Role: Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
100% Remote
24 Months contract
Top Skills - Must Haves
- Python
- Machine learning
- Deployment
- azure
- api development
- ci/cd pipelines
- microservices architecture
- cloud native
- application development
Top Skills' Details
1) Retirement / Financial Services Domain Expertise
5+ years of experience supporting retirement, wealth management, life insurance, or financial services platforms.
Strong understanding of retirement recordkeeping, 401(k) administration, participant services, plan sponsor operations, contribution processing, and retirement business workflows.
Ability to translate complex business processes and retirement-specific requirements into technical solutions.
Experience supporting large-scale retirement platform transformations, conversions, or modernization initiatives preferred.
Must be comfortable serving as a liaison between business stakeholders, product teams, and engineering organizations.
2) Legacy Modernization & Application Transformation
Experience modernizing legacy applications and re-architecting enterprise platforms into modern cloud-native solutions.
Ability to evaluate existing business rules, workflows, and operational processes and translate them into modern application architectures.
Experience with large-scale migration, platform consolidation, modernization, or application transformation initiatives.
Strong understanding of API-driven architectures, microservices, cloud-native development patterns, and modern software delivery practices.
Must be able to balance preservation of critical business functionality while driving modernization efforts.
3) Functional Analysis, Validation & Testing
Proven experience defining end-to-end functional testing strategies for enterprise applications.
Ability to create business-oriented test scenarios, test data, and validation processes that ensure functionality is preserved during modernization efforts.
Experience gathering requirements, analyzing business rules, and validating system behavior against expected business outcomes.
Strong understanding of user acceptance testing (UAT), regression testing, workflow validation, and quality assurance best practices.
Ability to work directly with subject matter experts to identify gaps, validate requirements, and ensure successful adoption of new solutions.
Secondary Skills - Nice to Haves
- aks
- databricks
- sdlc methodologies
- github
- sql server
- salesforce.com platform
Job Description
Looking for a traditional software engineer, AI engineer, or modernization consultant. Looking for a hybrid "Forward Deployed Engineer" who combines deep retirement/life insurance domain expertise with modern engineering and AI-driven transformation capabilities.
Forward Deployed Engineer - Retirement Technology & Legacy Modernization
Position Summary
Seeking a highly experienced Forward Deployed Engineer to support a multi-year retirement platform modernization initiative. This role sits at the intersection of technology, domain expertise, and business transformation, helping accelerate the migration of legacy retirement systems to a modern Azure-based ecosystem.
The ideal candidate will possess a rare combination of U.S. retirement or life insurance industry knowledge, legacy platform expertise, modern cloud engineering capabilities, and practical experience leveraging AI-enabled software development methodologies. This individual will work closely with product, engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to ensure modernization efforts preserve critical retirement business functionality while improving speed, quality, and scalability.
Core Responsibilities
Legacy Modernization Leadership
• Partner with engineering and business teams to modernize retirement and recordkeeping platforms.
• Analyze legacy applications, business rules, workflows, and retirement plan processes.
• Translate legacy functionality into modern architectures and digital experiences.
• Support large-scale platform migration efforts as John Hancock consolidates acquired retirement platforms into a unified ecosystem.
• Assist in designing modernization strategies that go beyond code conversion and focus on business process transformation.
AI-Accelerated Engineering
• Implement AI-driven and Agentic SDLC practices to improve modernization speed and quality.
• Identify opportunities to use AI accelerators throughout the software development lifecycle.
• Leverage automation for:
○ Requirements analysis
○ Test generation
○ Functional validation
○ Regression testing
○ Documentation
○ Quality assurance
• Evaluate emerging AI tools and frameworks that can accelerate modernization outcomes.
Functional Testing & Validation
• Serve as the bridge between technology teams and retirement business stakeholders.
• Design and execute end-to-end functional testing strategies.
• Validate business rules, retirement plan calculations, participant workflows, and operational processes.
• Create meaningful test scenarios and test data based on real-world retirement operations.
• Ensure business outcomes remain intact throughout modernization efforts.
Business & Engineering Translation
• Work directly with product owners, retirement stakeholders, architects, and engineers.
• Translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Help engineering teams understand retirement operations and regulatory considerations.
• Guide teams through modernization decisions while maintaining business continuity.
Required Domain Expertise
Retirement / Financial Services Knowledge
Candidates should have experience in one or more of the following:
• Defined Contribution Retirement Plans (401(k))
• Retirement Recordkeeping Platforms
• Participant Services
• Plan Sponsor Administration
• Contributions Processing
• Retirement Operations
• Wealth & Asset Management
• Life Insurance Administration
• Financial Services Product Development
The candidate must understand how retirement products function, not just how the technology operates.
Experience with:
• Mainframe environments
• Legacy enterprise applications
• Large-scale modernization programs
• Legacy business rule extraction and analysis
• System migration and platform consolidation
Experience with Visual FoxPro environments is highly desirable.
Modern Engineering Stack
Strong experience with:
• Microsoft Azure
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)
• Databricks
• GitHub & GitHub Actions
• CI/CD pipelines
• React.js
• API development
• SQL Server
• Azure Managed Instances
• Salesforce platforms
• Modern microservices architecture
• Cloud-native application development
AI & Automation Experience
Demonstrated experience with:
• Agentic AI development methodologies
• AI-enabled SDLC workflows
• Engineering productivity tools
• Automated testing solutions
• AI-assisted requirements analysis
• AI-driven quality assurance processes
• Human-in-the-loop validation frameworks
Candidates should understand when AI can automate processes and when business expertise must remain part of the decision-making process.
Key Success Factors
The successful candidate will be able to:
✅ Understand retirement business processes as deeply as technology teams.
✅ Translate complex legacy business logic into modern cloud-based solutions.
✅ Design functional test strategies using retirement domain expertise.
✅ Bridge communication gaps between engineers, architects, and business stakeholders.
✅ Drive modernization outcomes rather than simply converting code.
✅ Introduce AI-enabled efficiencies while ensuring business accuracy and regulatory compliance.
✅ Operate effectively in ambiguous transformation environments.
