---
title: 'Forward Deployed AI/ML Engineer IV at E Source'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-ai-ml-engineer-iv-e-source-united-states-mxvx9n01c5e5'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-19'
---

# Forward Deployed AI/ML Engineer IV at E Source

- **Company:** E Source
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-09-15
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-19
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/e-source/54456276-7d86-4c79-b1de-e53c95f18ccd

## Job description

At E Source, we help utilities make sense of complexity in a rapidly changing landscape, and we’re looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer, AI/ML to help shape how that impact shows up in the world.

E Source is a research, data/analytics, and technology focused professional services firm focused exclusively on the utility industry in the US and Canada. We help utilities target and serve their customers more effectively, enhance and optimize their grid, and leverage operating best practices and technologies to manage their business more effectively. Headquartered in Texas, we have 450+ employees across the US and Canada. Learn more at [www.esource.com](http://www.esource.com)

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, AI/ML, you’ll join our AI and Data Engineering (AIDE) team and embed directly with our utility clients to understand their hardest operational problems, then build and ship the systems that solve them: production code, in the client’s environment, used by their people, and measured against their outcomes. This role focuses on taking AI from a promising demo to a system a utility’s business runs on: grounded, evaluated, monitored, and trusted by the operators who depend on it.

You’ll own engagements end to end, from technical discovery through architecture, build, deployment, and adoption, with no handoff points in between. Engagements move quickly: expect a useful system running in the client’s environment within weeks, then hardened toward production based on how their teams actually use it. You’ll work closely with client technical teams and executives, and with E Source’s machine learning engineers, data engineers, software engineers, and consultants, to deliver AI solutions for clients and bring field learnings back into our products and practices.

In this role, you will:

- Embed with utility clients to design, build, and deploy generative AI (GenAI) and machine learning (ML) systems that solve real operational problems in the client’s environment
- Own the technical architecture of each engagement — retrieval, orchestration, model selection, serving, evaluation, and monitoring — and defend it to client architects and security teams
- Run technical discovery independently, separate the problem as stated from the underlying need, and say so when the requested solution is the wrong one
- Deliver a working, useful system early in each engagement, typically within the first few weeks, then iterate toward production hardening — tactical solutions are legitimate, but undocumented or unowned ones are not
- Design task-specific evaluations before building, define what “correct” means with client subject matter experts, and hold every system to those evaluations before release
- Build retrieval and grounding systems over client data, including structured, unstructured, and graph-backed knowledge sources
- Integrate with client data platforms and business systems, including undocumented and legacy systems
- Instrument systems so accuracy, latency, cost, and drift are measured rather than asserted, and hand off operations the client’s team can run without us
- Build and deploy the operator-facing application layer — review and approval interfaces, agent and chat front ends, evaluation dashboards, and workflow tools — so delivered systems are usable by client teams, not just their engineers
- Set realistic expectations with executives about what AI can and cannot do for their problem
- Manage scope, timeline, and expectations against a defined statement of work, and raise risk early
- Contribute reusable accelerators, evaluation harnesses, and reference architectures that scale across clients, and share implementation feedback with E Source’s engineering and product teams
- Apply AI safety, data privacy, and governance controls appropriate to the utility regulatory context

You’re likely a great fit if you:

- Are comfortable owning an engagement end to end — from discovery through architecture, build, deployment, and post-go-live support — rather than a single phase of it
- Navigate ambiguity, incomplete data, and objectives that shift mid-engagement without losing traction
- Communicate clearly in writing and can whiteboard your thinking for both engineers and executives
- Are candid about what didn’t work, why, and what you changed in your practice because of it
- Move fast without cutting corners, are comfortable delivering a working system in weeks rather than quarters, and know what to defer
- Work well with enterprise clients and can navigate stakeholders ranging from individual contributors to executives

And even better if you:

- Hold a master’s degree or PhD in a relevant quantitative field
- Have built agent frameworks and tool-calling architectures in production
- Bring knowledge graph or semantic layer experience for grounding and reasoning
- Have fine-tuning, distillation, or prompt optimization experience — and the judgment to know when they’re not the answer
- Bring classical ML experience (forecasting, ranking, anomaly detection) and know when to choose it over a large language model (LLM)
- Are fluent in data engineering: Spark, pipeline design, and lakehouse architectures
- Have built and deployed Databricks Apps, or comparable operator-facing applications on a modern frontend framework (React, Streamlit, Dash, or Gradio) with REST or GraphQL APIs
- Hold Databricks or cloud AI/ML certifications

