# Forward deployed AI engineer for your product

URL: https://shahid09.is-a.dev/hire/forward-deployed-ai-engineer/
Author: Muhammad Shahid, Senior AI Software Engineer & Backend Developer (https://shahid09.is-a.dev/)

You get an engineer who works inside your team and your codebase, turns your AI ideas into agents your users actually use, and stays until they work in production.

**Quick answer:** As a forward deployed engineer I join your Slack, standups and repository, learn your product and customers, and build and ship AI agents into it: LLM features, RAG over your data, tool calling into your APIs, evaluation and monitoring. I do this today on the AI platform Joni (joni.ai), on top of 5+ years of production backends.

## What I build

- **Embedded in your team:** Your repository, your tickets, your standups and your time zone, not a separate agency process.
- **AI agents in your product:** Agents that call your own APIs and tools with validated inputs, built with LangGraph or your existing stack.
- **From prototype to production:** Taking a demo that works once to a feature that works for every user: errors, retries, limits and tests.
- **RAG over your customer data:** Embeddings and vector search over your docs and data, with permissions respected.
- **Evaluation and monitoring:** Test sets, tracing and dashboards for quality, latency and cost, so you know the agent is getting better.
- **Knowledge handover:** Documentation and walkthroughs, so your team can own and extend the agents after I step back.

## Results on real products

- **Joni (joni.ai):** AI product platform — My main ongoing work: backend services, agent workflows and integrations for an AI product, built inside the product team.
- **DOP:** $185M private sale · 300M+ users — Worked inside the product team on a live protocol, fixing timeouts and RPC downtime without stopping releases.
- **CV Maker – Resume Builder:** 200K → 1M+ users — Scaled a live app backend with about 60% faster APIs while shipping regular releases.

## Tools I use

LangGraph, LangChain, OpenAI API, Anthropic API, RAG, Tool calling, Python, Node.js, TypeScript, AWS, Docker, CI/CD

## How a project works

1. **Scope call.** We talk through the goal, the current state of the product and what success looks like.
2. **Written plan.** You get fixed milestones, delivery dates and a clear price before any work starts.
3. **Build in small pieces.** I ship in small steps with regular progress updates, so you always see what is built.
4. **Tested delivery.** Delivery includes tests, documentation, handover and free support afterwards if something breaks.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a forward deployed engineer?

An engineer who works directly inside a customer's team and product, rather than from a separate vendor, to get a technology working for real users. For AI, that means building and shipping agents in your codebase.

### How is this different from hiring an agency?

You work with one senior engineer in your own tools and codebase. There is no hand-off between sales, project managers and developers.

### Can you work in our existing stack?

Yes. I work in Node.js, TypeScript and Python, with the OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, LangGraph and LangChain, and I follow your code style, reviews and release process.

### How many hours can you work with us?

Full-time or part-time. Israel's working day almost fully overlaps mine, and for US teams I keep hours that overlap your morning.

### How do you make sure the agent is reliable?

I evaluate changes against test sets before release, validate every tool call, and monitor quality, latency and cost in production.

### What happens when the engagement ends?

Your team gets documentation and walkthroughs, and the agents stay in your codebase for you to own and extend.

## Tell me what you want to build

Send the details on WhatsApp or by email: what you need, where the project is now, your deadline and budget range. You get a clear plan and price back, usually within 24 hours.

WhatsApp +92 321 7815799 · contacttoshahidkhan@gmail.com · Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/freelancers/~014a63f2391f4f4bce