🚀 Forward-Deployed AI Engineer
Data, AI & Software career path
Ship AI solutions inside customer environments: containers and Kubernetes, agent and LLM applications, and enterprise platforms such as Salesforce.
Typical roles
- Forward-Deployed Engineer
- AI Solutions Engineer
- Customer AI Engineer
Suggested certifications, by phase
Foundation
- AIF-C01 AWS Certified AI Practitioner
- NCA-GENL NVIDIA-Certified Associate: Generative AI LLMs
- KCNA Cloud Native Computing Foundation Kubernetes and Cloud Native Associate
- SF Admin Salesforce Certified Platform Administrator
Core
- CKAD Cloud Native Computing Foundation Certified Kubernetes Application Developer
- CKA Cloud Native Computing Foundation Certified Kubernetes Administrator
- AI-103 Microsoft Certified: Azure AI Apps and Agents Developer Associate
- SF Agentforce Salesforce Certified Agentforce Specialist
- SF PD1 Salesforce Certified Platform Developer
Advanced
- CKS Cloud Native Computing Foundation Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist
- DBX GenAI Databricks Certified Generative AI Engineer Associate
- SF Data Cloud Salesforce Certified Data 360 Consultant
- AIP-C01 AWS Certified Generative AI Developer - Professional
Mastery
- NCP-GENL NVIDIA-Certified Professional: Generative AI LLMs
- AB-100 Microsoft Certified: Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect Expert
A suggestion, not a set of prerequisites — one or two certifications per phase is plenty.