Frontier Engineer; AI​/Agentic)

As a Frontier Engineer (AI/Agentic), you will make an impact by helping build scalable, cost-optimized, and secure AI-enabled solutions that reimagine business processes and deliver measurable outcomes for clients. You will be a valued member of the Cognizant Forward team and work collaboratively with experienced engineers, architects, data scientists, and AI practitioners in a small, cross-functional pod.

Frontier Engineers combine modern software engineering, cloud development, and AI technologies to build scalable digital solutions. Successful candidates typically demonstrate strength in full-stack or backend application development, API design, databases, cloud platforms, and emerging AI technologies.

The Cognizant Forward Team is at the forefront of how Cognizant is helping organizations navigate the AI era. Bringing together leading engineers, architects and innovators, the team demonstrates what is possible when emerging technologies are applied to real business challenges. Backed by more than 30 years of transformation experience, more than $1 billion invested in responsible AI capabilities, 67 patents and one of the world's most extensively trained work forces on leading LLMs, Cognizant Forward reimagines how companies operate and unlock new possibilities for the future.

• Use AI-assisted and augmented development tools to build, test, debug, deploy, and enhance software applications, APIs, and scalable, secure systems.

• Support the development of AI-enabled applications, agentic workflows, and automation solutions, including context and harness engineering.

• Design, develop, integrate, and support full-stack applications, backend services, APIs, databases, and cloud-native application components.

• Help evaluate AI-generated outputs for quality, accuracy, performance, and business relevance.

• Contribute to knowledge and context systems, retrieval workflows, testing, deployment, monitoring, documentation, and operational support.

• Apply responsible AI principles and software engineering best practices while continuously learning new tools and technologies.

At Cognizant, we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role's business and client requirements,
this position may be remote or hybrid .

For hybrid arrangements, associates may be required to work 3-4 days a week from a client or Cognizant office in Plano, TX;
Teaneck, NJ;
Bridgewater, NJ;
New York, NY;
Chicago, IL;
Atlanta, GA; or San Francisco, CA . The specific working arrangement will be determined based on business, client, and project needs and will be communicated during the hiring process. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance through our various wellbeing programs.

The working arrangements for this role are accurate as of the date of posting. This may change based on the project you're engaged in, as well as business and client requirements. Rest assured; we will always be clear about role expectations.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Data Science, Engineering, Cyber Security, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.

• Experience building software applications through academic, internship, research, hackathon, or personal projects using one or more programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript, Type Script, or C#.

• Foundational knowledge of software engineering principles including object-oriented programming, data structures, algorithms, testing, debugging, and application design.

• Exposure to full-stack or backend development concepts, including APIs, databases, application architecture, and integration of front-end and back-end systems.

• Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills, with strong written and verbal communication.

• Experience working with modern software development frameworks and technologies used for web, backend, or cloud application development.

• Exposure to relational or No
  
  SQL databases, application integration patterns, and data-driven solution development.

• Exposure to cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud.

• Familiarity with source control tools such as Git, CI/CD practices, containerization, or modern software development workflows.

• Familiarity with generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, AI agents, retrieval-augmented…