Firm Overview:
H.I.G. Capital is a leading global private equity investment firm with $74 billion of assets under management with a focus on the mid cap segment of the market. The H.I.G. family of funds includes private equity, growth equity, real estate, direct lending, special situation credit, and growth-stage healthcare. We focus on providing capital to businesses with attractive growth potential and align ourselves with committed management teams and entrepreneurs to help grow businesses of significant value. Our team of over 500 investment professionals has substantial operating, consulting, technology, and financial management experience, enabling us to contribute meaningfully to our portfolio companies. H.I.G. is based in Miami, with offices in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco, and affiliate offices in Hamburg, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan, and Paris in Europe as well as Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, and São Paulo in Latin America, Dubai in the Middle East, and Hong Kong in Asia.
Role Overview:
The Forward-Deployed AI Specialist will be forward deployed to drive measurable business impact across H.I.G. Capital’s portfolio companies through AI-powered automation. This role sits within Portfolio Operations, reports to the Operating Partner, AI, and partners with H.I.G.’s Strategy & Transformation Operating Partners, who identify high-value automation opportunities and direct focus areas. The Forward-Deployed AI Specialist designs, builds, and deploys solutions using the latest AI platforms, including Anthropic’s Claude Code and Claude Cowork, OpenAI’s Codex, Google’s Gemini models, and other leading technologies as the landscape evolves.
This is not an advisory role. The successful candidate will operate as a builder first: scoping requirements, evaluating build-vs.-buy decisions, developing custom AI solutions, and integrating third-party platforms. We want someone genuinely enthusiastic about AI, who stays current with the evolving tooling landscape and is a natural tinkerer who experiments with new platforms and capabilities as they emerge.
Role Responsibilities:
AI Solution Development & Deployment:
- Design and build AI automation solutions using Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Gemini, and other leading platforms, including agentic workflows, document processing pipelines, and intelligent assistants.
- Develop custom Skills, plugins, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) integrations to extend AI capabilities within portfolio company environments.
- Implement prompt engineering frameworks and governance structures to ensure reliable, secure, production-grade AI outputs that comply with data security and access control requirements.
- Build and deploy solutions across common enterprise functions including finance, operations, sales, marketing, customer service, HR, and legal.
Third-Party Evaluation, Integration & Vendor Management:
- Evaluate and recommend third-party AI and automation platforms (e.g., n8n, Zapier, Make, vertical SaaS AI tools) when building in-house is not the optimal path.
- Manage vendor relationships, implementation timelines, and deliverables, holding partners accountable for performance targets.
- Architect integrations between AI tools and current systems to create seamless automated workflows.
ROI-Focused Project Delivery:
- Partner with portfolio company executives and H.I.G. Strategy & Transformation Operating Partners to scope and execute AI initiatives with clear ROI metrics (e.g., labor hours saved, error reduction, EBITDA impact).
- Deliver measurable results within compressed private equity timescales, typically targeting quick wins within 30 to 60 days alongside longer-horizon transformation projects.
- Provide clear, data-backed progress updates to H.I.G.’s operating and investment teams, emphasizing direct business impact.
Enablement & Knowledge Transfer:
- Train portfolio company end users on deployed AI solutions and automated workflows, ensuring teams can operate and iterate on implementations independently.
- Drive change management to ensure sustained adoption, working with leadership to address resistance, communicate value, and embed new tools into daily workflows.
- Create solution documentation, user guides, and runbooks for each implementation, enabling teams to manage tools without ongoing external support.
- Develop case studies, repeatable plays, and playbooks from completed engagements to enable cross-pollination of proven AI solutions across H.I.G.’s portfolio.
Requirements & Qualifications:
This is a hands-on, execution-oriented role. Candidates should expect to spend the majority of their time building and deploying AI solutions rather than producing strategy decks. The ideal candidate prefers to ship working solutions over writing about them.
Education & Background:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field; advanced degree preferred but not required if offset by demonstrated hands-on expertise.
- 3+ years of experience in software development, solutions engineering, automation engineering, AI/ML implementation, or technical consulting, with clear evidence of solutions shipped to production.
- Prior experience working across multiple companies or industries simultaneously is a plus; private equity or consulting experience is valued but not required.
Technical Expertise:
- Hands-on proficiency with AI development platforms such as Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Codex, Gemini, Cursor, Windsurf, or comparable agentic AI tools.
- Strong development skills in Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, or similar languages, with the ability to build production-grade automation solutions.
- Experience with API integrations, MCP servers, webhook architectures, and connecting AI tools to existing business systems.
- Familiarity with prompt engineering, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) architectures, and AI agent design patterns.
Execution & Delivery:
- Proven ability to translate business requirements into working technical solutions, moving from scoping through development to production deployment.
- Track record of delivering projects on compressed timelines with measurable business outcomes.
- Comfortable managing multiple concurrent engagements across different companies, industries, and stakeholder groups.
Mindset & Cultural Fit:
- Passionate about AI and emerging technology; actively tracks the latest tools, models, and frameworks through personal experimentation and continuous learning.
- Comfortable engaging with C-suite executives to scope projects and align on priorities, while equally comfortable writing code and debugging integrations.
- Bias toward action, with the ability to identify the highest-impact opportunities and move rapidly from concept to deployment.
- Collaborative and adaptable, able to build trust quickly with portfolio company leadership and work effectively alongside H.I.G.’s Operating Partners and investment professionals.
Travel & Location:
This is a flexible/remote position; however, candidates should be located within convenient proximity to a major airport given travel requirements. The role requires approximately 40% travel to portfolio company sites for on-site discovery sessions, solution