--- title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer - AI at AvePoint' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-ai-avepoint-chicago-il-a0trspka58bv' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-07' --- # Forward Deployed Engineer - AI at AvePoint - **Company:** AvePoint - **Location:** Chicago IL, United States - **Posted:** 2026-07-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07 - **Apply:** https://www.avepoint.com/careers/job-detail?gh_jid=8079381 ## Job description ## About AvePoint AvePoint is the global leader in data protection, unifying data security, governance, and resilience to provide a trusted foundation for AI. More than 28,000 customers rely on the AvePoint Confidence Platform to secure, govern, and rapidly recover data across Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and other cloud environments. With a single platform for lifecycle control, multicloud governance, and rapid recovery paired with clear ownership across the business, we prevent overexposure and sprawl, modernize legacy and fragmented data, and minimize data loss and interruption. Our global partner ecosystem includes approximately 6,000 MSPs, VARs, and SIs, and our solutions are available in over 100 cloud marketplaces. To learn more, visit [www.avepoint.com](https://www.avepoint.com). ## About the Role Enterprises are adopting AI faster than they can govern it — and they are looking for a partner who can do two things at once: speak credibly about AI trust, governance, and security, and actually build. The Forward Deployed Engineer (AI) is that partner. You are the technical face of AvePoint inside client organizations: equally comfortable whiteboarding AI trust and governance concepts with a CISO, translating a business problem into a scoped AI build project, and writing the first working prototype yourself. You embed with clients, ship real outcomes, and own the engagement end to end. This is not a pre-sales role with a demo script, and not a back-office delivery role. It is the engagement model pioneered by leading AI companies for their strategic enterprise customers: a senior engineer deployed forward, with the autonomy to own the problem from first workshop to production. ## What you'll do Advise on AI trust and governance. Lead workshops that help clients understand and take control of their AI landscape — agents, copilots, models, and the data behind them, including the shadow AI they didn't know about. Explain AI governance, security posture, and resilience concepts credibly to both technical teams and executives. Guide clients through obligations such as the EU AI Act, NIS2, and ISO 42001, and help them stand up practical operating models: AI inventories, approval workflows, risk classification, and audit evidence. Scope and shape AI build projects. Sit with business stakeholders to understand the underlying need behind "we want AI for X." Identify the highest-value use cases, define success criteria, and translate ambiguous requirements into concrete, estimable technical scopes — architecture outlines, data and integration requirements, delivery phases, effort and risk assessments. Write statements of work that engineering teams can actually deliver and clients can actually sign. Build and deliver. Develop prototypes and production components for client AI solutions: agent workflows, RAG pipelines, LLM integrations (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex, Anthropic), MCP-based tool integrations, and the governance and security controls around them. Deliver custom adapters and local tooling for regulated, cloud-restricted, or air-gapped environments where standard SaaS approaches cannot go. Own the relationship through delivery. Act as the trusted technical advisor from first workshop through go-live: run enablement sessions, support adoption, troubleshoot in production, and expand the engagement where you see genuine value for the client. ## What we're looking for Must-haves - 5+ years in software engineering, solutions architecture, or technical consulting, with at least 2 years hands-on with modern AI/LLM systems in real projects (not only experimentation). - Practical experience building with LLM APIs and frameworks (e.g., Azure OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex, LangChain, Semantic Kernel) and patterns such as RAG, agentic workflows, and tool/function calling. - Machine Learning Expertise: Hands-on machine learning experience spanning model development, evaluation, deployment, and operationalization, with a focus on enterprise AI solutions, predictive analytics, and scalable MLOps practices. - Strong programming skills in Python and/or C#/TypeScript, plus working fluency with at least one major cloud platform (Azure, AWS, or GCP), including identity, networking, and data services. - Demonstrated ability to