Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - Director

Citi • New York, NY

2d • $170,000 - $300,000

About The Position

The Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) Director is a senior management-level position leading a high-performing Forward Deployed Engineering squad embedded directly within Citi’s Lines of Business. The role serves as the primary delivery executive for LOB Managing Directors and CIOs, translating complex business challenges into production-ready, enterprise-grade AI agents while enforcing architectural standards, evaluation gates, and engineering excellence.

The Director oversees delivery across multiple concurrent AI agent projects, manages and develops an embedded team of senior engineers, and drives integrations between autonomous agents and banking systems. The role also partners with architecture and program management leaders to refine delivery playbooks and provide feedback to platform teams. It includes responsibility for assessing risk, supporting regulatory and policy compliance, safeguarding the firm and its clients, and creating accountability for the team’s conduct and controls.

Requirements

• 15+ years of relevant technology experience.
• 8+ years leading engineering squads in Tier-1 banking, top-tier technology, or fintech environments.
• Hands-on technical understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), autonomous agents, embeddings, vector search, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).
• Proven ability to manage high-bandwidth client relationships and deliver complex distributed software systems into regulated production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to attract, recruit, develop, and retain senior engineering talent.
• Strong working knowledge of financial products, capital markets, wealth management, or enterprise banking operations.
• Bachelor’s/University degree or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary delivery partner to Line of Business Managing Directors, CIOs, and business product heads across NYC and London hubs.
• Direct sprint planning, resource allocation, technical architecture, and rapid delivery for 3–5 concurrent AI agent projects within the pod.
• Ensure agentic software adheres to enterprise architectural blueprints, Agentflow evaluation gates, and Lakera Guardrails.
• Manage, mentor, and coach an embedded squad of 8 senior Forward Deployed Engineers, fostering technical rigor, customer empathy, and rapid prototyping.
• Drive the design and implementation of integrations between autonomous agents and core banking backends, databases, and third-party APIs.
• Collaborate with the Principal AI Architect Director and TPM Senior Vice President to refine factory delivery playbooks and provide structured feedback to platform teams.
• Assess risk in business decisions, consider the firm’s reputation and the safeguarding of Citi, its clients, and assets, and drive compliance with applicable laws, rules, regulations, and policies.
• Apply sound ethical judgment, escalate, manage, and report control issues transparently, supervise others effectively, and create accountability for maintaining standards.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 401(k)
• Life, accident, and disability insurance
• Wellness programs
• Paid time off, including planned vacation, unplanned sick leave, and paid holidays
• Discretionary and formulaic incentive and retention awards may be available to eligible employees

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director