Forward Deployed GenAI Engineering

Rapid-prototype GenAI solutions on customer infrastructure, integrate GenAI with customer data and workflows, scope solutions with delivery methodology.

12 skill groups9 courses913 goals~423 hrs

Verifiable skill graph

12 skill groups · each becomes a signed node on your graph.

Every lab you pass signs a W3C Verifiable Credential on your public skill graph. Completing the labs in each group below mints one node on that graph — the badge you walk away with is a cryptographic record of what you can ship, not a completion certificate.

Share the URL on your résumé or with a hiring manager. They click; they see the discipline, the labs you passed, and the verification signature. No honor system, no broker.

01
Python for Forward-Deployed Engineering

Production-grade Python for customer-on-site delivery: async/await, Pydantic for customer-data models, typing, dataclasses, pytest for delivery harnesses, error handling.

02
Hosted LLM API Integration

Provider SDK calls in customer prototypes: OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini integration, LiteLLM multi-provider abstraction for customer flexibility, provider routing.

03
Customer Discovery & Scoping

AI use-case discovery, data-readiness assessments, solution scoping, effort estimation, opportunity qualification, fit/feasibility analysis.

04
Rapid AI Prototyping

Rapid prototype harnesses, Streamlit/Gradio demo apps, synthetic data factories for prototypes, scaffold generation, iterative scope shaping with customers.

05
Customer Data Integration

Customer data ingestion pipelines, PII handling in customer data, secure data exchange, schema-on-read patterns, customer-data sandboxing.

06
Customer Environment Deployment

Deploying in customer security boundaries, GKE / on-prem K8s adaptation, customer-VPC + private networking, secrets management in customer envs, Terraform/Pulumi.

07
Stakeholder Communication & Demos

Demo engineering, executive briefings, customer training automation, knowledge-transfer workflows, presentation generation, customer onboarding.

08
POC-to-Production Hardening

POC-to-production transition playbooks, observability instrumentation, SLA monitoring, post-delivery support, robustness hardening, capacity planning.

09
Delivery Risk & Governance

Delivery risk identification, governance frameworks (SOW + change orders), regulatory + safety pre-checks (EU AI Act, SOC2/HIPAA mappings), customer compliance audits.

10
Agent Engineering Depth

Agent loops, ReAct/planner-executor patterns, tool use + MCP, state graphs, multi-agent orchestration — full depth for customer-facing agent prototypes.

11
RAG & Customization Depth

Production RAG pipelines, vector DB engineering, fine-tuning for customer-domain models, RLVR + reward engineering, GraphRAG, agentic orchestration for customer use cases.

12
End-to-End Engagement & Capstone

End-to-end AI engagements (discovery → scoping → prototype → deploy → handoff), capstone projects synthesizing all forward-deployed skills, field-learning feedback loops.

What you'll ship in production

Core responsibilities this discipline prepares you for.

  1. 1

    Embed on-site with clients

    to discover GenAI opportunities and scope projects

    • Run structured discovery sessions: stakeholder interviews, process mapping, and opportunity scoring
    • Score automation opportunities by ROI and write scope documents with acceptance criteria
    • Simulate realistic client discovery engagements with estimation and risk assessment exercises
  2. 2

    Build rapid prototypes

    that demonstrate GenAI value within weeks

    • Go from problem statement to working prototype using LangGraph agent logic and MCP tool integration
    • Iterate prototypes based on evaluation metrics and present results to stakeholders
    • Build end-to-end prototypes under time constraints with evaluation-driven iteration cycles
  3. 3

    Integrate GenAI into client data systems

    — databases, APIs, and legacy systems

    • Connect LLM applications to PostgreSQL, pgvector, Redis, Kafka, MinIO, and REST APIs
    • Build data ingestion pipelines that feed RAG systems from existing databases and legacy endpoints
    • Implement common enterprise integration patterns with real database connections and API adapters
  4. 4

    Customize LLM applications

    for client-specific domains (healthcare, finance, legal)

    • Build domain-specific RAG pipelines with HIPAA-compliant PII detection using Presidio
    • Construct financial RAG systems with regulatory citation and legal contract analysis pipelines
    • Validate domain-specific compliance constraints across regulated industry scenarios
  5. 5

    Deploy solutions as packaged Helm charts

    clients can operate independently

    • Package GenAI applications as self-contained Helm charts with Kustomize overlays per environment
    • Write operational runbooks and define SLAs with integrated monitoring and alerting
    • Simulate a complete solution handoff including packaging, documentation, and operational validation
  6. 6

    Build GenAI agent workflows

    tailored to client business processes

    • Design LangGraph agents with human-in-the-loop approval gates and MCP-based tool integration
    • Customize agent behavior for different business process requirements and approval hierarchies
    • Build and deploy domain-specific agents adapted to varied client business scenarios
  7. 7

    Manage LLM provider costs

    and build FinOps models for client engagements

    • Optimize multi-provider costs via LiteLLM routing with cost-per-request modeling
    • Build ROI estimation frameworks and pricing models for client proposals
    • Tune provider selection strategies across usage scenarios to hit target cost margins
  8. 8

    Configure enterprise guardrails

    to meet client compliance requirements

    • Set up NeMo Guardrails for content safety and Presidio for multi-language PII detection
    • Configure compliance-specific policies aligned with SOC2, HIPAA, and GDPR requirements
    • Validate guardrail configurations against adversarial test suites in regulated industry scenarios

Curriculum

9 courses · each builds on previous goals

16 goals unlocked for preview — click to read. Locked goals need a subscription.