Senior Forward Deployed Engineer- Engineering

Role
- Senior Forward Deployed Engineer
- Intelligent Engineering

Job Location
- Des Moines, Iowa On Site About Gradera

Gradera is an AI-native transformation services company helping enterprises accelerate AI adoption in a governed, reliable, and scalable way. We combine enterprise transformation experience, deep domain knowledge, product engineering expertise, AI-native methods, and a global delivery model to create measurable business outcomes.

Gradera's Intelligent Engineering capabilities help enterprises create, modernize, and operate software using AI-first engineering methods. Rather than simply adding AI tools to existing development practices, we help clients redesign engineering workflows, teams, environments, and delivery practices for AI-enabled and agentic software engineering.

The Senior Forward Deployed Engineer – Intelligent Engineering is a senior client-facing technologist who operates at the intersection of business process, solution architecture, AI-native engineering, and hands-on implementation.

The role is designed for someone who can enter a complex enterprise environment, quickly understand how software is planned, built, tested, integrated, deployed, and operated, identify gaps and opportunities, and translate those findings into working solutions using Gradera's Intelligent Engineering capabilities and the client's existing technology ecosystem.

This is not a traditional advisory or architecture-only role. The Senior FDE must be equally comfortable assessing an enterprise engineering environment, defining the target solution, and personally moving into implementation. The individual should be able to operate independently with client technology and business stakeholders while connecting field learning back into Gradera's Intelligent Engineering Studio.

Successful Senior FDEs help clients solve the immediate problem while identifying reusable patterns, capability gaps, and expansion opportunities that strengthen both the client relationship and Gradera's Intelligent Engineering portfolio.

• Assess client engineering environments across architecture, applications, developer tooling, requirements, testing, integrations, CI/CD, deployment, data flows, AI-native engineering practices, and operational controls.
• Develop a practical understanding of the client's business processes and operating context so engineering recommendations address business outcomes rather than technology in isolation.
• Identify gaps, constraints, and engineering opportunities across Create, Modernize, and Operate scenarios and map them to Gradera Intelligent Engineering Service Products, reusable Studio components, and delivery patterns.
• Translate findings into solution architectures, technical backlogs, implementation plans, and production-ready software.
• Operate as both architect and hands-on engineer, moving from high-level solution design into configuration, coding, integration, testing, deployment, troubleshooting, and optimization.
• Implement AI-native engineering solutions using Gradera methods and capabilities together with client platforms, development environments, AI tooling, automation, and agentic engineering frameworks.
• Evaluate architecture and engineering practices, identify risks and missing capabilities, recommend improvements, and take those recommendations through implementation.
• Serve as a field-to-Studio feedback loop by identifying reusable implementation patterns, emerging client needs, capability gaps, and opportunities that should inform the continued evolution of Gradera's Intelligent Engineering Studio and Service Products.
• Reco…