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 Forward Deployed Engineer is an engineer embedded close to the business and outcome team, responsible for rapidly converting validated product intent, prototypes, and implementation specifications into working, production-ready technology. The role combines software engineering, systems thinking, AI-assisted development, integration, and direct collaboration with users and domain teams.

Forward Deployed Engineers do not wait for traditional handoffs or fully decomposed tickets. They work from a prototype, PRD or implementation specification, enterprise architecture patterns, and direct feedback from the team to build, test, integrate, and refine solutions quickly. AI-assisted engineering is a core competency and is used throughout the software development lifecycle.

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.

What You'll Do

• Translate validated prototypes, product intent and implementation specifications into working software using agentic and AI-assisted development workflows.
• Orchestrate AI engineering agents across implementation activities such as code generation, refactoring, testing, documentation, debugging and implementation planning, while reviewing and validating generated output and retaining engineering accountability for the solution.
• Iterate between prototype, specification and implementation as technical learning emerges, working closely with Product Owners and other team members to resolve ambiguity quickly rather than relying on traditional sequential handoffs.
• Translate functional specifications into technical designs, components, APIs, integrations, data access patterns, and production-ready code.
• Partner closely with Forward Deployed Analysts to resolve ambiguity and refine specifications as technical learning emerges.
• Work directly with Product Owners, users, Domain SMEs, Data SMEs, architects, and strategic partner engineers in rapid feedback cycles.
• Integrate applications and agents with enterprise APIs, data products, platforms, identity, security, and control capabilities.
• Implement agentic and AI-enabled features using approved enterprise patterns, including tool integration, human checkpoints, observability, evaluation, and traceability.
• Develop automated tests and participate in validation, deployment, production readiness, and post-release improvement.
• Apply strong engineering judgment to distinguish prototype shortcuts from production requirements and close the gap deliberately.
• Contribute reusable code, patterns, components, and engineering practices that can be adopted across outcome teams.

What You'll Bring

Required Experience & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field with 5+ years of relevant experience; a Master's degree with 3+ years of relevant experience; or equivalent practical experience.
• Agentic Software Development - Experience using AI engineering agents and specification-driven development practices to accelera