Forward Deployed Engineer

Prax Industries; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Prax Industries seeks a Forward Deployed Engineer to be on site with customers in the heavy industries, identifying problems, designing solutions, and implementing them across the full tech stack. You will effectively serve as the deployment CTO, coordinating across teams and customer sites in Austin, TX.

Qualifications include a bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in engineering or related fields, strong programming in Python/C/C++, Go, TypeScript, or Java, and a passion for product

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science, or similar.
• Fluent in Python, C/C++, Go, TypeScript, or Java.

Responsibilities

• Understand customer problems rooted in manufacturing operations, physics and chemistry.
• Analyze data, build models, write frontend and backend code, build infrastructure and automation.
• Build prototypes, iterate quickly, and consolidate successful solutions into maintainable software.
• Collaborate with on-site designers, engineers, and commercial colleagues.

Skills

Python

C/C++

Go

TypeScript

Java

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience

Job description

COMPANY

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 the heavy industries and AI, we solve problems involving manufacturing operations, physics and chemistry, software engineering and AI. We work to bring AI into the physical world to unlock real value for our customers.

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

We operate across two primary hubs in London, United Kingdom and Austin, Texas. For this role, you will be based out of our Austin office (we can accommodate relocation for the right candidate).

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.

ROLE

As a Forward Deployed Engineer you will be on site with our customers in the heavy 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.

CANDIDATE

You will have:

• Strong engineering. At least a bachelor degree or equivalent professional experience in engineering, physics, mathematics, computer science, 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 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.

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 heavy 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.

YOU WILL ALSO

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