Lead Forward Deployed Engineer

Who We Are

Build. Scale. Sustain.

We are a global technology consultancy with a trademarked, AI-first engineering approach for accelerating the delivery of digital products, and revolutionizing platform modernization. We do the right thing, and we do it right. We're proud to be a World Economic Forum New Champion, and a B Corp-certified company.

• We are small enough to care locally, big enough to deliver globally: 5 continents, 10 countries, +500 experts from +50 nationalities across the Americas, Europe and APAC

• We are robust and resilient: 100% independent and 0 debt

• We are entrepreneurs and passionate experts: We invest in what we believe genuinely and work as a collective intelligence

• We are positive, courageous, caring, doers and committed to excellence

About Gen-e2TM

While the market is still largely AI-augmenting delivery, we have reinvented the SDLC to be AI First. Leveraging our 16 years expertise in digital transformation, our approach is a game-changer in productivity and quality, with a strong collaboration between IA generative and our best Talents:

• We now generate 95% of the entire product — code, documentation, infrastructure as code, and even design — powered by AI coding agents and our own tooling.

• The quality consistently exceeds the output of our best traditional engineering teams.

• A product repository houses all product artefacts, giving AI full project context for higher-quality generation.

• A library of rules and prompts defines coding standards, design principles, and security guidelines, ensuring enterprise-grade quality and scalability.
  With Gen-e2TM, we deliver end-to-end products 2–3× faster than traditional approaches, while raising the bar for engineering excellence.

AI generates; engineers own. Your judgement, design thinking, and standards are what make the output production-grade.

Your Role

This role is well suited for people who are passionate about AI and about reinventing software engineering with AI to deliver faster, higher quality products and platforms. You will work with a team that is, every day, looking at how we can evolve our ways of working to be AI-First and what can be achieved with the constant progresses of the LLMs and AI coding tools.

As a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer, you will lead end-to-end delivery of AI-powered products and solutions for our clients, focusing mainly on enterprises, owning the journey from discovery and technical scoping through to pilot, delivery all the way to production, and adoption.

The work is varied: deploying an agentic AI workflow inside a major health insurer, standing up an AI-powered platform for a bank, or designing intelligent automation for a public sector agency. Our clients are Fortune 1000s across financial services, health, and the public sector, and the problems are real, ambiguous, and production-bound.

While the foundation is broad full-stack and generalist engineering: you are equally proficient across product, architecture, coding, infrastructure, we expect you to be using AI coding tool such as GHCP, Claude Code, Cursor or Codex on a daily basis to generate most of your requirements, code, architecture diagrams... at least on side projects and ideally in your day-to-day work.

You will think and build end to end like a product engineer and not just think about the code. These are not staff augmentation placements: you take a product from journey to pilot to production, own the outcome it delivers, and care as much about whether it gets adopted and creates value as whether the code is elegant.

This is a hands-on engineering role within a consulting environment. You will embed directly with client engineering, product, and domain teams, translating ambiguous business problems into working systems that deliver measurable impact. You will be AI-native by default, applying PALO IT’s Gen-e2 methodology to drive quality, speed, and adoption across every engagement.

This role is based in Sydney. We operate a hybrid model with three days per week in our Sydney office or on client site, with the balance worked flexibly.

This is a client-facing role at its core. You will spend much of your time in front of clients, running discovery sessions, presenting to senior stakeholders, and owning the conversation as much as the code. If you enjoy owning a problem end to end and seeing your work land with the people who use it, you will thrive here. This role suits people who are energised by ambiguity rather than a well-defined backlog.

Client Delivery & Deployment Ownership

• Own technical delivery of your engagement, from first prototype, delivery to stable production.

• Lead discovery and scoping sessions: ask the right questions, frame the problem, and translate business needs into a delivery plan.

• Independently manage projects end to end, operating with minimal direction in ambiguous engagements.

• Architect and build full-stack, AI-powered systems that deliver measurable client value.

