Consulting Director -Forward Deployed Engineering

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future.

As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.

Our teams of interdisciplinary experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport.

Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands.

PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life.

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. We challenge where it matters and own the outcome. We combine strategic thinking, customer‑centric service design, and agile engineering practices to accelerate innovation in a tech‑driven world.

Why consider joining as a Consulting Director?

• Join a team where you're trusted to shape your own path, manage your time, and influence real change for our clients and communities.
• Grow a flexible and unique career within a trust‑based,inclusive environment that values excellence, innovation, and curiosity.
• Join other experts within our supportive and collaborative community through knowledge‑sharing and peer‑level support, coaching and mentoring

What you can expect

• Be part of our management team, helping shape and launch new service propositions while driving strategic business growth.
• Lead business development initiatives —building trusted client relationships, owning outcomes, and delivering innovative, high‑impact solutions.
• Collaborate with FTSE 100 clients as a respected advisor, guiding them through complex challenges with clarity and creativity.
• Support your team’s growth through coaching, knowledge‑sharing, and creating opportunities for them to thrive.
• Contribute to thought leadership and the development of market‑relevant offerings that showcase innovation and deliver value to clients.
• Hybrid working with the team on client site or in our office a minimum of two days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on a client site.

Our Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) are embedded with strategic customers, lead end‑to‑end deployments of AI systems in production, and measure success through adoption and workflow impact rather than strategies. We are bringing this model to complement our existing AI propositions with one addition: FDEs work with Domain‑Adapted Language Models (DALMs) and Small Language Models (SLMs) tuned to the client's sector, data, and codebase. One or two FDEs with the right model stack can produce the output of a conventional team of 5‑7.

You will build this unit from scratch. You define the operating model, recruit the founding cohort, either internally or externally, stand up the model tooling, and land the first client deployments. This is a founder role inside an established firm, with the platform, brand, and client access to match.

The role

• Build and lead the FDE unit, from a founding cohort of 8 to 12 engineers to a 100 plus person team within 24 months
• Design the operating model: embedded deployment structure, delivery cadence, eval‑driven quality gates, and commercial packaging including outcome‑linked pricing
• Stand up the DALM and SLM enablement stack: model selection, fine‑tuning pipelines, evaluation harnesses, and secure deployment patterns for regulated clients, including on‑premises and in‑VPC serving
• Own the productivity thesis. Define the metrics, instrument every deployment, and publish evidence of the multiplier FDEs achieve against baseline
• Support our client Partners and lead the first deployments in priority sectors: data centres, semiconductors, water, and energy infrastructure.
• Set the hiring bar. Recruit fellow FDE engineers who ship production systems, upskill and transition existing engineers into FDEs, codify their patterns into reusable tooling and playbooks, and build the training pathway
• Work with practice leadership on venture‑style investment cases, lab and hyperscaler partnerships, and IP strategy

What good looks like at 12 months

• Three or more paying FDE deployments live, adopted by client users, with referenceable outcomes
• A working DALM/SLM toolchain in production, with documented productivity gains of 3x or more against baseline
• A founding team of 40plus engineers, a hiring pipeline, and a repeatable eval‑driven delivery method
• At least 15 existing engineers transitioned into FDE roles through a defined upskilling pathway, with 80% certified as deployment‑ready against the FDE skills matrix and at least 15 deployed on live client work
• A commercial offer with published pricing and at least one outcome‑linked contract signed

Qualifications

Even if you don’t meet every requirement below, feel free to still apply as we are often hiring for similar roles which your background might be better suited to.

• A track record building and scaling engineering or applied AI teams, in consulting, a product company, an AI lab, or a venture environment
• Hands‑on credibility with modern AI engineering: LLM fine‑tuning, RAG, agentic workflows, evaluation frameworks, and MLOps. Engineers must respect your technical judgement.
• Direct experience deploying small or domain‑adapted models in enterprise settings, including cost, latency, security, and data residency trade‑offs
• Revenue ownership at £2-3m+, including shaping, pricing, and closing complex engagements
• Sector exposure to asset‑intensive industries is an advantage: infrastructure, utilities, advanced manufacturing, or semiconductors
• The instincts of a builder. You want to create something, put your name on it, and be measured on production outcomes

Why this role

• Founder economics inside an established platform: existing clients, delivery infrastructure, and a global brand
• A clear path to Partner tied to the growth of the unit you build
• Direct sponsorship from the Digital & Data Stream Leader, Global Head of AI and access to group‑level investment in PA and in Jacobs
• The FDE model is the fastest‑growing role in applied AI. You will be a part of defining and scaling this capability within PA and Jacobs, breaking new ground for us.

Success Metrics

• Build a high‑performing FDE capability with clear role standards, progression paths, technical coaching, reusable delivery assets, and consistently high client satisfaction across live deployments
• Recruited and transitioned at least 15 existing engineers into FDE roles within 12 months, rising to a total of 40+ by year 1
• Have at least 20 engineers actively deployed on live client work, each contributing to measurable adoption, workflow impact, or productivity outcomes

Additional information

Life At PA encompasses our peoples’ experience at PA. It's about how we enrich peoples’ working lives by giving them access to unique people and growth opportunities and purpose led meaningful work.

Our purpose guides how we work with our clients and our teams, and support our communities, to deliver insight and impact, solving the world’s most complex challenges. We're focused on building a workplace that values human difference and diverse mindsets, and a culture of inclusion and equality that unlocks the potential in our people so everyone can be their best self.

We are dedicated to supporting the physical, emotional, social and financial well‑being of our people. Check out some of our extensive benefits:

• Health and lifestyle perks accompanying private healthcare for you and your family
• 25 days annual leave (plus a bonus half day on Christmas Eve) with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
• Generous company pension scheme
• Opportunity to get involved with community and charity‑based initiatives
• Annual performance‑based bonus
• PA share ownership
• Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn)

We’re committed to advancing equality.We recruit, retain, reward and develop our people based solely on their abilities and contributions and without reference to their age, background, disability, genetic information, parental or family status, religion or belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), political belief veteran status, or other by any other range of human difference brought about by identity and experience. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

Hybrid Working- Our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on client site.

Adjustments or accommodations- Should you need any adjustments or accommodations to the recruitment process, at either application or interview, please contact us onrecruitmentenquiries@paconsulting.com

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