Mentor

About the Role

FDE Academy is looking for senior industry practitioners to mentor learners preparing for high-stakes technical interviews

and real-world AI/ML roles. As an Industry Mentor, you will lead small-group coaching pods, run project-based system

design discussions, and help students close the gap between academic learning and industry-grade engineering practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead mentor-led Pod Training sessions small-group coaching focused on interview-specific questions and closing

individual student gaps.

• Facilitate Project Discussion webinars, walking students through real projects you've solved end-to-end, including

system design trade-offs and architectural decisions.

• Assess student readiness and provide structured, actionable feedback on technical depth, problem-solving approach,

and communication.

• Contribute questions, case studies, and (where possible) video-based solutions to the topic-wise placement question

bank.

• Calibrate with fellow mentors to ensure consistent evaluation standards and a shared ‘bar’ across pods.
• Flag high-potential students and specific skill gaps back to the FDE Academy team to inform curriculum updates.

Required Qualifications

• 18+ years of overall industry experience in software engineering, applied AI/ML, or technology leadership roles.
• Demonstrated track record of building and scaling production-grade AI/ML solutions (not just prototypes or

research).

• Strong grounding in system design — distributed systems, scalability, reliability, and architecture trade-offs.
• Prior experience mentoring, coaching, or interviewing engineers/data scientists at scale.
• Excellent verbal communication skills — able to explain complex technical concepts simply and give direct,

constructive feedback.

• Available on weekends for Pod Training and 9–11 AM on weekdays for Project Discussion sessions.

Preferred Skills & Experience

• Hands-on experience with LLM/GenAI systems, RAG pipelines, vector databases, or agentic architectures.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS / GCP / Azure) and MLOps / production ML infrastructure.
• Prior experience as an interview panelist, bar raiser, or technical assessor at a product company.
• Background in a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Architect, ML/AI Lead, or Engineering Manager role.
• Prior teaching, training, or content-creation experience (courses, workshops, technical blogs/talks).

What You'll Get

• A high-leverage way to give back — directly shaping the careers of the next generation of AI/ML engineers.
• Access to a curated peer group of senior industry mentors and career coaches.
• Visibility and recognition as a subject-matter expert within the FDE Academy community.