> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt.

# Technical Lead (Applied AI)

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/9edafe217e21b423

X by 2 posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in Raleigh, NC and 2 more, at $143,000–$185,000 base, below the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Leads architecture and hands-on delivery of enterprise software, data, machine-learning, and agentic AI solutions for consulting clients. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026.

- [X by 2](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/x-by-2)

Posted May 6, 2026 by X by 2 · open on Lever as of Nov 8, 2026

**$143,000–$185,000** Raleigh, NC +3 Hybrid Full-time

Leads architecture and hands-on delivery of enterprise software, data, machine-learning, and agentic AI solutions for consulting clients.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F9edafe217e21b423&placement=top)
- [View posting at X by 2](https://jobs.lever.co/xby2/18a4ee30-3364-4fe0-8acb-b4000aeee45a/apply)

Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so.

## At a glance

### Posted base pay

$143K–$185K Below the median

Midpoint $164K · median $190K

This job $143K to $185K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K.

### The work

Builds what the customer runs

Balance **Mostly building**

Project stages

1. Pre-sales (not covered)
2. Proof of concept
3. Implementation
4. Operations

Travel **Required, amount not stated**

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Technical lead

### What they ask for

Experience

- **6+ years** software engineering designing and developing enterprise applications, data/analytics solutions, and/or integration solutions
- **1+ years** providing technical leadership as Tech Lead, Lead Engineer, or Architect
- **1+ years** developing AI agents and/or AI model development and training

Background

- **Software engineering**
- **Solutions and customer engineering**
- **Implementation and data engineering**

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting asks for 1+ years. How many do you have?

The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now?

The job is in Raleigh, NC · Durham, NC · +1 more. Could you work in one of these?

Which of these have you used in production?

Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent.

[What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths)

## Conditions

- **Location**: Raleigh, NC · Durham, NC · Chapel Hill, NC · Metro Detroit, Michigan

- **Work arrangement**: Hybrid

- **Remote work restrictions**: Hybrid; Metro Detroit or North Carolina Research Triangle; not fully remote.

- **Employment type**: Full-time

- **Travel**: Travel required, amount not stated

- **Pay**:

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## The job description from X by 2

Posted by X by 2 on May 6, 2026

X by 2 is a technology consulting firm specializing in healthcare and insurance transformation. For over 25 years, we have partnered with leading organizations across North America — from strategy and architecture to system modernization, data analytics, and AI — delivering high-impact solutions from start to finish. We're agile, collaborative, and deeply committed to doing consulting the way it was meant to be done.

We are looking for a **Technical Lead** who will lead the design and development of AI solutions within enterprise environments for our clients. You'll combine hands-on engineering with leadership, guiding architecture decisions, mentoring teams, and building solutions.

### Responsibilities

### Technical Leadership & Architecture

- Lead architecture, design, development, testing, and deployment of enterprise software solutions (applications, data, integration, AI agents, AI models)
- Participate in strategy and roadmap discussions, architecture definition, and technology evaluations
- Mentor engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and technical guidance
- Quickly evaluate and adopt new tools, technologies, and platforms to build prototypes and proofs-of-concept
- Drive adoption of AI solutions and collaborate with engineering teams, product leaders, and domain experts to deliver results

### Software Engineering

- Design, develop, and maintain scalable, production-grade enterprise applications using modern languages and frameworks (Python, Java, C#, JavaScript)
- Define and enforce coding standards, best practices, and design patterns across the team
- Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and cloud-deployed services (AWS, Azure)
- Integrate enterprise systems via APIs, event-driven architectures, and messaging platforms
- Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, technical debt, and system reliability issues

### Data & Analytics

- Work with large, complex datasets and ensure data quality and integrity
- Analyze data to generate insights that inform both model development and broader solution strategy
- Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business problems into data-driven solutions

### AI / Machine Learning Development

- Design, develop, and train machine learning and deep learning models for healthcare and insurance use cases
- Perform data modeling and feature engineering to support model development
- Develop custom model metrics and approaches tailored to specific business problems
- Ensure models are scalable, reliable, and integrated into production systems

### Agentic AI Development

- Design and develop LLM-powered workflows and agentic systems that help users complete complex tasks, retrieve information, reason over enterprise data, or interact with internal systems.
- Integrate LLMs with tools, APIs, databases, documents, and enterprise platforms using patterns such as function calling, MCP, RAG, and structured tool use.
- Architect orchestration patterns for planning, task decomposition, memory, context management, and human-in-the-loop review where appropriate.
- Develop orchestration layers to manage agent planning, memory, task decomposition, and execution loops
- Evaluate agentic systems for correctness, reliability, safety, observability, auditability, and harden them for production readiness.
- Stay current with emerging AI frameworks and platforms, selecting tools pragmatically based on client needs.