Experience and Skills to Qualify Include:

- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, statistics, or a related quantitative field
- Five or more years of engineering experience, including generative AI (GenAI) or machine learning (ML) systems shipped to production and iterated on based on real usage
- Expert proficiency in Python and working proficiency in at least one of TypeScript, Scala, or Java
- Hands-on production experience with at least one major model provider or open-weights stack, and one vector or hybrid retrieval system
- Experience building and applying evaluation frameworks for large language model (LLM) and ML systems, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic or multi-agent systems, structured extraction, or text-to-SQL
- Experience with LLM operations (LLMOps): model serving, latency and cost management, prompt and model versioning, monitoring, and regression detection
- Working knowledge of at least one major cloud ecosystem (Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP)); experience with AWS and Databricks strongly preferred
- Proficiency with Git, Docker, and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools
- Experience using AI coding assistants and agentic development tools to rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on working software
- Experience in the energy or utility industry, or another asset-heavy sector, with working familiarity of the systems, data, and operational constraints utilities face
- Experience shipping on compressed timelines, from first conversation to a working system in weeks rather than quarters

At E Source, you’ll work alongside people who are thoughtful, curious, and deeply knowledgeable about utility and energy systems. We value clarity over jargon, substance over flash, and collaboration over ego. You’ll have the opportunity to grow your skills, contribute to meaningful work, and help shape a company that plays a real role in how the energy future unfolds.

## What you can expect

- Excellent insurance options, including medical, dental, and vision plans; company-paid life insurance; company-paid long- and short-term disability insurance; medical and dependent-care flexible spending plans, and paid parental leave.
- A flexible time off (FTO) policy that provides paid time away from work, approved by your manager, while ensuring business needs, workload commitments, and appropriate coverage are maintained.
- A 401(k) plan with a 3% employer match.

The budgeted salary for this position is $175,000–$200,000 USD + annual bonus. Actual pay will be adjusted based on experience.

This role is remote-based with significant travel to client sites, generally 30 to 50% and varying by engagement, including extended on-site periods during discovery, deployment, and go-live.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the US or Canada. We’re unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas or Labour Market Impact Assessments (Cdn) at this time.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

Employees of E Source are encouraged to apply. To foster a positive work environment and company culture, we support our employees in their career growth at E Source. If you are interested in similar job opportunities in the future, visit the E Source careers page for a listing of all open positions and contact Human Resources.

We contact applicants directly via email using only our designated company email addresses with the domain of @[esource.com](http://esource.com). Please do not provide personal information to anyone over email and be wary of other accounts impersonating businesses. #LI-Remote

## About E Source

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: E Source is a solutions-based research, consulting, and data science firm that helps North American utilities modernize operations, improve customer experience, and lead the energy transition.
- **Entity Type**: Private (owned by Align Capital Partners, LP; acquired in 2019)
- **Headquarters**: Houston, Texas, United States
- **Founded**: 1986
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Utilities (energy, water, gas) – research, consulting, data science, and technology solutions
- **Target customers**: B2B – electric, gas, and water utilities across North America (US and Canada); enterprise and municipal utilities
- **Mission statement**: "To shape the future of the utility industry and lead the transition to a sustainable world."

