Forward Deployed Engineer I

Department: IT Department 

FLSA Status: Exempt 

Exemption: Computer/Administrative

Job Type: Regular 

Work Schedule:

M-F 8:00-5:00 

Job Status: Full Time 

Reports To: TBD 

Amount of Travel Required: Occasional 

Positions Supervised: None 

POSITION SUMMARY

The Forward Deployed Engineer I is an individual contributor who embeds directly with PrimeSource business units and brand teams to design, build, and deploy AI-enabled and automation solutions inside the systems those teams use every day. This position pairs hands-on engineering with direct business engagement, translating operational problems into working software that runs in production rather than in demonstration. The role is expected to understand both the business and technology requirements of the company and industry.

This position has no supervisory responsibility. Performance is measured by the adoption and durability of delivered solutions and by the degree to which one-off work is converted into reusable patterns, standards, and documentation that the broader IT organization can deploy elsewhere. The incumbent works under the direction of the assigned reporting manager and coordinates with infrastructure, security, and application teams to ensure all delivered work meets company standards before it reaches production.

 

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Reasonable Accommodations Statement

To accomplish this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to help enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

Essential Functions Statement(s)

·         Embed directly with business units, brands, and site teams to observe workflows firsthand, gather requirements, and identify processes where automation or AI-enabled tooling delivers measurable benefit.

·         Design, build, test, and deploy production solutions within the organization’s existing systems and data, rather than standalone prototypes or demonstrations.

·         Develop integrations across enterprise platforms using APIs, scripting, and data pipelines, including identity, messaging, collaboration, ERP, service management, and reporting systems.

·         Build and maintain AI agents, prompts, connectors, and supporting tooling on company-approved AI platforms in accordance with the company’s AI use policy.

·         Establish evaluation criteria and testing methods to verify accuracy, reliability, and output quality before a solution is released to users.

·         Write and maintain automation code to enterprise standards, including version headers, structured logging, error handling, safe execution controls, and pre- and post-state verification.

·         Convert repeated manual effort into scheduled or event-driven automation and retire the manual process once the automation is proven stable.

·         Codify each delivered solution into a reusable pattern, template, module, runbook, or documented standard so that it can be deployed to additional sites, brands, or business units without rework.

·         Apply a scale-first approach to every request, evaluating whether a solution can be solved once and deployed broadly before building a single-use answer.

·         Partner with infrastructure, security, and application teams to ensure solutions satisfy identity, access, data protection, retention, and change management requirements prior to deployment.

·         Deploy through established change management practices, including validation in a non-production environment, documented rollback plans, and confirmation of post-deployment state.

·         Provide hands-on support during the adoption period, including user walkthroughs, training materials, and resolution of issues identified after release.

·         Instrument delivered solutions so that usage, cost, failure rates, and business benefit can be measured and reported to IT and business leadership.

·         Maintain documentation, source control, and version history for all delivered code, configurations, and integrations.

·         Evaluate emerging AI and automation capabilities, conduct controlled pilots, and make recommendations grounded in cost, risk, security posture, and demonstrated benefit.

·         Communicate progress, tradeoffs, limitations, and risks clearly to both technical staff and non-technical business stakeholders.

·         Transition solutions that reach enterprise scale to the appropriate platform or operations owner for long-term support, including knowledge transfer and documentation.

·         Operate within the company’s AI use policy, data classification standards, information security requirements, and applicable regulatory and audit obligations.

·         Escalate to the assigned reporting manager when a request exceeds approved scope, introduces unmanaged risk, or requires investment or vendor engagement.

·         Travel occasionally to company locations to observe operations, gather requirements, and support deployments.

·         Other duties as assigned.

Additional Essential Functions

Attendance/Punctuality Is consistently at work and on time; Ensures work responsibilities are covered when absent; Arrives at meeting and appointments on time. 

POSITION QUALIFICATIONS

Competency Statement(s)

PrimeSource Company Competencies

Below are the Core Competencies of PrimeSource Building Products Inc. These competencies make our company who we are today. 

•

Customer Focus -Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect. 

•

Action Oriented -Enjoys working hard; is action oriented and full of energy for the things he/she sees as challenging; not fearful of acting with a minimum of planning; seizes more opportunities than others. 

•

Ethics & Values -Adheres to an appropriate (for the setting) and effective set of core values and beliefs during both good and bad times; acts in line with those values; rewards the right values and disapproves of others; practices what he/she preaches. 

•

Integrity & Trust - Is widely trusted; is seen as a direct, truthful individual; can present the unvarnished truth in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; doesn't misrepresent him/herself for personal gain. 