### Qualifications

### Experience

- 6+ years of experience in software engineering designing and developing enterprise applications, data/analytics solutions, and/or integration solutions
- 1+ years of providing technical leadership as Tech Lead, Lead Engineer, or Architect
- 1+ years in developing AI agents and/or AI model development and training

### Education

- Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Development, Software Engineering, or Computer Engineering
- (Optional) Master's Degree or Minor in AI/Machine Learning or Statistics
- **AI Engineering Skills** *(Two or More)*
- Agentic AI: building and integrating autonomous AI agents using LLM APIs and orchestration frameworks (e.g., Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, LangChain, CrewAI, AutoGen, MCP)
- Machine Learning & Deep Learning: developing and training models using standard ML/DL frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn)
- Data Engineering & Feature Engineering: building data pipelines, performing feature engineering, and ensuring data quality across large, complex datasets
- Context Engineering: Agentic SQL retrieval, MCP integration, agentic tool use, as well as vector databases & RAG techniques implementing retrieval-augmented generation patterns using vector stores (e.g., Pinecone, Weaviate, pgvector, ChromaDB), .
- LLM Prompt Engineering & Fine-Tuning: designing and evaluating effective prompts, system instructions, and fine-tuning strategies for production LLM applications
- AI Evaluation & Production Readiness **:** defining evaluation methods, testing model behavior, monitoring performance, and addressing reliability, safety, explainability, and auditability concerns

### What We're Looking For

- You move fluidly between writing code and leading a room — equally comfortable in a design review as you are in a pull request
- You have strong opinions about architecture and aren't afraid to share them, but you know when to listen and adapt
- You take ownership seriously — on small teams, your decisions have real impact and you're energized by that, not intimidated
- You're genuinely curious about AI, not just checking a box — you've experimented with agentic systems, LLMs, or ML tools on your own terms
- You communicate clearly with both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, and can translate complexity without dumbing it down

### Location

- Metro Detroit or North Carolina Research Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill)
- Hybrid: flexibility to work remotely, but not fully remote
- Travel to X by 2 offices (Farmington Hills, MI) and client sites (within US) is required when requested

### Work Environment and Culture

- Work alongside smart, collaborative people who continually challenge and invest in each other
- Partner with seasoned architects to solve hard problems and challenge assumptions
- Small teams mean real ownership, with growth and responsibilities driven purely by individual performance
- Everyone has a voice and is encouraged to shape the company by sharing their interests, ideas, and feedback

### Compensation & Benefits

- Base salary $143K–$185K, depending on experience, plus profit sharing
- Annual raises and promotions based on performance
- 401(k) with employer match
- Comprehensive health, vision, dental, life, and disability insurance coverage, plus voluntary benefits and HSA with employer contribution
- Home Office Reimbursement, Health and Wellness Reimbursement, and Professional Dress Allowance
- Professional Self-Development Program
- Paid vacation, unlimited sick days (as needed), and holidays
- Company-sponsored social events and an employee recognition rewards program

### Sound Like You?

We're not looking for someone who has done everything — we're looking for someone who is driven to. If you thrive in environments where you can move fast, go deep, and make a real difference for clients solving complex problems in healthcare and insurance, we'd love to hear from you.

[View posting at X by 2](https://jobs.lever.co/xby2/18a4ee30-3364-4fe0-8acb-b4000aeee45a/apply)

## About X by 2

X by 2 advises healthcare and insurance organizations and delivers technology strategy, modernization, data, digital experience, and AI projects.

Late-stage private · 50–100 people

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- [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior)
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