Forward Deployed Engineer
Build AI Products. Own Them for Years. Shape the Future of Engineering in Barcelona.
Full-Time | Permanent
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Open to candidates across the United States & Canada
Relocation to Barcelona, Spain is required
Visa sponsorship and relocation support available
Target Start Date: January 2027 (or as soon as work authorization is completed)
About Leyton
Founded in 1997, Leyton is a global innovation funding and consulting firm helping organizations innovate, grow, and improve financial performance.
Today, Leyton has 3,000+ professionals across 25+ offices in 17 countries, supporting businesses through innovation, technology, and strategic consulting.
Our expertise includes:
- Research & Development (R&D) Tax Credits
- Energy Efficiency Incentives
- State & Local Tax (SALT)
- Grants & Government Incentives
- Cost Segregation
- Corporate Finance Advisory
- VAT Services
- Property Tax
- Customs Duty Recovery
- Orphan Drug Tax Credits
Across North America and globally, Leyton helps thousands of organizations improve processes, unlock innovation, and create measurable business impact.
At Leyton, innovation goes beyond consulting. We are building the future of enterprise software through Mainloop, our AI-native engineering organization based in Barcelona.
About Mainloop
Mainloop is a new engineering team being built from the ground up in Barcelona, backed by an established international organization with decades of experience, global customers, and a proven technology foundation.
Our mission is simple:
Find complex business processes, understand how they truly work, and build AI-powered software that transforms the way companies operate.
We are building tools that automate professional-services work across approximately 15 countries, eliminating repetitive administrative processes, reducing manual effort, and creating scalable digital products.
This is not a traditional software engineering role.
We are looking for engineers who combine technical ability with consulting instincts - people who want to understand the business problem first, then build the right solution.
The Opportunity
As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will work directly with business teams across different countries to identify opportunities, design solutions, build prototypes, and deliver AI-powered products.
You will take projects from:
Business problem → Process understanding → Functional design → AI-powered prototype → MVP → Handover
You will work closely with stakeholders, engineers, product owners, and our global technology teams.
What You Will Do
Understand Business Problems
- Travel to different countries and work directly with teams to understand their workflows.
- Learn how processes actually operate, beyond documented procedures.
- Identify inefficiencies, manual work, and opportunities for automation.
- Quantify potential business impact before building solutions.
Design Solutions
- Translate business needs into clear functional requirements.
- Define workflows, users, rules, data movement, and system behavior.
- Create functional architecture documentation that guides development.
- Evaluate existing products and technology before building from scratch.
Build AI-Powered Products
- Use modern AI development tools and coding agents to rapidly prototype and build solutions.
- Create working applications within weeks, not months.
- Build across frontend and backend environments.
- Iterate quickly based on stakeholder feedback.
- Deliver MVPs ready for adoption.
Own Delivery & Handover
- Present prototypes and solutions directly to business users.
- Validate adoption and measure impact.
- Create documentation and handover materials.
- Transition successful products to engineering and product teams.
- Move on to the next business challenge.
What Makes This Role Different
You will not maintain the same product forever.
Your role is to discover, build, validate, and deliver.
Once a solution reaches maturity, ownership moves to our engineering and product teams. You move forward to the next challenge.
You will continuously work on:
- New industries
- New business processes
- New countries
- New AI-powered solutions
AI-Native Engineering Environment
Mainloop is built around AI from day one.
You will work with:
- AI coding agents
- Modern AI development workflows
- Automated engineering tools
- Internal technology platforms
- Shared architecture patterns
The expectation is not that you write every line of code manually.
The expectation is that you can:
- Define the right solution
- Guide AI tools effectively
- Review output critically
- Make strong technical decisions
- Deliver valuable products quickly
What We Are Looking For
We are hiring engineers who are curious, adaptable, and comfortable working between business and technology.
You may be a great fit if you have:
- Experience building web applications across frontend and backend.
- Strong understanding of software development fundamentals.
- Ability to understand business processes and translate them into software solutions.
- Experience using AI coding assistants or interest in becoming highly proficient with AI development tools.
- Ability to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to work independently and manage projects from idea to MVP.
Most importantly:
You enjoy understanding why something works the way it does, not just building what you are told to build.
Qualifications
- Professional experience building software applications.
- Comfortable working across the full technology stack.
- Experience with modern web technologies.
- Strong problem-solving skills.
- Fluent English communication skills.
- Spanish is a plus but not required.
- Willingness to relocate to Barcelona, Spain.
- Comfortable with international travel.
We care more about what you have built and how you think than your academic background.
Relocation & Benefits
For candidates relocating from North America, Leyton provides support including:
- Visa sponsorship assistance
- Relocation support
- Initial accommodation support
- Travel assistance
- Local administrative support
- Spanish language support
Additional benefits include:
- Permanent full-time employment contract in Spain
- Healthcare coverage from day one
- 30 calendar days of annual vacation plus public holidays
- International travel opportunities
- Opportunity to build AI-native products from the beginning
- Career growth within a global organization
Why Barcelona?
Barcelona is one of Europe's leading technology hubs, combining:
- A strong startup ecosystem
- International engineering communities
- Excellent quality of life
- Access to European markets
- A global and multicultural environment
This role offers the opportunity to build a career at the intersection of:
AI + Software Engineering + Business Transformation + Global Impact
Hiring Process
Our process is designed to understand how you think and build:
- Introductory conversation with the team
- Technical and experience discussion focused on projects you have built
- Conversation with our global technology team
- Practical project demonstrating your ability to understand, design, and build
Apply with examples of what you have built and tell us about a time you had to understand a complex business problem before creating a solution.
Mainloop | Barcelona, Spain
Build AI products. Transform businesses. Shape the future of engineering.
