Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

Janus Henderson Investors•Denver, CO

23d•$195,000 - $225,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Janus Henderson is undertaking a firm-wide AI transformation, with AI capability organized under the Head of AI. Forward Deployed Engineering embeds with business units to build AI solutions they cannot stand up independently. The Principal Forward Deployed Engineer is the team’s most senior engineer and lead, reporting to the Head of AI Technology. This hands-on engineering leadership role owns team deliverables and outputs, sets the technical standard, and remains embedded with business units while the team grows. The balance is expected to shift over time from predominantly hands-on engineering toward strategy, roadmap ownership, and management. The position is part of the AI Technical Leadership Team, which develops an AI Technology roadmap aligned with the JHI strategic roadmap and coordinates AI Platforms, AI Architecture, AI Engineering, and AI Governance Implementation. The role also evaluates new models, tools, and vendors for technical, commercial, and regulatory feasibility. The Principal Forward Deployed Engineer leads and develops Forward Deployed Engineers, owns delivery and technical quality, builds complex AI solutions, and partners with business stakeholders. The role also develops advanced investment capabilities on Nexus, exposes data and capabilities through Accio and Nexus components, and collaborates with Percepta and AI Engineering on enterprise core-stack deliverables. The position line-manages Forward Deployed Engineers as the team is built out; there may be no direct reports initially.

Requirements

At least eight years in technical, business-facing engineering roles, such as forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, consulting-side software engineering, or engineering embedded in a business unit, including experience as the most senior engineer on the work.
Experience leading engineers as a line manager, tech lead, or founder, with accountability for other people’s delivery.
Strong Python and SQL skills.
A track record of shipping production applications and sufficiently recent hands-on delivery experience.
Production experience with LLMs, including prompt and context engineering, agent development, evaluation, and deployment at scale.
Experience with agentic capabilities such as MCP servers, tools, or connectors.
Experience building data pipelines from APIs and enterprise systems.
Working knowledge of a major cloud platform, ideally Azure, as well as CI/CD, containers, and infrastructure as code.
Experience owning a technical roadmap and evaluating, testing, and defending recommendations on technology, tools, models, or vendors.
Excellent stakeholder skills, credibility with senior audiences, and ability to influence without direct authority.
High agency, genuine interest in business problems, and willingness to move from building toward leading as the team grows.
Experience in a regulated environment where governance, compliance, and data sensitivity shape solution development.

Nice To Haves

Experience establishing a new engineering team or function from scratch, including hiring and defining its operating model.
Asset management or financial services domain knowledge, particularly investment processes, front-office workflows, or fixed income.
Knowledge of quantitative investment concepts such as fair value, relative value, signal generation, or portfolio construction.
Experience with Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric / OneLake, Azure AI Foundry, model gateways, or production AI observability.
Experience with enterprise-scale vendor selection, commercial negotiation, or licensing, or participation in architecture and technology governance forums.
Former technical founders are encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

Line-manage Forward Deployed Engineers as the team grows, including hiring, onboarding, setting objectives, development, and performance management.
Own team deliverables and outputs, including commitments, delivery standards, and timelines.
Allocate people and effort across the demand pipeline and determine which requests should be declined, delayed, or changed.
Maintain engineering standards through design and code review and develop engineers into owning engagements.
Report progress, risk, and capacity honestly to the Head of AI Technology and business stakeholders.
Personally design, build, and productionise complex bespoke AI solutions, taking on the hardest and least-defined engagements.
Own architecture and design decisions for team solutions, ensuring they are secure, scalable, and aligned with the enterprise core stack.
Take solutions through evaluation, observability, and AI governance checkpoints, and maintain them after deployment.
Contribute to the AI Technical Leadership Team and develop an AI Technology roadmap aligned with the JHI strategic roadmap.
Coordinate Forward Deployed Engineering deliverables across AI Platforms, AI Architecture, AI Engineering, and AI Governance Implementation, keeping them aligned with enterprise architecture.
Contribute to AI technology strategy, standards, buy-versus-build decisions, investment recommendations, and the resulting backlog.
Evaluate new models, tools, and vendors, weighing capability, cost, licensing, security, supportability, and vendor viability; document recommendations, including decisions not to adopt.
Work with business users and build senior-level relationships so the team is engaged early in problem definition.
Partner with AI Enablement Partners on escalated demand and set realistic expectations with senior stakeholders.
Build advanced investment capabilities on Nexus and move models and signals from individual desks into supported firm-wide capabilities.
Lead the development of citizen developer workflows through to production.
Expose data and capability through Accio, the centralised MCP server, and as skills, tools, and connectors on Nexus, creating reusable components rather than one-off integrations.
Co-build enterprise core-stack deliverables with Percepta and AI Engineering and represent Forward Deployed Engineering in architecture and design authority forums.

Benefits

Hybrid working and reasonable accommodations.
Generous holiday policies.
Health and wellbeing benefits, including corporate membership to Wellhub.
Paid volunteer time.
Professional development courses and tuition or qualification reimbursement.
Maternal and paternal leave benefits and family services.
Employee events and programs, including a 14er challenge.
Complimentary beverages and snacks, and employee Happy Hours.
Mentoring, leadership development programs, regular training, career development services, and continuing education courses.
Competitive compensation, pension/retirement plans, and health, wellbeing, and lifestyle benefits for eligible employees.
Potential eligibility for an annual discretionary bonus award from the profit pool.