Build the next generation of agentic AI.
The Applied AI and Agents Factory brings together ambitious engineers to turn advanced AI capabilities into production-ready solutions. Working directly with business and technology teams, you’ll tackle complex engineering challenges, build intelligent agents and take ideas from initial concept through to live deployment.
This is an opportunity to work at the cutting edge of AI engineering, developing systems that go beyond conversational tools to reason, plan and execute multi-step workflows. You’ll build reliable agent workflows, integrate AI with enterprise systems and ensure solutions perform securely and consistently in production.
With a strong focus on hands-on engineering, collaboration and rapid delivery, the Factory gives you the opportunity to solve challenging technical problems, develop your expertise and contribute reusable tools and engineering practices that support AI adoption across Citi.
If you want to do more than experiment with AI — and build, deploy and scale systems that deliver real business value — this is where you can make your mark.
The Senior Forward Deployed Engineer is a hands-on core engineering professional embedded within Line of Business squads. This role is responsible for developing production-grade agent reasoning logic, custom tool integrations, data retrieval pipelines, and resilient execution workflows adhering to enterprise safety, security, and quality standards.
Responsibilities:
- Agent Reasoning & Logic Implementation: Write clean, modular, production-quality Python code implementing agent reasoning loops, dynamic tool calling, short-term/long-term memory management, and sub-agent delegation.
- Tool & MCP Server Development: Build and maintain custom Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers and API connectors integrating AI agents with enterprise systems (e.g., ticketing systems, relational/NoSQL databases, message queues, and internal REST/gRPC microservices).
- Data Ingestion & Retrieval Pipelines: Develop and optimize Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) components, including document parsing, embedding generation, vector indexing, metadata filtering, and semantic search retrieval.
- Resilience & Error Handling: Implement resilient error handling, automated retry mechanisms with exponential backoff, circuit breaking, fallback routines, and Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) escalation triggers for ambiguous model outputs.
- Structured Output Validation: Build deterministic validation layers using Pydantic and JSON Schema to guarantee structured, type-safe outputs from non-deterministic foundation models.
- Safety & Guardrail Integration: Integrate real-time AI guardrail policies for prompt injection defense, jailbreak mitigation, and automated PII filtering/redaction into agent execution loops.
- Collaborative Testing & Evals: Partner with C12 engineers to construct automated regression testbeds, curate golden datasets, and integrate automated evaluation suites into CI/CD release pipelines.
- Agile Sprint Delivery & Peer Review: Actively participate in agile sprint delivery, technical problem-solving sessions, and peer code reviews, coaching junior engineers on software craftsmanship.
- Direct Business Collaboration: Collocates and collaborates directly with Line of Business end-users (traders, bankers, analysts) to observe day-to-day operational workflows and capture nuanced domain logic and edge cases.
- Iterative Prototype Building: Rapidly builds, tests, and refines functional agent prototypes and prompt chains based on direct, daily qualitative feedback from business pilot users.
- User Friction Analysis: Analyzes user interaction logs and user feedback to identify model failure modes, prompt ambiguities, and UI/UX friction, implementing iterative improvements to agent reasoning.
- Appropriately assess risk when business decisions are made, demonstrating particular consideration for the firm's reputation and safeguarding Citi, its clients and assets, by driving compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations, adhering to Policy, applying sound ethical judgment regarding personal behavior, conduct and business practices, and escalating, managing and reporting control issues with transparency.
Qualifications:
- Total Experience: 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with 4+ years of strong, professional Python, Java, or Go proficiency.
- LLM & AI Engineering: 1–2+ years of hands-on experience working with foundation model APIs (e.g., centralized enterprise AI gateways, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI, Anthropic) and integrating LLMs into backend services.
- Software Engineering Fundamentals: Solid experience in REST/gRPC API development, Docker, Git workflows, Linux environments, and CI/CD pipelines.
- Prompt & Data Engineering: Proven understanding of advanced prompt engineering techniques, structured output parsing, vector databases, and retrieval strategies.
- Experience collaborating directly with business stakeholders, product managers, or operational users in rapid, iterative delivery cycles.
Education:
- Bachelor’s/University degree or equivalent experience; Master’s degree preferred.
What we’ll provide you
This is a unique role that will put you in the position to be part of a new venture and actively drive change. Every day there will be new challenges that will help you develop new skills that can drive your career.
By joining Citi London, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model (up to 2 days working at home per week), but also receive a competitive base salary (which is annually reviewed), and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:
- 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
- A discretional annual performance related bonus
- Private Medical Care & Life Insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Pension Plan
- Paid Parental Leave
- Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
Visit our Global Benefits page to learn more.
Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self, every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay and empowered to thrive.
#LI-AH4
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Job Family Group: Technology------------------------------------------------------
Job Family:Applications Development------------------------------------------------------
Time Type:Full time------------------------------------------------------
Most Relevant Skills Please see the requirements listed above.------------------------------------------------------
Other Relevant Skills For complementary skills, please see above and/or contact the recruiter.------------------------------------------------------
Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.
If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi.
View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.
Skills Required
- Strong software engineering experience
- Professional proficiency in Python
- Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, including R2D2 Gateway, OpenAI, or Google Vertex AI
- Experience integrating foundation models into backend services
- Experience developing REST or gRPC APIs
- Experience with Docker
- Experience with Git
- Experience working in Linux environments
- Experience with CI/CD automation pipelines
- Understanding of prompt engineering
- Understanding of structured JSON output validation, such as Pydantic
- Understanding of vector search and retrieval patterns
- Ability to collaborate in fast-paced agile squads
- Ability to solve ambiguous technical problems
Citi Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Citi and has not been reviewed or approved by Citi.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is presented as comprehensive, including free in-network preventive care, mental-health resources, and the Be Well Program. Materials also state new hires have access to health and insurance benefits from the outset.
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Retirement Support — The retirement plan offers a $1-for-$1 match up to 6% of eligible pay. New employees are eligible for the plan, with automatic enrollment after 90 days if they do not enroll themselves.
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Inclusive Benefits Coverage — Benefits highlight fertility treatment coverage, adoption/surrogacy reimbursement up to $30,000, and disability coverage. Coverage extends to spouses and domestic partners regardless of gender identity or sexuality, with gender-affirming care-related support noted.
Citi Insights
What We Do
Citi's mission is to serve as a trusted partner to our clients by responsibly providing financial services that enable growth and economic progress. Our core activities are safeguarding assets, lending money, making payments and accessing the capital markets on behalf of our clients. We have 200 years of experience helping our clients meet the world's toughest challenges and embrace its greatest opportunities. We are Citi, the global bank – an institution connecting millions of people across hundreds of countries and cities.
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