Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Strategist

Position Title: Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Strategist
Position Type: Regular - Full-Time
Requisition ID: 41005
The Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Strategist is responsible for driving the strategic direction, adoption, and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to align with organizational goals. This role involves identifying opportunities for AI to optimize processes, improve decision-making, and delivering innovative solutions. The AI Strategist works collaboratively across departments to ensure the effective integration of AI technologies, oversees key AI projects, and monitors their success.
Key Responsibilities

1. Strategic Planning
• Develop and execute the organization's AI strategy in alignment with overall business objectives.
• Identify opportunities to leverage AI for competitive advantage, operational efficiency, and customer experience improvement.
• Stay ahead of trends in AI, machine learning, and related technologies to inform decision-making.
2. Project Management
• Lead cross-functional teams to implement AI initiatives.
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of AI projects.
• Manage timelines, budgets, and resources to ensure project deliverables are met.
3. Stakeholder Collaboration
• Collaborate with executive leadership to prioritize AI investments and initiatives.
• Act as a liaison between technical teams and business units to translate AI capabilities into actionable insights.
• Facilitate training and knowledge-sharing sessions on AI applications and trends.
4. AI Product Development
• Assess and select AI tools, platforms, and vendors.
• Architect end‑to‑end AI systems including data pipelines, inference services, embedding pipelines, LLM integrations, and microservices.
• Design secure, scalable systems using AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, Docker, and cloud-native workflows.
• Lead trade-off decisions for performance, security, latency, throughput, and cost.
• Create technical design documents, architecture diagrams, runbooks, and deployment blueprints.
• Oversee the deployment and integration of AI systems into existing workflows.
• Ensure compliance with data privacy, security, and ethical AI standards.
• Lead the end-to-end AI product development lifecycle, from ideation to launch, ensuring timely delivery and positive ROI.
• Design and deploy AI models and agents to help the organization improve efficiency and revenue, focused on 1-2 domains including Agriculture, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Commercial, and corporate functions.
• Create positive digital workforce experience through advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and recommendation systems.
• Conduct persona research and gather user feedback to identify unmet needs and areas for product and process enhancements, using AI toolkits.
• Experience with cloud platforms (Azure, Azure, Google Cloud) and scalable AI platforms.

1. Performance Monitoring
• Analyze the performance of AI systems and recommend improvements.
• Report on the impact of AI initiatives on business outcomes.
• Identify risks and mitigation strategies related to AI adoption.

6. Deployment & Delivery

• deploy solutions onsite/remote as the technical owner and point of contact for client teams.
• Lead POCs, pilots, and MVP-to-production transitions.
• Conduct demos, training sessions, documentation walkthroughs, and knowledge transfer.
• Coordinate with product managers, DevOps, security teams, and client IT departments.
• Own delivery milestones, timelines, and technical outcomes for deployments.

Qualifications
Education:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Process Optimization, or a related field.
• Certification in AI and machine learning, and Azure and Databricks certifications

Experience:

• 15+ years of experience in AI, data science, or related field in the Strategy Consulting Industry.
• Experience working with academics and industries such as IIT and IIM
• Proven track record in developing and implementing AI solutions.
• Experience managing complex projects and cross-functional teams.
• Industry-specific experience in CPG

Skills:

• Strong understanding of AI technologies (e.g., machine learning, NLP, computer vision).
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
• Strong communication skills to effectively convey complex concepts to diverse audiences.
• Familiarity with data governance and ethical AI considerations.

Key Competencies

• Strategic thinking and innovation.
• Leadership and team collaboration.
• Technical proficiency and adaptability.
• Business acumen and stakeholder management.

McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. As a global family-owned company, we strive to be the employer of choice in the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that inclusion drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to find appropriate solutions.
Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with McCain's Global Privacy Policy and Global Employee Privacy Policy , as applicable. McCain leverages AI in the hiring process, though all final decisions are made by humans. You can understand our approach to AI and how your personal information is being handled here .
Job Family: Information Technology
Division: Global Digital Technology
Department: Global AI Engineering India
Location(s): IN - India : Haryana : Gurgaon
Company: McCain Foods(India) P Ltd