[sebmak]

At my org we call them "Opportunity Engineers". We do this to position them mentally that their job is to create new opportunities with every client. This means that they have to use whatever technology they want to solve the clients requests as simple as possible. They are still umbrella'd under the Engineering department and attend the same standups and meetings as all the other engineers. They work closely with our engineering leads to make sure their solutions won't cause a disconnect in our grander technology stack. Often times the solutions they prototype for a client end up becoming a longer term solution that we try and market to others. So when that happens they are brought back into the Engineering team and lead the effort in building that solution into a full product.

We also make sure it is as seamless as possible if someone wants to transfer internally. Our Engineering department is relatively flat, in that Team Leads are more of Project Leads and will shift from engineer to lead from project to project. And engineers are encouraged to join whatever projects they find fascinating