Forward Deployed Engineer (m/f/x)

Virtual Identity; München; Remote; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Virtual Identity seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer who embeds with client teams to diagnose bottlenecks and deliver working software quickly. You will prototype, deploy, and iterate in the client's environment, translating real-world needs into robust solutions with a focus on agentic engineering and production-ready results.

You will collaborate with UX, consulting, and cloud-native teams, while navigating complex client infrastructures and security constraints to drive successful digital

Qualifications

• Solid full-stack or cloud-native engineering experience.
• Ability to translate client problems into technical solutions on the fly.
• Experience with APIs, data integration and automation.
• Familiarity with agentic engineering concepts and workflows.
• Bias toward action and delivering working software quickly.
• Strong communication to explain trade-offs to clients.
• Willingness to travel to client sites.

Responsibilities

• Embed with client teams to observe workflows and identify bottlenecks.
• Rapidly prototype and deploy solutions directly in the client environment.
• Translate messy requirements into working code without waiting for a detailed brief.
• Own the full loop: build, deploy, get feedback, iterate.
• Apply agentic engineering: design workflows and automations using agents where it helps.
• Collaborate with VI's UX/consulting/cloud-native teams to transition prototypes into production systems.
• Navigate client infrastructure and security constraints pragmatically.
• Articulate technical trade-offs in client meetings.
• Travel to client sites as needed.

Skills

Full-stack engineering

Cloud-native

APIs & data

Agentic engineering

Client-facing

Communication skills

Travel readiness

Education

CS/Engineering degree

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

About Virtual Identity

Virtual Identity (VI) is a digital agency built on Human-Centered Business Growth: combining empathy for people with insight from data to drive real digital success. With around 140 colleagues across Freiburg, Munich, Vienna, and Porto (and remote), we cover the full spectrum from Consulting and UX Research to UX/UI Design, Software Development, and Digital Marketing — always learning in close collaboration with our clients.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer at VI, you sit at the intersection of client, product, and engineering. You're not building in isolation from a backlog handed down by someone else — you go into deep, sustained virtual immersion with the client, understand their real operational problems, and ship working software that solves them, fast. You prototype, integrate, and iterate directly with the people who will use what you build, then help harden it into something production-ready with our delivery teams.

You also bring a well-founded understanding of agentic engineering — not just using AI coding assistants, but genuinely understanding how agents plan, use tools, and fail, and applying that thinking to how you build, integrate, and automate in the field.

This role suits someone who's equally comfortable in a client workshop, a codebase, and a data pipeline — and who gets energy from ambiguity rather than needing it resolved before starting.

What you will do:

• Embed with client teams to observe workflows, diagnose bottlenecks, and identify where custom software can create outsized impact.

• Rapidly prototype and deploy solutions — internal tools, integrations, automations, data pipelines — directly in the client's environment.

• Translate messy, real-world requirements into working code without waiting for a fully specified brief.

• Own the full loop: build, deploy, get feedback from actual users within days, iterate.

• Use agentic engineering practices — not just AI-assisted coding, but designing workflows, automations, and integrations that leverage agents as a core part of the solution, where it genuinely helps the client.

• Work closely with VI's UX, consulting, and cloud-native engineering teams to transition prototypes into scalable, supportable production systems.

• Navigate client infrastructure, security constraints, and existing systems (cloud platforms, APIs, legacy tools) pragmatically.

• Act as a trusted technical voice in client conversations — you can whiteboard an architecture and defend it in the same meeting.

• Travel to client sites as needed (frequency depends on engagement).
  

What we expect:

• Strong full-stack or cloud-native engineering experience, with a track record of shipping real software, not just prototypes that die in a demo.

• Comfort working directly with non-technical stakeholders and translating their problems into technical solutions on the fly.

• Solid grounding in at least one modern backend stack and one frontend stack, plus working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP).

• Experience with APIs, data integration, and automation — you can connect systems that were never designed to talk to each other.

• Real, well-founded knowledge of agentic engineering — you understand the underlying concepts (agent planning, tool use, context management, orchestration, evaluation), not just the tool names, and you've applied that thinking to real work, not side projects.

• A bias toward action: you'd rather build a rough version and test it with real users than perfect a spec.

• Strong communication skills — you can explain a technical trade-off to a client stakeholder without jargon.

• Comfort with ambiguity and shifting priorities; forward deployed work is inherently unstructured.

• Willingness to travel to client sites.

• Experience in an agency, consultancy, or client-facing technical role (nice to have).

• Familiarity with UX research or design collaboration workflows (nice to have).

• Exposure to enterprise integration patterns or legacy system modernization (nice to have).

• Hands‑on experience building or deploying agentic systems for a client, not just personal productivity use (nice to have).

• A relevant degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field — but we care more about what you've built (nice to have).

Contact

Elsa Lima

[e-mail]

What you can expect from us

Exciting projects with well-known brands, a team of motivated colleagues who genuinely enjoy working together, and continuous learning through our VI Academy. Whether you're based in one of our offices or working fully remote, we give you the room to grow — professionally and personally.

Sound like your kind of place? We'd love to hear from you.