Forward-Deployed Engineering
Engineers who work inside the customer's environment, against the customer's actual systems and constraints, and ship production-grade AI pipelines, working software, not slideware, on day one of engagement.
What buyers receive
A dedicated engineering team (the "Embed/Delta" function described in the brochure) working directly inside the customer's environment, with access to the customer's actual systems, data and constraints rather than a generic reference environment; production-grade code and infrastructure, built to the customer's operating standards from the first sprint, not a prototype intended for a second team to rebuild; and direct, continuous collaboration with the customer's own engineering and business stakeholders throughout delivery.
Decision gates
Entry: a defined problem and, typically, an architecture decision record from an AI Strategy and Architecture engagement or an equivalent existing roadmap. Mid-engagement: milestone reviews against the delivery plan, with working software demonstrated at each milestone rather than status reported in a deck. Exit: production deployment of the agreed scope, with the acceptance criteria defined at engagement start met and verified.
Roles
Forward-deployed Scignal engineers embedded in the customer's environment for the duration of the engagement; CoralDC infrastructure engineers engaged wherever delivery touches Layer 01/02 provisioning or configuration; a single accountable engagement lead spanning both functions.
Governance
Delivery follows the MLOps/LLMOps and security requirements defined at the relevant layer pages in this section from the first sprint, not retrofitted before launch; code, infrastructure and configuration are version-controlled and auditable throughout, consistent with the customer's own engineering standards wherever those standards meet or exceed CoralDC/Scignal's baseline.
Acceptance criteria
Defined per engagement against specific, testable outcomes (a working pipeline processing production data, a serving endpoint meeting a defined latency target, an evaluation framework passing a defined accuracy threshold), agreed before delivery begins.
Operating handover
At the customer's choice, the delivered system transitions to the customer's own operating team, to a Managed AI Operations engagement, or to a hybrid model; the handover plan and runbook are prepared as a deliverable of the engagement itself, not an afterthought at the end.
Frequently asked questions
Do your engineers work on-site or remotely?
"Forward-deployed" means engineers work directly inside the customer's environment and against the customer's actual systems and data; the specific on-site versus remote arrangement is confirmed per engagement.
What happens if the scope needs to change mid-engagement?
Milestone reviews are built into the delivery plan specifically to surface and address scope changes early, rather than discovering a mismatch only at the final delivery date.
Who owns the code and infrastructure that's built?
This is a commercial term confirmed per engagement; the operating principle is that the customer receives working, production-grade systems, not a black box.
Start with a scoped conversation.
Tell us where you are today and we will bring the right combination of CoralDC infrastructure and Scignal engineering to the table.