shipping production software
- Experience working with global or regional teams; travel to customer sites as required
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical designs to business and technical stakeholders
Responsibilities
- Engineer production agents with customers using the practice's shared templates, components, and tooling, following standard build patterns so every solution is built the same way
- Build agents on the Microsoft frontier stack and select appropriate models from the Microsoft Foundry model catalog for each workload
- Prototype, validate architectures, and test approaches in real customer environments, and harden agents for production
- Apply security, data-boundary, and performance standards to every solution, including managed agent identity and guardrails
- Implement grounding and retrieval with Foundry IQ, integrate tools through Toolboxes, Model Context Protocol, and connectors, and build memory, tool use, and multi-step workflows
- Deploy the same solution across customers through standard pipelines, and publish and govern agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot, Teams, and Agent 365
- Lead time-bound customer engagements, typically measured in weeks, with defined handoff and enablement milestones
- Work directly with customers and partners to understand their business priorities, use cases, and gaps, and translate them into solution designs
- Contribute reusable agents, workflows, and components to the practice library, built once and reused across customers
- Contribute to packaging mature agents into marketplace-ready offers and to enablement content for system integrator partners
- Co-deliver with system integrator partners and support them until they can deliver independently
- Share field feedback with the Senior Principal Services Architect to refine reference architectures and standards
- Coach and review the work of other engineers and partner delivery teams
Benefits
- healthcare benefits
- paid time off
- parental leave
- a 401(k) plan and company match
- short-term and long-term disability coverage
- basic life insurance
- wellbeing benefits
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
