Closure — Forward Deployed Engineer

davidjoseph-co; New York (NY); On-site; USD 115,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding equity

On-site work NYC/SF

Travel 25–75%

Job summary

Closure is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to own pilots, ingest evidentiary data, configure the product per agency, and write scripts as needed while detectives and prosecutors work cases. Time on engagements ranges 2–6 weeks, with a mix of on-site work and collaboration across teams.

Typical workload includes 60% customer-facing activity, 30% building/configuring, and 10% internal work. This is not a pure sales role; you’ll work inside customer codebases to deliver real outcomes for law

Qualifications

• Strong engineer with Python and/or TypeScript, APIs, data pipelines.
• Customer-facing comfort working with law enforcement agencies.
• Owner mindset with bias to action and ambiguity tolerance.
• FBI background check + CJIS clearance required.

Responsibilities

• Scope pilots with new customer agencies and translate goals into deployment plans.
• Ingest evidentiary data per customer (Cellebrite/GrayKey, CDRs, ALPRs, body cam, jail calls, PDFs, social media).
• Configure the product per agency and write scripts or integrations when necessary.
• Sit with detectives, prosecutors, and analysts to translate workflow gaps into product improvements.
• Own customer relationships from pilot through first renewal and expansion.
• Feed learnings directly into the product roadmap.

Skills

Python

TypeScript

APIs

Data pipelines

Customer-facing

Ownership mindset

Job description

Closure — Forward Deployed Engineer

Type: Full-time | On-site (in-hub) | New York City, NY · San Francisco, CA Compensation: $115,000–$175,000 + founding-hire equity (competitive) Hiring count: 1 Visa sponsorship: None available Reports to: Not specified on role page (works alongside Tina — existing FDE, Judith — technical CS, and engineering; interviews with Aaron and Gilad)

About Closure

Closure helps law enforcement search evidence and solve crime — police and prosecutors across the US use it to accelerate investigations into homicides, cold cases, and other major offenses by cutting through digital evidence overload. The founding team includes ex-Palantir and ex-IDF engineers who have built national-scale systems before.

Roughly 10 active customer deployments today, with a path to 25–40 over the next 9 months. Primary customer geography is California and Alaska, expanding through other Western states and the Southeast (Florida heating up).

Founded: 2025 | Team size: 1–10 | Total funding: Not disclosed (Seed) Industry: Public safety / law enforcement AI · legal & gov-tech Website: closure-intel.com Office: NYC (primary) · SF Bay Area (secondary)

Why Candidates Should Join

• Founding-hire ownership: Meaningful founding-hire level equity, 4-year vest, 1-year cliff.
• End-to-end scope: Own the customer relationship from pilot through first renewal and expansion — not a hand-off role.
• Serious mission and pedigree: Real public-safety impact (homicides, cold cases) built by ex-Palantir / ex-IDF engineers who have shipped national-scale systems.
• Real traction: ~10 live deployments today, scaling to 25–40 within 9 months.

Intake Call Summary

• Not present on the role page.

The Role

Own customer outcomes end-to-end as a Forward Deployed Engineer: scope pilots, ingest messy evidentiary data, configure the product per agency, write scripts and integrations when the product doesn't quite fit, and sit with detectives and prosecutors while they work cases — feeding learnings straight into the roadmap.

Typical engagement is a 2–6 week pilot annual contract in-agency expansion. Time split is roughly 60% customer-facing (calls, onsite, async), 30% building/scripting/configuring, 10% internal (product feedback, playbooks, hiring loops). This is not a sales-engineering seat — you live inside customer codebases, dig through real evidence data, and write the scripts that make the product work per agency.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Scope pilots with new customer agencies and translate operational goals into technical deployment plans
• Ingest messy evidentiary data per customer (Cellebrite/GrayKey extractions, CDRs, ALPRs, body cam, jail call audio, PDFs, social media)
• Configure the product per agency and write scripts or integrations when it doesn't quite fit
• Sit with detectives, prosecutors, and analysts while they work, translating workflow gaps into product improvements
• Own customer relationships from pilot through first renewal and expansion
• Feed learnings directly into the product roadmap
• Pair with Tina (existing FDE), Judith (technical CS), and engineering

Tech stack: Python and/or TypeScript · APIs · data pipelines

Requirements

• Strong engineer: Python and/or TypeScript, APIs, data pipelines
• Customer-facing comfort (sheriff bullpen, DA office)
• Owner mindset, bias to action, ambiguity tolerance
• Mission-aligned with public safety
• FBI background check + CJIS clearance required

Green Flags

• Prior FDE, solutions engineering, or implementation engineering at a company selling into non-tech-native customers. Palantir FDE is the canonical archetype.
• Exposure to law enforcement, prosecution, intelligence, defense, or e-discovery/forensics through past work, military background, or family connection.
• Engineering depth: shipped Python or TypeScript code that processed real data pipelines in production, can ship small tools without an engineering handoff.
• Demonstrated customer-facing track record. Comfortable on agency floors, with detectives or prosecutors, not just on Zoom calls.
• Mission-aligned public safety stance. Treats law enforcement customers as the users they are, not as an ethically loaded case study.

Red Flags

• Frames public safety customers as ethically suspect or as an "interesting case study." Hard exclude per direct guidance.
• Career consultant who has never owned a shipped product outcome
• Sales engineer who treats deployment as a demo and will not dig into the data.
• Pure backend engineer who has never sat across from a customer.
• Job hoppers under 18 months tenure without a clear narrative.

Details

• Location: New York City, NY · San Francisco, CA
• Work policy: In-hub (NYC or SF Bay Area); exceptional out-of-hub candidates considered with higher travel; 25–75% travel
• Compensation: $115,000–$175,000 + founding-hire equity
• Visa sponsorship: None available
• Employment type: Full-time

Screening Questions

• None specified on the role page.

Interview Process

Stage 1 — Pending Approval — Candidates awaiting initial approval. Stage 2 — Intro with Aaron — Intro conversation. Stage 3 — 60‑min Technical and Scenario with Gilad — Technical + scenario interview. Stage 4 — Take‑Home or Live Exercise — Practical exercise. Stage 5 — 60‑min Customer Simulation — Simulated customer interaction. Stage 6 — Onsite in NYC or SF — In-person round. Stage 7 — Reference Calls — 2–5 references, including at least 2 people they've deployed alongside. Stage 8 — Offer Extended Stage 9 — Candidate Hired — Candidate accepts and starts.

Ideal Companies & Backgrounds

Not present as a dedicated section on the role page. Reference companies named in Closure's outreach: Palantir, Anduril, Magnet Forensics (or comparable FDE / solutions / implementation orgs selling into non-tech-native customers).