Principal AI Forward Deployed Engineer

Principal AI Forward Deployed Engineer

Location:                   Remote, USA

Employment Type: Full-Time

Compensation:        $210,000 - $262,000 (Range applies to US candidates only) + Benefits/Variable Comp - Range may vary based on experience. 

Benefits Offered:    Vision, Medical, Life, Dental, 401K

Summary

As a Principal AI Forward Deployed Engineer at OneStream, you are the senior-most individual contributor within the AI Forward Deployed Engineering program. This role drives sustained AI adoption at OneStream’s most strategic enterprise accounts by combining deep finance domain expertise with AI fluency and customer advisory capability.

You operate as a trusted advisor to senior finance stakeholders (CFOs, FP&A VPs), owning AI use case roadmaps, leading adoption and change management strategy, and translating non-deterministic AI outputs into actionable business language. You partner with FDE team members, AI Delivery, AI Engineering, and OneStream’s partner ecosystem to ensure customers achieve measurable ROI from SensibleAI products within OneStream implementations.

The Principal AI FDE shapes engagement models, defines reusable playbooks, and informs hiring profiles as the FDE program scales. This is a foundational role that sets the standard for how OneStream’s AI Forward Deployed Engineering function operates at the enterprise level.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Customer AI Adoption & Advisory

• Serve as the primary strategic advisor to senior finance stakeholders at assigned accounts, owning the AI adoption roadmap from initial deployment through sustained operational ownership.
• Participate directly in the design and delivery of AI use cases at assigned accounts, including solution architecture, data pipeline configuration, and implementation oversight — particularly during initial deployment and expansion phases.
• Lead adoption and change management strategy for AI-enabled finance processes, ensuring customer organizations can confidently own non-deterministic AI outputs independently.
• Design and facilitate executive workshops, business reviews, and readouts that connect AI capabilities to measurable financial outcomes (forecast accuracy, cycle time, process efficiency).
• Engage directly with customer finance and data teams to deliver, validate, and refine AI solutions within the OneStream ecosystem.

Use Case Strategy & Expansion

• Identify and validate expansion use cases within assigned accounts by translating business objectives into actionable AI implementation plans aligned to the SensibleAI product portfolio.
• Build 24-36 month AI roadmaps per account, sequencing use cases by business impact, technical feasibility, and organizational readiness.
• Partner with Sales and Account Management to position AI expansion opportunities during renewal and upsell cycles, activating revenue from inside the account.
• Evaluate cross-functional process and forecasting opportunities that extend AI value beyond single-function deployments.

FDE Program Development & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Shape the FDE engagement model by producing reusable playbooks, engagement templates, adoption benchmarks, and change management frameworks that scale across the program.
• Serve as an escalation point within FDE engagements, mentoring other FDE team members and partner resources on complex engagement patterns.
• Coordinate with AI Delivery to transition validated solutions into scalable production delivery workflows.
• Partner with AI Customer Success & Advisory to support strategic accounts during and after FDE engagement.
• Support AI Partner Operations by enabling partners with field-tested patterns, training content, and quality standards.
• Channel field learnings, product gaps, and customer signal directly to AI Engineering and Product teams to inform roadmap priorities.

Commercial & Strategic Impact

• Support strategic sales opportunities by shaping AI solution feasibility, delivery approach, and customer readiness assessment.
• Contribute to pre-sale positioning of AI capabilities for qualified accounts, including executive-facing materials and discovery sessions.
• Drive measurable outcomes: accelerated time-to-value, expansion ARR, Net Revenue Retention improvement, and durable customer self-sufficiency.

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, business, computer science, data science, or relevant combination of education and experience.
• 8–15 years of experience in finance transformation, FP&A advisory, CPM/EPM consulting, or enterprise financial software delivery.
• 3–5 years of experience with AI/ML concepts applied to financial planning, forecasting, or analytics workflows. Deep ML engineering expertise is not required; AI fluency and the ability to translate AI outputs into business context is essential.
• Demonstrated success leading change management workstreams on ERP, EPM, or financial systems transformation programs.
• Experience in customer-facing advisory roles with direct engagement at the C-suite or VP level (CFO, VP FP&A, VP Finance).
• Track record of identifying and activating expansion opportunities within enterprise accounts through trusted advisory relationships.
• Experience at a Big 4 firm, Global Systems Integrator, or enterprise software vendor in a finance-focused consulting or advisory capacity.

Preferred Education and Experience

• Direct experience with OneStream, Oracle EPM, SAP BPC/SAC, or comparable CPM/EPM platforms.
• Experience building or advising on AI-enabled finance offerings at a consulting firm or software vendor.
• Familiarity with the competitive dynamics of vendor selection during Finance Transformation programs.
• Prior experience in a Forward Deployed Engineering, solutions consulting, or embedded advisory role.
• Experience influencing product roadmaps based on field deployment learnings.
• Proficiency in Python and/or C#.
• 1-3 years of software engineering experience, with a focus on data science, AI, or machine learning concepts or relevant combination of education and experience.
• Strong SQL; data modeling and ETL/ELT; REST APIs, identity/security basics.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• C-suite presence - can hold a room with a CFO or FP&A VP; translates complex AI concepts into business value.
• AI fluency - can explain non-deterministic outputs, model limitations, and accuracy tradeoffs in business terms without requiring deep technical implementation skills.
• Use case design - can build a 12–24 month AI roadmap, not just implement a single sprint.
• Change management instinct - reads organizational readiness, identifies adoption blockers, designs interventions.
• Hypothesis-driven approach; comfort operating with ambiguity; strong documentation and communication habits.
• Cross-functional collaboration with Product, Engineering, Delivery, CS, Sales, and Partners; ability to give and receive design feedback.
• Design for reuse; produce playbooks, frameworks, and assets others can adopt; contribute to internal standards.
• Apply data privacy and governance guidelines in solution design and customer advisory.
• Comfortable engaging and presenting to C-level executives on a regular basis.

Travel (remove if not applicable)

• Travel Requirement: Up to 40% travel may be required for customer workshops, executive reviews, on-site engagement sprints, and critical adoption milestones.

Who We Are

OneStream is how today’s Finance teams can go beyond just reporting on the past and Take Finance Further™ by steering the business to the future. It’s the only enterprise finance platform that unifies financial and operational data, embeds AI for better decisions and productivity, and empowers the CFO to become a critical driver of business strategy and execution. Our vision is to be the operating system for modern finance, digitizing core financial functions and empowering the CFO to become a critical driver of business strategy. To learn more visit www.onestream.com.

Why Join The OneStream Team

• Transparency around corporate structure, salary, and benefits
• Core value of customer success
• Variety of project work (not industry-specific) 
• Strong culture and camaraderie
• Multiple training opportunities

Benefits at OneStream  
OneStream employees are passionate, hardworking individuals who go above and beyond to keep our customers happy and follow through on our mission statement. They consistently deliver the best and in turn, we make every effort to keep them cared for and happy. A sample of the benefits we provide are:

• Excellent Medical Plan
• Dental & Vision Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Short & Long Term Disability
• Vacation Time
• Paid Holidays
• Professional Development
• Retirement Plan

All candidates must be legally authorized to work for any company in the country where this position is located without sponsorship.

OneStream is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

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