Customer-Facing Forward Deployed AI Infra Engineer

VAST Data, Inc.; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

VAST Data is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to be embedded with our most strategic customer environments, owning technical success from design through production operations.

You will work side by side with customer architects and operators to optimize infrastructure, translate real-world requirements into product improvements, and drive deployments from kickoff to production operation. This role requires deep systems expertise, strong communication, and willingness to travel up to 25%.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of distributed systems, high-performance storage, and performance tuning.
• Strong networking skills (InfiniBand, RoCE, 100GbE+).
• Advanced Linux systems knowledge and kernel concepts.
• Proficiency in Python and C/C++ with enterprise-grade code experience.
• Experience operating large-scale AI training environments or HPC is highly desirable.
• Experience with containerized environments and AI/ML frameworks is highly desired.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate globally with engineering teams to track hotfixes and roadmap updates.
• Co-engineer solutions with customer teams to optimize throughput and resolve issues.
• Translate real-world customer requirements into executable technical requirements for development teams.
• Develop custom API endpoints, automation tools, or scripts to unblock workflows.
• Advocate for customers to align product roadmap with long-term technical needs.

Skills

Distributed systems

Networking

Linux internals

Python/C/C++

Containerization (Docker, Kubernetes)

AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

VAST Data is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to be embedded with our most strategic customer environments, owning technical success from design through production operations.

You will work side by side with customer architects and operators to optimize infrastructure, translate real-world requirements into product improvements, and drive deployments from kickoff to production operation. This role requires deep systems expertise, strong communication, and willingness to travel up to 25%.