Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Forward Deployed AI Engineer

The Opportunity

The Forward Deployed AI Engineer designs, builds and deploys agentic AI workflows across Garvan, and collaborates directly with researchers and professional-services staff to identify high-value opportunities and integrate these solutions into everyday practice. The role spans the full delivery cycle – from discovering and scoping a use case with end users, to building and deploying it on Garvan's enterprise platforms, to supporting adoption – translating Garvan's AI strategy into governed, production-grade solutions that demonstrably improve real-world practice.

This is a 2-year fixed-term full-time position with salary dependent on experience.

What You Will Do

• Design, build, and deploy agentic AI workflows on Garvan's enterprise platforms, owning technical implementation from pilot to production, evaluation and maintenance.
• Collaborate directly with researchers and professional-services staff to understand real needs and constraints.
• Contribute to identification, scoping and prioritisation of high-value AI use cases.
• Contribute to process mapping of targeted functions – surfacing steps, decision points, inputs/outputs and exceptions – to establish the design basis for automation that improves practice rather than encoding existing inefficiencies.
• Stand up and maintain integrations (including Model Context Protocol servers) that connect agents to Garvan systems, in partnership with IT.
• Integrate AI into existing bioinformatics, analysis and operational workflows.
• Support adoption: onboard users, provide user support, develop and deliver training materials and workshops, share use cases in seminars and user group meetings.
• Build workflows within Garvan's AI governance and data-classification standards – on enterprise platforms, with appropriate human oversight — partnering with DSP and IT.
• Contribute to regular reporting (use cases delivered, evaluation metrics, adoption metrics, staff feedback) and to ongoing horizon-scanning of AI capabilities and tools.
• Proactively identify, assess, and report operational, financial, and safety risks associated with the duties of this role.
• Adhere to the organisation's Risk Management Framework, ensure all activities are conducted in accordance with established policies and procedures, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement by suggesting mitigation strategies for identified hazards or inefficiencies.
• Comply with Garvan's workplace policies (as amended from time to time) and especially Garvan's Work Health & Safety (WHS) Policy, including working in accordance with the WHS management system at all times, as safety is Garvan's number one priority.

About You

Essential Skills and Experience

• Degree in computer science, software engineering, data science, computational biology or a related field.
• Strong software engineering and scripting skills (notably Python), with familiarity with APIs, version control, and cloud environments.
• Demonstrated experience designing, building and deploying LLM-based and agentic workflows — including prompt engineering, tool/function calling, retrieval-augmented approaches, agent frameworks, and integration patterns such as Model Context Protocol.
• Ability to work directly with non-technical users to translate needs into deployed solutions; excellent communication, facilitation and stakeholder-engagement skills.
• Experience delivering training and enablement providing hands-on user support.
• Sound understanding of AI governance, data privacy and security (including risks, such as prompt injection and data-exfiltration), and human-in-the-loop design.
• Ability to concurrently manage multiple projects of diverse scope with changing requirements; strong attention to detail.

Desirable Skills and Experience

• Experience in a biomedical or research environment
• Familiarity with bioinformatics/analysis pipelines
• Process mapping and workflow automation
• Enterprise AI platforms (Gemini Enterprise, Claude)
• HPC and cloud computing

Benefits

• Generous salary packaging to save you income tax on your wages thereby boosting your monthly take home pay (max. $15,900 general expenses + $2,650 meals/accom)
• Ample opportunities for ongoing training and development
• Stimulating, diverse and highly international research environment
• Flexible work arrangements e.g. start / finish times
• A range of additional leave types to meet your personal needs including cultural leave, conference leave, community service and study leave
• Discounted Health Insurance
• Lifestyle discounts with our community partners

About Garvan

Garvan Institute of Medical Research is an independent Medical Research Institute (MRI) in Sydney, delivering scientific and clinical impact on a global basis and in partnership with organisations that share our vision. We are one of Australia's largest and most highly regarded MRIs.

Our vision is global leadership in discoveries to impact and our enduring purpose is to impact human health, by harnessing information encoded in our genome. We seek to see our world-class discovery research achieve life-changing impacts, not only for individual patients with rare diseases, but for the many thousands affected by complex, common disease.

Garvan promotes a diverse workplace and is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging. We are always looking for culture 'add', not culture 'fit' and are building diverse teams with great sets of complementary styles and skills to help deliver our important work effectively.

The Data Science Platform (DSP) brings together experts in Research Computing, Software Engineering and Computational Biology to support data-intensive biomedical research. As part of Garvan's AI strategy, DSP is establishing a dedicated AI team to act as the institute's operational engine for AI implementation – building agentic workflows, supporting adoption, and translating strategic intent into deployed solutions across research and professional services.

How to Apply

Submit your application with a CV and cover letter as one document, stating why you are interested in this role. We are reviewing applications as they are received.

Only applicants with full working rights in Australia are eligible to apply for this role.