Forward Deployed Engineering Lead

ORBITAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Orbital Industries Limited seeks an experienced Forward Deployed Engineering Lead to guide CurieOS deployments for enterprise customers in the UK. You will own end-to-end delivery, write production code, design architectures, and build reusable patterns while scaling the team across diverse scientific domains.

This role demands hands-on technical leadership, strong collaboration with customers, and a passion for crafting scalable AI-driven industrial systems in complex environments.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in enterprise software delivery or forward deployed engineering.
• Experience leading a forward deployed engineering function and setting delivery standards.
• Proven ability to write production code and build scalable architectures.

Responsibilities

• Deliver deployments hands-on across the breadth of industrial R&D.
• Own the technical quality of deployments from prototype through production.
• Design and build systems connecting software, data and physical infrastructure.
• Embed with customer teams to identify high-value problems and define technical approaches.
• Set KPIs for engagements and report outcomes to executive sponsors.

Skills

FDE leadership

Production code

Customer deployments

Architecture design

Team management

Job description

Orbital Industries is an AI Industrial company, with frontier AI embedded at every step in the production of critical physical products - from creating advanced materials to engineering and manufacturing.

Every Orbital Industries product is developed using CurieOS, our AI operating system, uniting AI-automated hardware engineering with AI-designed material science to achieve breakthrough real-world performance. We also offer CurieOS to our customers and partners, extending the same platform and workflows that power Orbital Industries to their own teams and products.

We have an ambitious mission and need excellent people in all our teams - AI research, operations, advanced materials, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and manufacturing.

Working at Orbital Industries means working in vertically integrated teams across the full stack, from molecules to manufacturing. We're looking for people who have a love of physical technology, curiosity in AI and a desire to learn.

Role Overview

Orbital's AI software platform, CurieOS, is used by scientists and engineers to design and build products serving critical industries. Powering this software are our world leading AI models in advanced materials, hardware engineering and simulation.

As Forward Deployed Engineering Lead at Orbital you will build and lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, owning its technical standards, delivery model and team. You are an engineering leader who builds alongside customers, not a delivery leader who manages engineers. You will deliver complex deployments hands‑on while hiring and developing the team that scales this capability across Orbital's growing customer base.

First and foremost, we want to work with someone with a love of craftsmanship, continual learning and building systems that scale.

Key Responsibilities

Deliver deployments hands‑on, across the breadth of industrial R&D

• Drive customer adoption so CurieOS becomes how their scientists and engineers work day‑to‑day

• Deliver complex customer deployments hands‑on, writing production code, designing architectures, building integrations and debugging issues across CurieOS and customer systems

• Own the technical quality of deployments from prototype through production, including reliability, maintainability and operational performance

• Design and build systems that connect heterogeneous software, data and physical infrastructure, from simulation campaigns and digital twins to lab instruments, test rigs and CAD/PLM systems

• Develop reusable integration patterns that allow CurieOS to operate reliably across complex customer environments

Own delivery end‑to‑end

• Embed with customer teams to understand ambiguous, high‑value R&D problems, challenge assumptions and identify where CurieOS can deliver meaningful impact

• Translate those problems into a technical approach, milestones and acceptance criteria, making pragmatic architecture and scope trade‑offs as you learn

• Own the engagement from initial technical discovery through implementation, production deployment and adoption

• Set KPIs per engagement (screening throughput, design‑cycle reduction, experiments avoided), measure pre/post and report outcomes to executive sponsors

Build and lead the team

• Build and lead the Forward Deployed Engineering function, owning its technical standards, engineering practices and delivery model

• Hire, develop and manage exceptional Forward Deployed Engineers across diverse scientific and engineering domains

• Set the technical bar through code and architecture review, and act as the escalation point for the most difficult technical decisions and production issues

• Staff engagements based on technical complexity and individual strengths, while developing engineers into increasingly independent technical leaders

• Codify successful approaches into reusable architectures, tooling and playbooks so the team becomes more effective as it scales

What We’re Looking For

• Significant experience in enterprise software technical delivery or forward deployed engineering roles, you have led complex deployments and written production code alongside customers

• Experience building a forward deployed engineering or solutions function, hiring the team, setting the standards and defining the delivery model

• The ability to move fluidly between strategy conversations with R&D leadership and debugging sessions with engineers

• A track record of succeeding in ambiguous, fast‑moving environments where requirements evolve through direct iteration with users

• Strong software engineering fundamentals, you still build, and your technical judgement is respected by the engineers you lead

• A genuine interest in building software that enables breakthrough scientific and industrial applications

Orbital is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.