FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER

Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)
Work Location: Fully Remote – United States
Employment Type: Full-Time
Experience: 10+ Years
Work Model: Remote with occasional travel for client workshops, Proofs of Value (PoVs), and executive meetings
Role Overview
We are seeking a highly experienced Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) with 10+ years of professional experience across software engineering, solution architecture, technical consulting, and enterprise technology delivery.
The FDE operates at the intersection of executive problem framing, rapid engineering, AI/agentic solution development, and scalable architecture.
You will work directly with CXOs and senior business and technology leaders to identify high-value business opportunities, rapidly build working Proofs of Value, and translate successful solutions into MVPs and scalable enterprise deployments.
This is a hands-on engineering role, not a purely advisory or consulting position.
Key Responsibilities
Executive-Facing Discovery & Value Shaping
Lead CXO-level discovery and working sessions with senior client stakeholders.
Translate business challenges into an outcome thesis, KPI framework, baseline, uplift hypothesis, and operating constraints.
Identify high-value, measurable opportunities suitable for rapid Proofs of Value.
Determine what should be automated versus assisted and where human-in-the-loop controls are required.
Communicate technical, business, cost, risk, and scalability tradeoffs to executive stakeholders.
Rapid Proof-of-Value Engineering
Design and build rapid PoVs demonstrating business value and technical feasibility.
Develop agentic workflows incorporating tools, APIs, enterprise applications, and lightweight user experiences.
Build evaluation frameworks covering:
Task success
Accuracy
Policy compliance
Tool-call success
Latency
Cost
Establish measurable baseline-versus-PoV improvements.
Agentic Architecture & Path-to-Scale
Develop scalable agentic architectures covering:
Agent roles
Orchestration patterns
Tools and APIs
Data and knowledge strategies
Guardrails
Observability
Human-in-the-loop escalation
Define:
MVP backlog
Architecture decisions
Identity and access management
Audit logging
Fallback mechanisms
Policy boundaries
Deployment models
Provide delivery teams with a production-ready implementation plan and ensure successful transition from PoV to MVP and scaled deployment.
Required Qualifications
10+ years of professional experience in full-stack engineering, solution architecture, technical consulting, or related technical disciplines.
Significant client-facing enterprise delivery experience.
Proven ability to build rapidly under ambiguity while maintaining strong architectural and engineering standards.
Strong hands-on experience with modern AI technologies, including:
LLMs
Agent architectures
Agent orchestration
Tool calling
Planning/execution loops
Memory patterns
Strong RAG experience, including:
Embeddings
Chunking
Vector databases
Knowledge retrieval
Retrieval evaluation
Experience with:
Offline and online evaluations
Regression testing
AI safety testing
Basic red-teaming
Strong software engineering fundamentals in:
APIs
Data pipelines
Enterprise integrations
Distributed systems
Strong proficiency in Python and at least one of:
TypeScript
Java
Go
Strong cloud-native experience with AWS, Azure, and/or GCP.
Experience with containers, CI/CD, and observability.
Exceptional communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into measurable business outcomes for CXO-level stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
Proven delivery of GenAI/agentic solutions in production, not just prototypes.
Experience integrating with enterprise platforms such as:
ServiceNow
Salesforce
SAP
Microsoft Graph / Microsoft 365
Databricks
Snowflake
Experience with GenAI security and governance, including:
Data boundaries
Access control
Auditability
Model risk
Compliance
Familiarity with LLMOps / AgentOps, including:
Versioning
Telemetry
Drift monitoring
Cost governance
FinOps
Domain expertise in one or more of:
Travel / Transportation / Hospitality
Retail / CPG
Banking / Financial Services / Insurance
Manufacturing
Media
Relevant cloud, AI, security, or data certifications are a plus.
Core Competencies
Executive Presence
Credible with CXOs and senior stakeholders; able to lead executive discussions and drive decisions.
Structured Problem Solving
Quickly identifies the highest-value business opportunity and defines measurable success criteria.
Builder Mindset
Hands-on engineer who can rapidly turn an idea into a functioning solution.
Technical Judgment & Responsible AI
Understands where autonomous agents can safely operate and where guardrails and human oversight are required.
Repeatability
Creates reusable architectures, playbooks, accelerators, and implementation patterns from successful solutions.
Working Model
Fully remote within the United States.
Collaborate with distributed global engineering, product, sales, and delivery teams.
Periodic travel may be required for:
Client workshops
Proofs of Value
Executive meetings
Customer engagements
Work within highly collaborative cross-functional teams.
Strong emphasis on hands-on engineering and rapid solution delivery.
This is not a purely advisory or strategy consulting role.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate should have 10+ years of overall technology experience and be capable of independently taking a customer problem through the complete lifecycle:
Executive Discovery → Business Problem → High-Value Use Case → PoV → Agentic Solution → Evaluation → MVP Architecture → Production Deployment
Candidates whose experience is limited to traditional software development, AI research, prompt engineering, project management, business analysis, or strategy consulting without substantial hands-on GenAI/agentic engineering experience will not be considered a strong fit.

Work arrangement
Yes