Forward Deployed Engineer

The Role

The Forward Deployed Engineer’s mandate is simple: turn our clients’ AI ambitions into shipped tools, by first making sure we’re solving the right problem. You’ll sit on client calls, listen to whatever they bring, ask the questions that uncover whether the stated problem is the real one, and turn it into a prioritized roadmap of things that should actually get built. You’ll then build the working prototypes yourself with Claude Code, on real client data, until they solve the problem. From there, our AI engineer takes the prototype and productionizes it.

You’ll co-own the client relationship with our founder from day one. He brings the eCommerce instinct and the strategic frame. You bring the diagnostic muscle, the AI obsession, and the discipline to ship. With AI-literate clients, you’re a real-world thinking partner who narrows options instead of fanning them out. With clients who don’t yet know what AI can do for them, you’re the person who shows them by building it.

The growth path is real: this role is the front door to AI Product Owner at LHG within the next 12 to 18 months for the right person.

What a typical week looks like

• Sitting on three to four client calls and asking the questions that surface the real problem behind the stated one.
• Mapping out the existing process and identifying where AI creates leverage.
• Recommending the right delivery modality for each project (a Claude Project, a Claude Code script, a custom internal tool, a dashboard delivered by email).
• Building a working prototype on real client data with Claude Code.
• Briefing the AI engineer on what needs to ship to production. Demoing the prototype to the client.
• Updating each client’s AI roadmap and prioritizing the next two weeks.
• Pushing back on a request that doesn’t make sense.

Reality Check

Lake House has tripled in size over 3 years and is aiming to do it again. The AI services side of the agency is one of our biggest growth bets, and today it still runs entirely through the founder. This role is what unlocks the next wave.

This is a builder role. The Forward Deployed Engineer will help shape how AI services get sold and delivered at LHG, not just execute existing playbooks.

Non-Negotiables

• AI obsession and hands-on practice (criterion #1): This is your domain. For you, AI goes beyond work: it’s something you naturally explore every day.
• Diagnostic instinct: You never take a brief at face value. When faced with a client request, you know how to ask the right questions to isolate the root cause behind the symptoms, identify the real leverage points, and decide between AI automation and human judgment.
• 1 to 3 years of scoping experience: Whether you come from consulting, product, strategy, or operations—or are a recent graduate with standout personal AI projects—you’ve already turned complex problems into concrete solutions.
• Client presence and confidence: Completely at ease with VP-level stakeholders, you know how to lead a discovery conversation, hold your own, and express disagreement tactfully.
• Hands-on mentality: You build the prototypes yourself, join client meetings, write briefs for the AI engineer, and never consider yourself above the detailed work.

Nice to Have

• Background in management consulting (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, MBB), strategy, product, or startup operations.
• Personal portfolio of AI builds: agents, Claude skills, custom GPTs, side projects you can demo.
• Experience writing technical specs or product requirements documents.
• Previous experience juggling multiple client relationships in parallel.

What Makes Someone Succeed Here

You bring ideas, you don’t wait to be told what to scope. You’re skeptical of the brief: when a client says “we want X”, you ask three questions before you accept that X is what should get built. You narrow options instead of fanning them out, because if the client already has Claude, what they don’t have is someone in the real world who can say “don’t do that, do this.” You’re rigorous about the difference between “AI could technically do this” and “AI should do this.” You catch what others miss in a process map. You can shift between strategic (where should this client’s AI roadmap go in 12 months) and tactical (writing a Claude Code prompt right now). You see AI as the unlock that makes you ten times more useful, not as a tool to be afraid of. You’re allergic to slow, abstract work that produces a deck instead of a thing.

What We Offer

• Hybrid work. A mix of working from home and from our downtown Montreal WeWork office.
• Competitive salary.
• Wellness and cell phone allocation.
• Real time and unlimited tokens to deepen your AI skills. We invest in your AI fluency the way other agencies invest in conferences.
• Room to grow. Small team means real impact.
• Learning environment. We’re obsessed with getting better.
• Autonomy.

About Lake House Group

Lake House Group is an AI Commerce agency for Shopify brands. We help companies grow by building strong retention engines (email, SMS, CRM), sharpening their go-to-market, and embedding AI across marketing, operations, and product management.

Through the right mix of technology, training, and hands-on partnership, Lake House helps brands move with more clarity, speed, and adaptability in the era of intelligent commerce.

The team has tripled in size over the last 3 years and is aiming to do it again.