Forward Deployed AI Engineer - OpenAI / Agentic AI (IT)

At CGI, you?ll help turn the possibilities of agentic AI into measurable outcomes for organisations operating in complex enterprise environments. Working at the intersection of clients, software engineering and emerging AI, you?ll take ownership of ambiguous challenges and rapidly transform them into prototypes, operational pilots and production-ready solutions. You?ll have the freedom to explore new approaches using OpenAI Codex and agentic technologies, while collaborating with CGI experts and client teams to deliver secure, scalable solutions. As successful ideas develop, you?ll help shape reusable AI patterns and propositions that can create value across CGI?s clients and sectors?giving you the opportunity to influence how organisations adopt and scale the next generation of AI. CGI was recognised in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work List 2025 and has been named a UK ?Best Employer? by the Financial Times. We offer a competitive salary, excellent pension, private healthcare, plus a share scheme (3.5% + 3.5% matching) which makes you a CGI Partner not just an employee. We are committed to inclusivity, building a genuinely diverse community of tech talent and inspiring everyone to pursue careers in our sector, including our Armed Forces, and are proud to hold a Gold Award in recognition of our support of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant. Join us and you?ll be part of an open, friendly community of experts. We?ll train and support you in taking your career wherever you want it to go. This is a hybrid position. Candidate profile: In this role, you will work directly with clients and CGI teams to identify high-value opportunities for agentic AI and turn them into practical, measurable solutions. You will take ownership from early discovery and pre-sales through rapid prototyping, pilot delivery and production deployment, helping clients understand where emerging AI capabilities can deliver genuine business value. You will have the freedom to experiment and create, developing deep expertise in OpenAI Codex and related agentic technologies while being supported by CGI specialists across architecture, cyber security, cloud, platforms and governance. You will also turn successful implementations into reusable patterns, assets and propositions, helping CGI scale innovation across clients and sectors.

• Discover & Shape ? Embed with clients to understand workflows, technology environments and business challenges, identifying high-value opportunities for AI.
• Prototype & Validate ? Rapidly build prototypes, interfaces and MVPs to test ideas against clearly defined workflows and measurable outcomes.
• Design & Deploy ? Build agentic AI systems that integrate securely with client infrastructure, data and operational processes.
• Engineer & Integrate ? Develop across user interfaces, backend services, APIs, integrations, data and cloud environments.
• Optimise & Govern ? Engineer agent context, tools and orchestration with appropriate permissions, evaluations, guardrails and human oversight.
• Innovate with Codex ? Develop deep expertise in OpenAI Codex and apply AI-assisted engineering to real client development workflows.
• Scale & Reuse ? Convert successful implementations into repeatable agentic patterns, workflows, assets and propositions.
• Consult & Influence ? Deliver technical demonstrations and presentations to technical and non-technical audiences and contribute to RFPs, bids and tenders.
• Productionise & Improve ? Take validated concepts from experimentation through MVPs to secure, robust and scalable production solutions.

Required qualifications to be successful in this role You will bring strong software engineering foundations alongside hands-on experience with AI-assisted or agentic development. You should be comfortable working directly with clients, navigating ambiguity and rapidly turning ideas into working software. Curiosity about emerging AI technologies is important, and you?ll be supported by CGI colleagues as you deepen your expertise and apply new capabilities to complex enterprise challenges.

• Hands-on AI engineering experience ? Practical experience with OpenAI Codex, Claude Code or comparable agentic coding tools.
• Agentic AI knowledge ? Working knowledge of context engineering, tool use, orchestration, evaluation and guardrails, gained professionally or through substantial hands-on experimentation.
• Strong software engineering foundations ? Broad understanding of front-end applications, backend services, APIs, integrations and cloud infrastructure.
• End-to-end delivery experience ? Proven ability to take software from experimentation and prototyping through to operational deployment.
• Client-facing capability ? Strong experience in pre-sales, solution engineering, consulting or client-embedded software delivery.
• Communication skills ? Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly and concisely to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Adaptability & ownership ? Confidence working with ambiguity, changing priorities and emerging technologies while driving work towards practical outcomes.

Experience designing agentic AI applications using technologies such as the Codex SDK/API, OpenAI Agents SDK/API, MCP, skills, subagents or comparable frameworks would be advantageous. Experience with agent evaluation, observability, sandboxing, permissions, human-in-the-loop approaches, CI/CD, DevOps, cloud platforms or deploying AI within secure and regulated environments would also be valuable.

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