scope technical projects from ambiguous business requirements: you can run a requirements workshop, challenge assumptions constructively, and produce a credible plan with phases, estimates, and risks. - Excellent communication in front of senior stakeholders — you can explain why AI governance matters to a board member and debate vector database trade-offs with a platform engineer in the same meeting. - Willingness to travel to client sites and to operate with high autonomy in ambiguous, fast-moving engagements. Strong pluses - Working knowledge of AI governance and compliance frameworks: EU AI Act, NIS2, ISO/IEC 42001, NIST AI RMF, or Gartner's AI TRiSM model. - Experience with AI security topics: prompt injection, data leakage, agent permissioning, model and data security posture (AI-SPM/DSPM concepts). - Familiarity with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), agent runtimes, or vector databases (e.g., Pinecone, Milvus, Weaviate, Chroma). - Background in enterprise data governance, security, backup/resilience, or the Microsoft 365 / multi-cloud ecosystem where AvePoint operates. - Experience delivering into regulated industries (public sector, defense, financial services, healthcare) or air-gapped/sovereign environments. - Prior experience in a forward-deployed, embedded consulting, or customer-facing engineering role. - Additional languages relevant to your region's client base. ## How we'll measure success Within your first 6–12 months, you will have led AI discovery and governance workshops for multiple enterprise clients, scoped and won at least one significant AI build or governance engagement, and delivered working software into a client environment. Above all: clients ask for you by name. ## Why this role, why now AI adoption has outrun enterprise control, and regulators have noticed. Every large organization now needs to see, govern, secure, and sustain its AI estate — and most need a partner who can both advise and build. As an FDE at AvePoint you will help define this engagement model from the ground floor, work at the frontier of agentic AI and AI trust, and do it with two decades of enterprise data governance and resilience expertise behind you. The Salary Range for this role is $180,000 - $230,000. At AvePoint, we strive to offer competitive, fair, and equitable total rewards. The listed salary range represents a good faith estimate, with final offers based on location, experience, skills, and qualifications. The listed range reflects base salary only; our total rewards include base salary, comprehensive benefits (medical, dental, vision, 401(k) with match, unlimited PTO), and depending on the role, bonuses, commissions, or equity (RSUs). We welcome compensation discussions—apply even if your expectations fall outside the range. Any personal data you share with us during the application process will be processed strictly in compliance with applicable data protection laws and our [Privacy Notice](https://www.avepoint.com/company/privacy-notice). ## #LI-SB1 Any personal data you share with us during the application process will be processed strictly in compliance with applicable data protection laws and our [Privacy Notice](https://www.avepoint.com/company/privacy-notice). ## About AvePoint ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: AvePoint is a global leader in data security, governance, and resilience, providing a unified platform to help organizations protect, manage, and optimize their data across Microsoft, Google, Salesforce, and other collaboration environments in an AI-driven world. - **Entity Type**: Public (NASDAQ: AVPT) - **Headquarters**: Jersey City, New Jersey, United States - **Founded**: 2001 - **Founders**: The company was founded by a team of entrepreneurs; the journey began in a public library in Somerset, New Jersey. ## Core Business - Primary industry/industries: Enterprise SaaS (Data Security, Governance, and Resilience) - Target customers: B2B, heavily focused on Enterprise and Government (including highly regulated industries) - Mission or purpose statement: To enable organizations to confidently embrace the future of work by simplifying collaboration, securing data, and unlocking the potential of AI. Their platform, the AvePoint Confidence Platform, acts as the "Trust Layer" for modern data challenges. ## Products & Services - **[AvePoint Confidence Platform]**: A unified, cloud‑native SaaS platform that integrates data security, governance, and resilience. It addresses four core data challenges: 1. **Digital Sprawl**: Scalable backup and granular restore from a single platform. 2. **Legacy & Fragmented Data**: Full lifecycle management from creation to retirement, including discovery and cleanup of Redundant, Outdated, and Trivial (ROT) data. 3. **Overexposed Data**: Visibility and least-privilege access controls, automated policy reviews, and configuration drift remediation. 