Senior Associate - Forward Deployed Engineer

Location Designation: Hybrid - 3 days per week

Technology, Data, AI and Ventures:

Within the Tech, Data, AI, Ventures (TDAV) organization, our work is guided by a shared vision: deploying the power of technology, data, AI and ventures to accelerate sustainable competitive advantage for New York Life's businesses. We build solutions that power how we serve policy owners, agents, advisors and employees while delivering measurable business outcomes.

Across technology, data, AI, cyber, product, digital experience, architecture and infrastructure, TDAV combines the scale and investment of an industry leader, access to leading-edge technologies and the opportunity to help shape how a world-class financial services company competes in the AI era - all backed by the stability and purpose of a mutual company built to last.

Business Overview

New York Life is advancing strategic transformations designed to reimagine critical enterprise capabilities through business process redesign, modern technology, data, analytics, automation, and AI. Delivery is organized around small, outcome-focused teams that bring together Product Owners, forward deployed talent, domain and data specialists, control partners, and strategic engineering partners.

The delivery model is designed around an agentic software development lifecycle. Teams move iteratively from business outcomes and rapid prototypes into implementation-grade specifications that can be used by AI engineering agents to accelerate design, coding, testing, documentation and refinement. Engineers increasingly orchestrate these agentic development workflows, applying human engineering judgment to architecture, integration, generated code, controls and production readiness.

The initial focus for these roles will be Enterprise Plan to Perform (EPP), one of New York Life's strategic transformations focused on reimagining enterprise financial planning and performance through modern Technology, data, analytics, automation and AI.

Role Overview

The Senior Forward Deployed Engineer is a highly experienced engineer embedded with strategic transformation teams, accountable for the technical realization of complex, high-value business outcomes. The role combines hands-on engineering, systems design, rapid prototyping, architecture judgment, AI-assisted development, and direct engagement with business and technology leaders.

Senior Forward Deployed Engineers operate with substantial autonomy. They take validated product intent, prototypes, implementation specifications, and enterprise architecture patterns and determine how to engineer scalable, secure, production-ready solutions. They are expected to use AI as a core engineering capability while exercising expert judgment over system decomposition, generated code, integration, testing, controls, performance, and operational readiness.

How You’ll work

You will work as part of small, outcome-focused teams alongside Product Owners, business and domain experts, architects, data specialists, engineers, control partners and other Technology colleagues. Teams operate through an agentic software development lifecycle: rapidly prototype to validate product intent, translate that learning into precise implementation specifications, and use AI engineering agents to accelerate design, code generation, testing, documentation and iterative refinement.

As an engineer, your role increasingly shifts from manually executing every development task to orchestrating and directing agentic engineering workflows—providing the right context and specifications, evaluating generated solutions, making engineering tradeoffs, integrating components, resolving ambiguity and maintaining accountability for quality,

security, controls and production outcomes. The model combines rapid learning and AI-driven development leverage with strong human engineering judgment and enterprise production disciplines.

As a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, you will also provide technical leadership within these teams, guiding complex engineering decisions, mentoring other engineers and helping maintain technical coherence from prototype through production.

What You'll Do

· Own technical realization for complex outcome areas, from prototype and specification through architecture, build, integration, production deployment, and ongoing improvement.

· Translate ambiguous or evolving product intent into pragmatic technical designs while partnering with Forward Deployed Analysts to close specification gaps quickly.

· Lead system decomposition and make consequential engineering tradeoffs across applications, APIs, data, agents, cloud platforms, security, performance, and operational requirements.

· Lead agentic software development workflows for complex solutions, determining how work should be decomposed across AI engineering agents and human engineers and establishing the specifications, context, constraints and validation approaches needed to produce high-quality outcomes.

· Review and govern AI-generated designs and code, applying senior engineering judgment to architecture, system decomposition, integration, security, performance, controls and production readiness.

· Design and build AI-enabled and agentic capabilities using enterprise-approved patterns for orchestration, tool use, retrieval, memory where appropriate, human oversight, evaluation, observability, identity, and controls.

· Partner with Solution Engineering & Architecture and Data Architecture to validate difficult architectural hypotheses and translate reference patterns into production implementations.

· Guide strategic partner engineers and other pod engineers, review critical designs and code, and ensure technical coherence across the solution.

· Establish automated testing, deployment, observability, resiliency, security, and production-readiness practices appropriate to the solution.