•

Problem Solving -Uses rigorous logic and methods to solve difficult problems with effective solutions; probes all fruitful sources for answers; can see hidden problems; is excellent at honest analysis; looks beyond the obvious and doesn't stop at the first answers. 

•

Time Management - Uses his/her time effectively and efficiently; values time; concentrates his/her efforts on the more important priorities; gets more done in less time than others; can attend to a broader range of activities. 

Job Specific Competencies

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies: 

•

Business Acumen - Knows how businesses work; understands how the organization’s operations, systems, and data connect; can translate an operational problem into a technical solution that produces measurable business benefit.

•

Creativity - Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; is seen as original and value-added in problem-solving settings.

•

Dealing with Ambiguity - Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty in loosely defined problems.

•

Decision Quality - Makes good decisions based upon a mixture of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; most solutions and suggestions turn out to be correct and accurate over time.

•

Functional/Technical Skills - Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills to do the job at a high level of accomplishment; builds, tests, and supports work that holds up in a production environment.

•

Informing - Provides the information people need to know to do their jobs and to use what has been delivered; is timely and transparent about status, limitations, and known issues.

•

Interpersonal Savvy - Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport and constructive working relationships with business users.

•

Learning on the Fly - Learns quickly when facing new problems; is a relentless and versatile learner; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments to find workable solutions.

•

Listening - Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience to hear people out; can accurately restate the needs and constraints of business users before proposing a solution.

•

Priority Setting - Spends his/her time and the time of others on what is important; quickly zeros in on the critical few; senses what will help or hinder accomplishing a goal; eliminates roadblocks and creates focus.

•

Process Management - Good at figuring out the processes necessary to get things done; understands how to separate and combine tasks into efficient work flow; can simplify complex processes and get more out of fewer resources.

•

Self-Development - Is personally committed to and actively works to continuously improve him/herself; seeks feedback; keeps current with a rapidly changing technical landscape.

SKILLS & ABILITIES

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Software Engineering, or other IT related field from an accredited four-year college or university, or an equivalent combination of education and demonstrated technical experience.

Other Requirements:

To perform this job successfully, an individual should have:

·         2-5 years of hands-on experience in software engineering, IT automation, systems integration, solutions engineering, or a comparable technical delivery role.

·         Demonstrated record of delivering working solutions into a production environment, including the support and iteration that follows release.

·         Working proficiency in at least one scripting or programming language used for automation and integration work, such as PowerShell, Python, or a comparable language.

·         Practical experience building against REST APIs and working with structured data formats such as JSON, CSV, and SQL result sets.

·         Practical experience applying large language models to a business problem, including prompt design, tool or connector integration, and evaluation of output quality.

·         Demonstrated ability to work directly with non-technical stakeholders to define requirements, set expectations, and confirm that a delivered solution meets the stated need.

·         Working knowledge of enterprise identity, access, and data protection concepts sufficient to design solutions that pass internal security review.

·         Experience with source control, documented change management, and technical documentation practices.

·         Ability to manage multiple concurrent engagements with limited supervision and to communicate status without prompting.

     Technologies:             Experience with the following technologies is a plus:

·         Large language model platforms and agent frameworks (i.e. Claude, Microsoft Copilot, etc.)

·         Scripting and programming languages (i.e. PowerShell, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, etc.)

·         Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Graph API

·         Active Directory and Entra ID

·         REST APIs, JSON, webhooks, and integration/middleware platforms

·         Workflow automation platforms (i.e. Power Automate, Power Platform, etc.)

·         SQL Server and relational data querying

·         Source control and pipeline tooling (i.e. Git, GitHub, Azure DevOps, etc.)

·         Reporting and visualization tools (i.e. Power BI, Tableau, etc.)

·         Enterprise business systems (i.e. ERP, WMS, service management platforms, etc.)

·         Current Windows OS (both workstation and server versions)

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

     

N (Not Applicable)

Activity is not applicable to this position.

O (Occasionally)

Position requires this activity up to 33% of the time (0 - 2.5+ hrs/day)

F (Frequently)

Position requires this activity from 33% - 66% of the time (2.5 - 5.5+ hrs/day)

C (Constantly)

Position requires this activity more than 66% of the time (5.5+ hrs/day)

Physical Demands

Lift/Carry

Stand

F

Walk

F

Sit

C

Manually Manipulate

N

Grasp

N

Reach Outward

N

Reach Above Shoulder

N

Speak

C

Climb

N

Crawl

N

Squat or Kneel

N

10 lbs or less

N

11-20 lbs

N

21-50 lbs

N

51-100 lbs

N

Over 100 lbs

N

Push/Pull

12 lbs or less

N

13-25 lbs

N

26-40 lbs

N

41-100 lbs

N

Bend

N