Director, AI Forward Deployed Researcher

Who We Are

Welcome to TELUS Digital - where innovation drives impact at a global scale. As an award-winning digital product consultancy and the digital division of TELUS , one of Canada’s largest telecommunications providers, we design and deliver transformative customer experiences through cutting-edge technology, agile thinking, and a people-first culture. With a global team across North America, South America, Central America, Europe, and APAC, we offer end-to-end expertise across eight core service areas: Digital Product Consulting, Digital Marketing Services, Data & AI, Strategy Consulting, Enterprise Technology, Enterprise Applications, Cloud Engineering, and QA & Test Engineering. From mobile apps and websites to voice UI, chatbots, AI, customer service, and in-store solutions, TELUS Digital enables seamless, trusted, and digitally powered experiences that meet customers wherever they are. All backed by the secure infrastructure and scale of our multi-billion-dollar parent company.

Location and Flexibility

This role can operate remotely within the US (we are prioritizing candidates based on the US West Coast) OR be based out of one of our major US office locations - Charlottesville, VA, Durham, NC, Columbus, OH, or Boston, MA.

The Opportunity

The Director, Forward Deployed Researcher is a strategic leader, advanced AI research specialist, and manager who directly oversees and engages in the highest-value client implementations. This role is responsible for driving frontier AI research into production, setting the strategic technical direction for enterprise clients, and managing a team of Forward Deployed Researchers and Engineers. This role operates at the critical intersection of cutting-edge research, software engineering, executive-level strategic consulting, and team management

As a Forward Deployed Researcher, Director, you will embed directly within Fortune 500 and highly regulated client organizations to advance frontier AI implementations, shape AI strategy, deliver bespoke production systems, and build world-class technical teams. Unlike traditional research leaders who remain in labs or remote environments, you will be embedded within client teams, walking the halls of banks, healthcare organizations, and tech companies to understand their unique challenges, conduct applied research, and lead the delivery of transformative AI solutions grounded in both frontier techniques and practical enterprise constraints.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic AI Research & Executive Consulting

Act as a trusted technical and research advisor to client executive leadership (CTOs, Heads of AI, VPs of Engineering, Board Members) on overall AI strategy, roadmap, and competitive positioning

Translate frontier AI research and complex technical concepts into actionable business strategies and implementation plans that justify premium engagement and drive measurable ROI

Shape client understanding of what constitutes "production-ready," "scalable," and "competitive" AI systems within regulated industries

Conduct market and technical landscape analysis to inform client AI strategy and identify emerging opportunities

Provide thought leadership on AI best practices, emerging technologies, research trends, and industry benchmarks

Identify opportunities for AI adoption, value creation, and competitive advantage within client organizations

Mentor client AI leadership teams on research methodologies, experimentation, and validation practices

Team Leadership & Capability Building

Manage, mentor, and scale a team of Forward Deployed Researchers and Engineers embedded at high-value client organizations

Oversee the development and delivery of bespoke, research-backed production systems across multiple, concurrent client engagements

Establish best practices, technical frameworks, methodologies, and accelerators for the team that benefit multiple clients and scale across TELUS Digital

Recruit, develop, and retain top-tier Forward Deployed talent; create career development pathways and technical competency frameworks

Serve as an internal thought leader, sharing research insights, lessons learned, and best practices across the Forward Deployed Engineer community

Mentor junior Forward Deployed Engineers and Solutions Engineers on technical, consulting, and leadership skills

Foster a culture of innovation, client-centricity, continuous improvement, and technical excellence within the team

Establish metrics, KPIs, and performance management systems for team success and client impact

Client-Embedded Research & Production Delivery

Lead high-impact, applied AI research initiatives to address the client’s most complex and ambiguous challenges during 3-6 month+ onsite engagements

Design and implement advanced GenAI/LLM solutions (e.g., advanced RAG, multi-agent systems, custom fine-tuning, synthetic data generation, RLHF) tailored to clients’ unique requirements and constraints

Build production-ready AI systems addressing data quality, evaluation, governance, and deployment challenges in regulated environments

Conduct frontier AI experiments (novel architectures, training methodologies, evaluation frameworks) with direct applicability to client use cases

Ensure all production systems meet stringent security, compliance, performance, and scalability requirements for Fortune 500 and highly regulated clients

Integrate TELUS Digital capabilities with client infrastructure, data platforms, and workflows

Architect systems that the client can operate and evolve long-term with reduced dependency on external support

Own end-to-end delivery from discovery, research, and validation through production deployment and optimization

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Product Influence

Partner with TELUS Digital Product, Engineering, and Research teams to leverage platform capabilities and inform product roadmap based on client research insights

Collaborate with Sales and Account teams on opportunity expansion, account strategy, and client success

Represent client voice internally to drive product, service, and research improvements

Participate in analyst relations and thought leadership initiatives to elevate TELUS Digital's market position

Work with other Forward Deployed Directors and Engineers to share learnings and establish organizational best practices

Technical Excellence & Innovation

Stay at the frontier of AI models, frameworks, and deployment patterns; maintain hands-on expertise in cutting-edge areas

Experiment with emerging AI technologies and assess applicability to client challenges and competitive positioning

Publish or present technical work, contributing to TELUS Digital's thought leadership and industry recognition

Build and maintain expertise in frontier areas (LLMs, multimodal AI, agentic systems, synthetic data, RLHF, evaluation frameworks, etc.)

Document technical approaches, architectures, research methodologies, and lessons learned

Contribute to open-source projects or TELUS Digital's technical community

Competencies

10+ years of hands-on software engineering and AI/ML experience with production systems

4+ years in senior leadership or management roles managing technical teams of at least 5+ professionals (e.g., managing Forward Deployed Engineers, Solution Engineers, or Research teams)

Proven ability to serve as a strategic advisor and technical authority to C-level stakeholders

Deep expertise in frontier GenAI/LLMs, including:

RAG systems and vector databases

Agentic AI and multi-agent systems

Fine-tuning, prompt engineering, and in-context learning

Evaluation frameworks and metrics for LLM systems

Production MLOps and deployment

Hands-on proficiency with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and modern AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, Hugging Face)

Proven track record of success in ambiguous, complex environments wi