Forward Deployed Engineer

Foresight Data Machines Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A technology firm in the metals industry is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer. This role involves on-site customer engagement to identify problems and design solutions across the tech stack. Candidates should possess a Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related fields, with strong programming skills in languages like Python or C/C++. The position requires excellent communication and a willingness to travel frequently. You'll work closely with diverse teams in a dynamic environment, contributing to meaningful projects.

Qualifications

• Exceptional ability demonstrated through past roles or projects.
• Excellent communication skills in speech and writing.
• Conscientiousness and excitement about working collaboratively.

Responsibilities

• Identify customer problems and design solutions.
• Analyse data, write code, and build automation.
• Collaborate closely with clients and team members.
• Collaborate with designers, engineers, and commercial colleagues on site and in the office.

Skills

Engineering

Programming

Communication

Data Analysis

Go

Typescript

Java

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or Computer Science

Tools

Python

C/C++

Go

Typescript

Java

Job description

We build AI technology for the metals industries. Our products work reliably in high-volume production environments 24/7, making billions of dollars worth of decisions.

Because we work at the intersection of metals industries and AI, we solve problems involving manufacturing operations, physics and chemistry, software engineering, AI, and product design.

Our teams spend a lot of time on site, with the customer, understanding their problems first hand and iterating quickly to solve them.

We try to work with minimal process and permission, but ample support and collaboration. We rarely have a scheduled meeting, but we all work in the office, discussions occur continuously throughout the day, and no request for help goes unanswered for more than a few minutes. Features get shipped to production every day. Many are designed, developed, and shipped on the customer’s site, without a central planning process.

Candidates

For all roles, we are looking for people with the following attributes:

Exceptional ability. Whether in work, school, side projects, or elsewhere, you will have demonstrated exceptional ability. We are open minded about the exact form this takes. Some examples we look for:

• You have played a key role in an early stage startup
• You have won hackathons, math, or physics competitions
• You have an impressive side project, like a popular blog or open source library.

Excellent communication. In speech and writing.

Conscientiousness. You want to do good work, regardless of oversight.

You are excited to have freedom to work without too much process and friction, but at the same time, excited to share ideas and work closely with others.

You’re excited to work in the metals industries, and everything that goes with it. That means excited to travel, spend time in massive factories, meeting and working with a wide range of people.

You are comfortable working in uncertain and dynamic environments.

Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer you will be on site with our customers in the metals industries, identifying their problems, designing solutions, and implementing those solutions while working across the whole tech stack. You’re essentially the CTO of a deployment.

This Includes:

• Understanding customer problems which are rooted in manufacturing operations, physics, and chemistry.
• Analysing data and making models, writing frontend and backend code, building infrastructure and automation.
• Building prototypes, rapidly iterating, and then consolidating successful solutions into maintainable and robust software.
• Collaborating with team members on site, and back in the office. This includes designers, engineers, and commercial colleagues.

You will have:

• Strong engineering. At least a bachelor degree or equivalent professional experience in engineering, physics, mathematics, compsci, or similar.
• Strong programming. We are mostly language agnostic but would expect you to be fluent in Python, C/C++, Go, Typescript, or Java.
• Interest and have a taste for product design.
• We are open to a wide range of backgrounds, but some examples we expect to see are:

• It’s likely you have professional experience as a software engineer, data scientist, AI engineer, or similar.

You will also:

• Prefer mostly work in the office, colloqued with your team, rather than from home.
• Be excited to travel at least 25-75% of the time.

Apply

Email [e-mail] . Please include - in your CV or in the body of the email - a list of 3-5 things you have done that you are proud of and that are relevant to the attributes we are looking for. Where possible, please include links to your work, such as GitHub, YouTube, or portfolios.

We will do two or more telephone screenings. At least one will be with the CEO.

You will work on something real with the team.