Our client is an early-stage AI company based in Washington, DC, building advanced software systems that help organizations identify and analyze emerging risks across complex digital environments. They are hiring a full-time Forward Deployed Engineer to help deploy, support, and scale their platform across a variety of customer environments. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, systems deployment, customer engagement, and technical problem solving. The technology stack includes modern cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, AI-driven applications, and on-premise deployments.
This is an opportunity to join a small, high-caliber team where your impact will be visible immediately. The ideal candidate is a builder who enjoys solving ambiguous problems, working directly with customers, and taking ownership of technical challenges in the real world. You'll gain exposure to infrastructure, software engineering, deployment strategy, customer operations, and emerging AI technologies. If you're looking for a role that offers rapid growth, significant responsibility, and the chance to work on meaningful technical problems, this is an exceptional opportunity.
Required Skills & Experience
- Must hold Secret clearance or above
- Must be willing to come onsite 5 days a week
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
- 1-3 years of software engineering, systems engineering, technical operations, or infrastructure experience - ideally in a forward-deployed capacity
- Experience in defense, intelligence, or public safety
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
- Ability to work independently in unfamiliar environment
- Excellent communication skills and customer-facing professionalism
- Willingness to travel as needed (largely in the DC area)
- Interest in AI, distributed systems, or emerging technologies
Desired Skills & Experience
- Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud Platform, Azure)
- Familiarity with Linux systems and networking fundamentals
- Exposure to containerization technologies such as Docker or Kubernetes
- Experience supporting customer deployments or technical implementations
- Personal projects, hackathons, startup experience, or open-source contributions
What You Will Be Doing
- Deploying and supporting software systems in customer environments
- Troubleshooting technical issues across infrastructure, networking, and application layers
- Working directly with customers to ensure successful implementations
- Partnering closely with engineering teams to improve product reliability and deployment processes
- Providing feedback from the field to influence product development
The Offer
- Equity eligible
- Medical, dental, vision insurance
- 401(k)
- PTO
An early-stage AI company in Herndon, VA is hiring a Founding Forward Deployed Software Engineer for a full-time position. This is a hybrid opportunity requiring three days per week onsite. You'll work across backend engineering, cloud infrastructure, and customer deployments using Go, Python, Kubernetes, AWS, and PostgreSQL.
This role sits directly between the engineering team and the customers using the platform. Rather than simply handing requirements to another team, you'll work with customers to understand their technical environments and production challenges, then design and build the functionality needed to solve them. You'll remain a core product engineer while getting direct exposure to how sophisticated organizations are actually deploying AI in production. It's a great fit for an engineer who enjoys ambiguous problems, customer interaction, and owning solutions from the initial conversation through production.
Required Skills & Experience
- 7+ years of software engineering experience
- Strong backend development experience with Go and/or Python
- Production experience with Kubernetes and AWS
- Experience building and deploying distributed systems
- Experience owning software from development through production
- Strong communication and customer-facing skills
- Ability to gather technical requirements and turn them into scalable software
- Comfortable troubleshooting complex production environments
Desired Skills & Experience
- Previous forward deployed or customer-facing engineering experience
- Experience working in startup or fast-paced engineering environments
- Experience with PostgreSQL
- Background in infrastructure, platform engineering, or developer tooling
- Experience with observability and production reliability
- Exposure to AI/ML infrastructure or MLOps
What You Will Be Doing
Tech Breakdown
- 35% Backend Software Engineering
- 25% Kubernetes / Cloud Infrastructure
- 20% Customer Integrations & Deployments
- 10% Production Reliability
- 10% Data / PostgreSQL
Daily Responsibilities
- 60% Hands On
- 30% Customer & Team Collaboration
- 10% Technical Leadership
The Offer
- Competitive base salary
- Bonus eligible
- Meaningful equity
Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the US on a full-time basis now and in the future.
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