· Help evolve reusable patterns and practices for specification-driven and agentic software development across outcome teams, enabling engineers to achieve greater development leverage without compromising engineering quality or accountability.

· Mentor engineers and help evolve the forward-deployed engineering model, including specification-driven and AI-assisted software development practices.

What You'll Bring

Required Experience & Skills

· Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field with 8+ years of relevant experience; a Master’s degree with 6+ years of relevant experience; or equivalent practical experience.

· Agentic Engineering Leadership - Demonstrated ability to orchestrate AI engineering agents across complex software development, including work decomposition, specification design, generated-code review, validation and integration into production systems.

· Deep hands-on engineering capability and strong systems-design judgment across modern application architectures, APIs, integration, cloud, data, security, and operational concerns.

· Demonstrated experience leading technical delivery from ambiguous business problem through production implementation.

· Experience making architecture and engineering tradeoffs across multiple systems and organizational boundaries.

· Strong production engineering discipline spanning automated testing, CI/CD, observability, resiliency, performance, security, and supportability.

· Demonstrated hands-on experience applying generative AI, AI-assisted engineering and/or agentic development approaches to software delivery, with the technical depth and learning agility to evaluate and adopt rapidly evolving engineering patterns.

· Demonstrated ability to influence architects, engineers, product leaders, business stakeholders, and strategic partners without relying solely on formal authority.

· Strong communication, mentoring, and technical leadership skills.

Preferred Experience

· Experience building production-scale generative AI or agentic applications and platforms.

· Experience in financial services, insurance, finance, investments, or another regulated enterprise environment.

· Experience in forward-deployed engineering, consulting engineering, startup, or high-autonomy product engineering environments.

· Experience establishing reusable engineering patterns or leading modernization of software delivery practices.

· Experience in financial services, insurance, Finance/FP&A, investments, or another complex regulated enterprise environment.

Why This Role

The Senior Forward Deployed Engineer is the senior technical anchor within this agentic development model. The role combines deep hands-on engineering judgment with the ability to orchestrate AI engineering agents, decompose complex solutions, govern generated output and establish reusable engineering patterns - enabling significantly greater development leverage while retaining human accountability for architecture, quality, controls and production outcomes.

Job Level: LEVELPF4

Pay Transparency

Salary Range: $124,000-$177,000

Overtime eligible: Exempt

Discretionary bonus eligible: Yes

Sales bonus eligible: No

Actual base salary will be determined based on several factors but not limited to individual’s experience, skills, qualifications, and job location. Additionally, employees are eligible for an annual discretionary bonus. In addition to base salary, employees may also be eligible to participate in an incentive program.

Company Overview

At New York Life, our 180-year legacy of purpose and integrity fuels our future. As we evolve into a more technology-, data-, and AI-enabled organization, we remain grounded in the values that drive lasting impact.

Our diverse business portfolio creates opportunities to make a difference across industries and communities—inviting bold thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and purpose-driven innovation. Here, you’ll find the rare balance of long-standing stability and forward momentum, supported by an inclusive team that honors tradition while embracing progress.

As a Fortune 100 mutual company, we offer a place to grow your skills, contribute to meaningful work, and deliver solutions that matter. Your ideas drive what’s next, and your growth powers it.

Our Benefits

We provide a full package of benefits for employees – and have unique offerings for a modern workforce, including leave programs, adoption assistance, and student loan repayment programs. Based on feedback from our employees, we continue to refine and add benefits to our offering, so that you can flourish both inside and outside of work. Click here to discover more about our comprehensive benefit options or visit our NYL Benefits Site.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

At New York Life, fostering an inclusive workplace is fundamental to who we are and how we serve our communities. We have a longstanding commitment to creating an environment where individuals can contribute their best and succeed together. This foundation is rooted in our core values of humanity and integrity, ensuring that every employee feels valued and supported. By embracing a broad range of perspectives and experiences, we achieve greater success and fulfill our promise of providing financial security and peace of mind to families across all communities. Click here to learn more about New York Life’s leadership in this space.​

Recognized as one of Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies, New York Life is committed to improving local communities through a culture of employee giving and volunteerism, supported by the Foundation. We're proud that due to our mutuality, we operate in the best interests of our policy owners. To learn more about career opportunities at New York Life, please visit the Careers page of www.NewYorkLife.com.

Job Requisition ID: 95176