Forward Deployed Engineer

About the Role

Our client is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work at the intersection of engineering, product, and customers.

You'll take complex customer problems, understand what actually needs to be built, and turn those requirements into working software—often moving from an ambiguous problem to a production deployment in a matter of days or weeks.

This isn't a traditional implementation or solutions engineering role. You'll write production code, build integrations and new product capabilities, and work directly with customers to make the technology successful in real-world environments.

You'll also act as a critical feedback loop between customers and the core engineering team, helping shape the product based on what you learn in the field.

This role is ideal for an engineer who is highly technical, resourceful, comfortable talking to customers, and energized by solving problems without a predefined playbook.

• Work directly with customers to understand their technical environment, workflows, and most important problems.
• Design and build production-quality solutions that solve real customer needs.
• Deploy and integrate the product into complex customer environments.
• Build APIs, integrations, data pipelines, internal tools, and product features as needed.
• Prototype quickly to validate solutions before turning them into robust implementations.
• Debug challenging technical issues across application, infrastructure, data, and integration layers.
• Translate ambiguous customer requirements into concrete technical solutions.
• Collaborate closely with product and core engineering teams to determine what should become part of the broader platform.
• Identify recurring customer problems and turn one-off solutions into scalable product capabilities.
• Own projects end-to-end, from initial customer conversations through implementation and deployment.
• Communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Spend time on‑site with customers when necessary to accelerate deployments and deeply understand their workflows.

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and ability to write high‑quality production code.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Python, Type Script/JavaScript, Go, Java, or C++.
• Experience building full‑stack applications, backend systems, APIs, infrastructure, data systems, or technically complex products.
• Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar codebases, APIs, systems, and technical environments.
• Strong debugging and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working directly with customers.
• Ability to translate loosely defined business or technical problems into working software.
• High degree of ownership and ability to operate independently.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑moving environment where priorities can change quickly.
• Willingness to work in person in San Francisco and travel to customer sites when required.

You:

• Are an engineer who genuinely enjoys talking to users.
• Like figuring out what someone actually needs—not simply implementing exactly what they initially request.
• Can move comfortably between a customer meeting, architecture discussion, and coding session.
• Enjoy problems where the solution isn't obvious.
• Prefer shipping something useful quickly and iterating from real‑world feedback.
• Are comfortable owning a problem without being given detailed specifications.
• Can learn new technologies extremely quickly.
• Have strong technical judgment but aren't precious about which technologies you use.
• Get excited about seeing your work immediately used in real customer environments.
• Would rather build the solution than create a…