4. **Data Loss & Interruption**: Proactive security and compliance controls to mitigate reputational risk. - **Specialized Solutions**: The platform includes specific tools for Microsoft 365 Copilot analytics, workspace management (MyHub), and rapid cloud backup (Cloud Backup Express). - **Certifications & Compliance**: The platform is certified against major standards including ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, ISO 27017:2015, SOC 2 Type II, FedRAMP (Moderate), IRAP (Australia), and CSA STAR. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: (Not publicly available from search results, but as a NASDAQ-traded company, this fluctuates. Check Yahoo Finance or a similar service for current data.) - **Key Metric**: Annual Revenue (Public) OR Total Funding (Private): **Public Company** - refer to SEC filings (10-K/10-Q) for the most recent quarterly/annual revenues. - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Deeply embedded partnership with **Microsoft** (has won the Global Microsoft Partner of the Year Award six times). Other key ecosystem partners include Google and Salesforce. - **Growth Signals**: - Serves **28,000+ customers** in **100 countries**. - Over **3,000 employees** globally, with a strategically distributed workforce (two-thirds in APAC). - Expanded FedRAMP authorization to include three new products in 2024. - Launched an **AI Lab in Singapore** in 2024 to drive industry-focused innovation. - Hosted across **14 global data centers**. ## Competitive Advantages - **Deep Microsoft Ecosystem Integration**: AvePoint is a long-standing, premier partner of Microsoft with one of the largest SaaS userbases in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Their history dates back to providing backup for SharePoint 2001. - **Comprehensive "Trust Layer"**: They are one of the few vendors to unify data security, governance, and resilience (backup & recovery) into a single platform, meeting the needs of highly regulated industries and governments. - **Highest Security Standards**: Holds extensive, globally recognized security and compliance accreditations (FedRAMP, SOC 2, ISO 27701, IRAP), making them a trusted partner for the public sector and regulated industries. - **Global Infrastructure & Support**: A strategically distributed global workforce and 14 data centers support data sovereignty requirements worldwide. ## Strategic Focus - **AI-Ready Data Governance**: Centered on the idea that AI is only as good as the data it uses. AvePoint focuses on helping organizations prepare, secure, and govern their data for AI adoption (e.g., providing benchmarking and analytics for Microsoft 365 Copilot). - **Serving the Public Sector**: Actively expanding its FedRAMP authorized product portfolio to capture more government business in the US and other regulated regions. - **Continued Platform Expansion**: Adding new analytics, workspace management, and rapid backup solutions to broaden the scope of the Confidence Platform. ## Why Work Here - **Award-Winning Culture**: Recognized as an **Inc. Best Workplace** (back-to-back), a **Built In Best Place to Work (2024)**, and a **Great Place to Work** (93% of US employees say it's a great place to work vs. 57% at a typical US-based company). Also received awards in the Philippines, Australia, and from kununu (Top 2025 Company). - **Culture & Values**: The company describes its culture with five core values and leadership behaviors: - **Ownership and Accountability** ("We take full accountability, set high standards...") - **Teamwork** ("promoting global collaboration and taking pride in helping, sharing, mentoring...") - **Agility** ("quick, informed decision-making... a growth mindset") - **Visionary and Practical** ("bold ideas... turning them into groundbreaking realities") - **Inclusive and Empathetic** ("Diversity is at the core of our success... fostering inclusive collaboration") - **Growth Trajectory**: With over 3,000 employees and a history of rapid growth, there are significant opportunities to make an impact and "craft your career." - **Global & Remote-Flexible**: Opportunities are available across **North America, APAC, and EMEA** in cities like Jersey City, New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, and many more. They also have remote positions in Poland and other locations. - **Entrepreneurial Spirit**: The company encourages a "builder" mindset, where employees are empowered to "seize" opportunities and take ownership. ## Sources 1. [Avepoint.com - Company Site](https://www.avepoint.com/) 2. [Avepoint.com - History Page](https://www.avepoint.com/history) 3. [Avepoint.com - Careers Page](https://www.avepoint.com/careers) 4. [LinkedIn - AvePoint](https://www.linkedin.com/company/avepoint) 5. 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