Forward Deployed Engineer
EF Language Abroad | Location: Zurich | Full-time
About the Role
EF Language Abroad sends students to learn languages at campuses around the world, supported by sales teams in more than 50 markets. Our product organization builds what those students and teams rely on: online booking, the student journey from enquiry to arrival, and the companion app students use while abroad.
This is a new kind of role for us. We are hiring a tech lead who builds every day, uses AI to do in days what used to take a team weeks, and shapes what we build with product and design instead of receiving it as a spec. You will lead through what you ship and the standard you set, not through headcount.
You will help define how engineering at EF works in an AI-native way.
What You Will Do:
- Build: Spend most of your time hands-on. Architect and optimize complex agentic workloads, focusing on reasoning loops, tool selection, and reducing latency while maintaining production-grade security and networking.
- Redefine Our Workflow: Transform our ability to ship meaningful projects so we can test quickly, get results, and iterate seamlessly.
- Bring AI into the Product: Spot where LLMs can improve the experience for students and staff, build the first version yourself, and implement evaluation to assess effectiveness.
- Work as One Team with Product and Design: Join discovery from day one. Bring a prototype where others would bring an estimate, challenge whether something is worth building, and share ownership of the outcome, not only the delivery.
- Lead Without Managing: Set technical direction for your area, review and unblock other engineers, and spread the workflows that enhance speed for the whole team.
- Hold the Quality Bar: Know when AI-generated output is adequate and when it is not. Own testing, security, and privacy for systems handling student data across many jurisdictions.
What You Bring:
- You have 5 or more years of software engineering or technical delivery experience, with at least one production system you can walk us through. Ideally, this is in an AI technology stack, full-stack development, or working with frontier Large Language Models (LLMs).
- Concrete evidence of using AI creatively in your work: things you built faster, differently, or that would not have existed otherwise.
- Product judgment. You care about why something matters to a user and a business, and you have changed a product decision by bringing evidence.
- A record of leading as an individual contributor: setting direction, raising the standard of people around you, and being the person others go to on hard problems.
- Breadth across the stack, with depth in building with LLMs. You are comfortable picking up what the problem needs.
- Clear, direct communication with non-engineers, including teams in different markets and time zones.
- Experience shipping LLM features to users, including evaluation, retrieval over company data, and managing cost and latency.
- Background in consumer booking, e-commerce, or mobile products at scale.
- Experience in a company where product needs differ by market.
Why EF Zurich?
We are a global, mission-driven company with the goal of opening the world through education and cultural exchange. As an international team serving a diverse audience, we provide opportunities to work across regions. Other benefits include:
- Discounts on EF programs for Staff and Staff Friends and Family for all EF Programs
- Free use of EF Hello: a premium Language Learning App
- Tuition Reimbursement for continued Education
- Referral Bonus for all referred staff hires (equivalent to $500)
- Discounts with our global hotel and travel partners
- Full use of our on-site gym
- 15% off our on-site Kita
- Swiss Travel Halb-tax reimbursement
- And much more!
How to Apply:
Apply online using the form below. Only applications matching the job profile will be considered.
About EF Education First
At EF, we believe that the world is better when people strive to understand one another. Since 1965, we have helped millions of people explore new places, experience different cultures, and learn about the world and themselves through our culturally immersive education programs focused on language, travel, cultural exchange, and academics.
When you join EF, you become part of a multicultural community working across more than 600 schools and offices in 50 countries, all committed to the shared mission of opening the world through education. Regardless of your background or passions, we welcome you to bring your unique perspective to work every day. EF is proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion and belonging across various dimensions of identity.
Founded in Sweden in 1965, EF has schools and offices around the globe, with hubs in Boston, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, Shanghai, Stockholm, Zürich, and more. Learn more at ef.com.