Your forward deployed engineer for AI
Writing a job description for a forward deployed engineer? Get the role on retainer or for a defined project instead. Tejas Dhabalia embeds with your functional teams, puts your CTO's AI plan into practice and checks the strategy as it lands.
The gap after the AI strategy
An AI strategy is written at the top. It lands in finance, operations, sales and service, where the people who run the processes were not in the room.
The model works in the demo. Then it meets the real process: the exception nobody mentioned, the field that means something different in each team, the approval that happens in a WhatsApp group. The strategy is not wrong. It has never been tested against how the work is actually done.
What the role covers
Matched to what forward deployed engineer job descriptions ask for, so you can compare it with the one you are writing.
| # | What we do | In an FDE job description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Embed with your teams. Sit inside finance, operations, sales and service until each workflow is understood from the inside. | Embed in the customer's environment rather than ship and leave |
| 2 | Turn the strategy into scoped use cases. Translate the CTO's plan into concrete work with owners, data needs and a measure of success. | Translate vague business problems into concrete technical work |
| 3 | Connect the AI to your data and systems. Data, definitions, integrations and the hand-offs between systems, so the AI runs on real data. Getting the data ready. | Connect the product to customer data and systems |
| 4 | Guide pilots into live use. Work alongside your team as they set up workflows against real data, and help clear the blockers. Your team runs the build. | Deploy and tune in production, troubleshoot on site |
| 5 | Agree the checks with the business. Define the evaluation, review points and quality measures with your team, who put them in place. This is where AI and data governance meets the day job. | Evaluation frameworks, guardrails, observability |
| 6 | Train the people who will run it. So your teams operate it without us. | Train internal teams to run AI systems independently |
| 7 | Report back to the CTO. What works, what the plan missed and where a vendor falls short, said plainly. With the functional view, that includes a second look at the strategy itself. | Carry field feedback to the roadmap; manage stakeholder expectations |
Why functional knowledge matters
I have spent my career at the seam between systems and the business: mainframe engineering at IBM, then operating roles at Tata and Tata-Tesco. That is what lets me sit with a finance team at month end or an operations team at a stock count and see where an AI use case will help and where it will break.
I do this work myself. You are not handed to a junior team.
Tejas Dhabalia, Co-founder, DS Consulting. LinkedIn
How it is engaged
Case by case. Some clients want a retainer: a set number of days each month alongside the CTO. Others want a defined project: one use case or one function, from plan to working. We agree which before we start, in writing.
Remote, on site or hybrid, in India, the UK, the US and elsewhere. The fee depends on the mix. This is not staff augmentation, and we do not supply engineers.
Not sure whether you need this role or an implementation consultant? Read the comparison.
FAQs
How is this different from hiring a full-time forward deployed engineer?
You get the role for as many days as the work needs, from someone who already knows the functional side, without a recruiting cycle or a permanent salary. If the work turns out to need a full-time hire, we will say so.
Is this staff augmentation?
No. It is one person, Tejas Dhabalia, working with your CTO and your functional teams. We do not supply engineers.
Do you replace our AI vendor or implementation partner?
No. We work on your side of the table and hold them to the plan. Your team and your partners run the build.
Where do you work?
Remote, on site or a mix of the two, in India, the UK, the US and elsewhere. The fee depends on the mix and is agreed before we start.
How is it priced?
As a retainer, a set number of days each month alongside the CTO, or as a defined project, one use case or one function from plan to working. Either way it is agreed in writing before we start.
Have an AI plan that needs to land?
Book a working session. Bring the strategy, and we will tell you where it is likely to meet the real process first.
Book a working session