Forward Deployed Engineer

We’re building the UK’s next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.

We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision‑making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments.

Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest‑growing engineering businesses.

This role sits at the intersection of customers, engineering and product, helping turn complex operational problems into deployed technical capability. It involves spending significant time working alongside customers at their sites and in their operational environments, developing a first‑hand understanding of their challenges, workflows and constraints.

You’ll take ownership of the technical success of customer deployments, from initial discovery and solution design through integration, deployment, testing and operational use. Working hands‑on with Dovetail products and technologies, you’ll configure, integrate and adapt solutions to meet real‑world customer needs, while building a deep understanding of how customers use those products to identify opportunities to improve capability, usability and deployment.

The role requires operating effectively in ambiguous and fast‑moving environments, where requirements may not be fully defined and solutions need to be developed iteratively with users. Throughout all of this, you act as a direct feedback loop between customers and Dovetail’s Product and Engineering teams, ensuring lessons from the field inform future product development.

This is a forward‑deployed role that requires significant time working at customer sites, with frequent travel across the UK and internationally.

More information about security clearance is available here:

• Embed with customers and end users to understand their missions, workflows, technical environments and operational challenges.
• Observe how users work in practice and identify problems or opportunities that may not emerge through traditional requirements gathering.
• Translate loosely defined customer problems into clear technical requirements, hypotheses and achievable outcomes.
• Build strong relationships with users and become a trusted technical partner who understands both their operational needs and Dovetail’s technology.

• Design pragmatic technical solutions using Dovetail products alongside customer systems and third‑party technologies.
• Rapidly develop prototypes and proof‑of‑concepts to test ideas with customers and validate technical approaches.
• Develop integrations, scripts, tooling, configuration and supporting software required to make deployments successful.
• Work across software, APIs, data, infrastructure and networks to solve end‑to‑end technical problems.
• Adapt solutions to customer environments, including those with challenging infrastructure, security, connectivity or operational constraints.
• Make appropriate engineering trade‑offs between speed, robustness, security, maintainability and customer needs.

• Take hands‑on ownership of deploying Dovetail products into customer environments.
• Spend significant periods working directly from customer sites, particularly during discovery, trials, integration and deployment.
• Configure, integrate, deploy, test…