EA- Forward Deployed Engineer - Bonterra

OpenTalent; United States; Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 145,000; Full time

Job summary

OpenTalent is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with campaigns, parties, nonprofits, ISVs, consulting firms, and other stakeholders to drive the adoption of agentic AI into their operations. You will serve as the bridge between NGP VAN’s platforms and real-world workflows, designing and deploying agentic skills that solve high-value problems and expanding the MCP-based integration ecosystem.

In this client-facing technical role, you will help campaigns and organizers adopt AI tooling,

Qualifications

• Client-facing technical role adapting AI tools to client workflows.
• Strong engineering instincts for building reliable AI skills.
• Interpersonal skills to earn trust with campaigns and organizers.

Responsibilities

• Embed on-site or remote with client organizations to map workflows and identify AI opportunities.
• Lead workflow discovery sessions with stakeholders to co-develop an AI-enabled roadmap.
• Design and build agentic skills atop NGP VAN and the AI ecosystem, ensuring integration with workflows.
• Manage the full skill delivery lifecycle from requirements to deployment and iteration.
• Act as a trusted technical advisor, communicating AI concepts accessibly and guiding change management.
• Contribute to features and enhancements across NGP VAN API and MCP-based integration layers.
• Document designs and patterns to accelerate future engagements.

Skills

client-facing

engineering

AI concepts

workflow optimization

communication

change management

Tools

Claude AI

NGP VAN API

NGP VAN Interface MCP

Job description

US Based Salary: $130,000 - $145,000 DOE

About the Role

Job Summary

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will embed directly with organizations across the Democratic and Progressive ecosystem — including political campaigns, state and national parties, nonprofits, consulting agencies, and independent software vendors — to catalyze the adoption of agentic AI into their operations. You will serve as the bridge between NGP VAN’s platforms and the real-world workflows of these organizations, identifying where AI can create the greatest benefit, designing and building agentic skills that solve those problems, and deploying them. You will also contribute to the growth of NGP VAN Interface MCP solution and the underlying NGP VAN API, ensuring the platform can support an ever-expanding list of agentic use cases. This is a client-facing technical role that demands a combination of strong engineering instincts, genuine political and civic ecosystem fluency, and the interpersonal skills to earn trust with campaigns and organizers who may be encountering AI for the first time.

Essential Functions

• Embed on-site or remotely with client organizations (campaigns, parties, nonprofits, ISVs, consulting firms) to understand their existing workflows and identify high-value opportunities for agentic AI automation.
• Lead workflow discovery sessions with client stakeholders to map processes, surface pain points, and co-develop a prioritized roadmap of agentifiable workflows.
• Design and build agentic skills atop NGP VAN and the NGP VAN Interface, translating client workflow requirements into reliable, maintainable skill implementations that integrate with the broader Claude/AI agent ecosystem.
• Manage the full skill delivery lifecycle from requirements gathering through design, build, testing, deployment, and iteration — functioning as a one-person product and engineering team for each client engagement.
• Serve as a trusted technical advisor to client staff and leadership, communicating AI concepts accessibly, setting realistic expectations, and shepherding stakeholders through change management as they adopt new agentic tooling.
• Contribute features and enhancements to the NGP VAN Interface, NGP VAN’s MCP-based integration layer — to expand the set of NGP VAN capabilities available to agentic skill builders across the ecosystem.
• Expand the NGP VAN API identifying gaps in API coverage exposed through client deployments and contributing to API expansion efforts that unlock new categories of agentic use cases.
• Document skill designs, deployment patterns, and reusable components to build a shared library that accelerates future engagements and enables the broader NGP VAN engineering team to support clients at scale.