• Scope work, sequence delivery, estimate effort, manage risks and dependencies, and remove blockers early.

• Make sound trade-offs between scope, speed, and quality, and communicate those trade-offs clearly to clients.

• Contribute directly in the code when progress or clarity depends on it.

Consulting, Clients & Growth

• Embed closely with client teams, understand their needs, and guide adoption of what you build.

• Consult with client stakeholders on how AI can improve or transform their products and ways of working, identifying opportunities they may not yet see.

• Build trust with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including enterprise and executive audiences.

• Partner with Sales and Presales teams to shape proposals, solution approaches, estimations, and technical responses.

• Mentor engineers on the team and uplift delivery and AI-native capability around you.

• Bring field feedback to delivery, design, and commercial teams to sharpen how we engage and grow accounts.

AI-Native & Gen-e2 Practice (Core Expectation)

• Champion AI-native ways of working, including AI-first development, testing, and documentation.

• Apply prompt and context engineering standards, output validation, guardrails, and fallback strategies.

• Stay current with emerging GenAI trends and tools and translate them into practical, value-driven implementations for clients.

• Codify working patterns into tools, playbooks, and reusable accelerators that scale delivery efficiency.

Who You Are

• Client-facing experience and consulting posture are essential. You are comfortable leading conversations with enterprise stakeholders, presenting your thinking, navigating ambiguity in the room, and representing PALO IT with clients directly. This is a non-negotiable requirement.

• 10+ years of hands-on software development experience, including delivery in consulting or client-facing environments.

• Proven experience independently managing projects end to end: leading discovery, scoping, and delivery with minimal direction.

• Deep full-stack, generalist expertise. Preferred technologies include ReactJS for frontend and NodeJS/Java/Python for backend development.

• You are open to learning new stacks. We work across different client environments, languages, frameworks, and cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP), and with AI as a learning tool, picking up something new is easier than ever. You don’t need to tick every technology box; curiosity goes a long way.

• Experience building or deploying systems powered by LLMs or generative models, with an understanding of how model behaviour affects product experience.

• Strong solution architecture and system design skills.

• Strong understanding of common programming patterns and principles.

• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

• Demonstrated autonomy, initiative, and ownership: you drive outcomes rather than wait for instructions.

AI-Native & Gen-e2 Skills (Required)

• Hands-on, daily use of AI tools across your engineering workflow.

• Strong grasp of prompt and context engineering for engineering workflows.

• Demonstrated use of AI tools in day-to-day engineering work, not just theoretical exposure. You should be able to show how AI is part of your working method.

• Critical thinking to validate and verify AI-generated code and solutions.

Good to Have

• Experience mentoring engineers or leading small delivery teams.

• Enterprise delivery experience: many of our clients operate with significant process, risk, and stakeholder complexity.

• Experience leading technical discovery or solution framing.

• Experience with AI/ML services and frameworks.

• Experience with cloud computing platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP).

More About PALO IT

Our mission is to become the most advanced consulting company when it comes to AI-First product and software engineering. 100% of our projects are focused on deploying our Gen-e2 methodology to clients to help them accelerate delivery and scale those new practices.

What We Offer

• Gen-e2 and AI upskilling

• Stimulating working environments

• Unique career path

• International mobility

• Internal R&D projects

• Knowledge sharing

• Personalized training

• Entrepreneurship & intrapreneurship

For more on our team culture and benefits, check out our careers page.

We will be prioritizing applicants who have a current right to work in Australia, and do not require sponsorship of a visa.

PALO IT Australia is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions will be based on merit, qualifications and abilities. PALO IT AU does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexuality, national origin, age, disability, marital status or any other characteristics protected by law.

Protecting your privacy and the security of your data are longstanding top priorities for PALO IT. Your data will be processed to manage PALO IT’s recruitment-related activities. Please consult our Privacy Notice (https://www.palo-it.com/en/privacy-policy) to know more about how we collect, use, and transfer the personal data of our candidates.