## Products & Services
Major offerings (all service/consulting + data platform):

- **Grid Solutions**: AI/ML-driven analytics for outage prediction, vegetation risk assessment, reliability scenario testing, and grid modernization.
- **Customer Solutions**: Customer experience design, digital self-service, program evaluation, demand-side management strategy, transportation electrification strategy, and customer research.
- **Business, Technology & Operations Solutions**: Platform modernization, process refinement, data governance, workforce transformation, technology investment readiness, and arrears recovery.
- **Data Science & AI Support**: Predictive modeling, utility data exchange, benchmarking, and AI-driven insights for operational decisions.
- **Water Loss Assessment**: Specialized water utility services for leak detection and conservation planning.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed (private; backed by Align Capital Partners)
- **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue ~$22.4M (LinkedIn estimate); 340 employees (+66.3% year-over-year growth)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Parent company Align Capital Partners; has acquired UMS Group (2023), Utilligent (2023), and ILLUME Advising (2025) to expand capabilities.
- **Growth Signals**: Active job postings (12 open roles as of mid-2026), headcount growth of 66% YoY, strategic acquisitions in advisory and data analytics, operating in 5 countries (US, Canada, UK, Pakistan, Philippines).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep utility domain expertise**: Over 30 years focused exclusively on the utility sector.
- **Integrated model**: Combines research, consulting, and data science under one roof – clients get both strategic advice and execution support.
- **AI/ML capability**: Proprietary predictive models for outage risk, vegetation management, and customer behavior.
- **Client scale**: Partners with utilities across every region and business model in North America, building a community that shares benchmarks and best practices.

## Strategic Focus
- Growing data science and AI practice (recently posted AI/ML Engineer and Data Scientist roles).
- Expanding through acquisitions (UMS, Utilligent, ILLUME Advising) to add complementary consulting and analytics capabilities.
- Helping utilities with decarbonization, electrification, affordability, and grid resilience – aligning with the energy transition.
- Strengthening customer operations and digital self-service to improve utility-customer relationships.

## Why Work Here
- **Remote flexibility**: Work from anywhere in the continental US or Canada; fully remote with all necessary gear provided.
- **Culture**: Collaborative, supportive, curious, and candid. Emphasizes diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging – BIPOC representation grew from 2% (2020) to 25%.
- **Benefits**: Flexible paid time off, 12 weeks paid maternity leave, 4 weeks paid partner support leave, wellness apps (Headspace, Glo Yoga), annual career planning, anniversary recognition program.
- **Growth**: Fast-growing company (+66% headcount YoY) offering roles across engineering, data science, product, and consulting – clear path for impact.
- **Open roles** (examples from June 2026): AI/ML Engineer, Software Engineer II/III, Data Analyst Intern, Interconnection Technical Director, Senior Software Product Manager, Business Systems & Integrations Manager.
- **Careers page**: [jobs.ashbyhq.com/e-source](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/e-source)

## Sources
1. [E Source Homepage](https://www.esource.com/)
2. [About E Source](https://www.esource.com/about-e-source)
3. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/e-source)
4. [Careers and Culture](https://www.esource.com/public/careers-and-culture)
5. [Leadership Page](https://www.esource.com/public/leadership)

## Other roles at E Source

- [Consultant, Customer Energy Solutions](https://feeny.ai/job/consultant-customer-energy-solutions-e-source-united-states-zharpmde6zzw) — United States
- [Data Scientist III, Utility Analytics](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-iii-utility-analytics-e-source-united-states-jbsb3rhk2t8p) — United States
- [Forward Deployed Data Engineer IV, Databricks](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-data-engineer-iv-databricks-e-source-remote-wbk9eemfgrhh)
- [Leak Detection Crew Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/leak-detection-crew-manager-e-source-nashville-7yf3vgnw8hwm) — Nashville, TN
- [Transmission Planning and Interconnection Study Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/transmission-planning-and-interconnection-study-engineer-e-source-calgary-czy64ydc2g1v) — Calgary, Canada
- [Principal Engineer, Grid Engineering and Interconnection](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-engineer-grid-engineering-and-interconnection-e-source-remote-gg9208hc6710)
- [Solution Architect, AMI & Utility Technology](https://feeny.ai/job/solution-architect-ami-utility-technology-e-source-united-states-tymw653q2p3p) — United States
- [Technical Consultant, AMI Testing & Data Management](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-consultant-ami-testing-data-management-e-source-united-states-d5bvk8tbzev1) — United States
- [Project Manager, AMI](https://feeny.ai/job/project-manager-ami-e-source-united-states-pabcrcpchfjz) — United States
- [Data Scientist II or III, Program Evaluation](https://feeny.ai/job/data-scientist-ii-or-iii-program-evaluation-e-source-united-states-vz1a5c3d0y7x) — United States