Forward Deployed Engineer

Drive Capital; Lorton (VA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

VAST Data is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with strategic customer environments on the East Coast. You will own the technical success of deployments from design through production, collaborating with customer architects and engineers to translate real-world needs into product improvements.

The role emphasizes hands-on development, scripting, and rapid problem solving, with emphasis on distributed systems, storage, Linux internals, and AI infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of distributed systems and storage performance.
• Strong networking skills including high-throughput fabrics.
• Advanced Linux systems knowledge and kernel concepts.
• Hands-on development with Python and C/C++ for enterprise applications.
• Experience operating large-scale AI training environments or HPC clusters is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customer teams to optimize infrastructure and resolve issues.
• Co-engineer solutions by translating customer needs into product improvements.
• Drive product development by providing real-world operational insights to the core team.
• Write code, scripts, or automation to unblock critical customer workflows.
• Advocate for customers to ensure long-term technical needs are reflected in the roadmap.

Skills

Distributed Systems

Networking

Linux Internals

Python & C/C++

AI Infrastructure

High-Performance Compute

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Forward Deployed Engineer

• Engineering
• East Coast, United States
• Full-time

Description

VAST Data is the data platform company for the AI era. We are building the enterprise software infrastructure to capture, catalog, refine, enrich, and protect massive datasets and make them available for real-time data analysis and AI training and inference. Designed from the ground up to make AI simple to deploy and manage, VAST takes the cost and complexity out of deploying enterprise and AI infrastructure across data center, edge, and cloud.

About the Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you are a core member of our engineering team embedded directly within our most strategic, large-scale customer environments. You will work side-by-side with customer architects, operators, and developers to deeply understand their unique scale challenges, solve complex infrastructure issues together, and translate real-world requirements into core product improvements. As the face of VAST Engineering on the ground, you own the technical success of strategic customer deployments from design through production operation.

What a Day in the Life Looks Like

• Collaborate Globally: Start your day syncing with other members of the engineering team to track hotfixes, review roadmap updates, and pull down and test new builds.
• Co-Engineer Solutions: Collaborate side-by-side with the customer's technical team to optimize infrastructure throughput, debug complex issues, and develop solutions for their largest workloads.
• Drive Product Development: Weave real-world operational insights directly into the VAST development loop. Take the complex challenges you solve with customer engineers and distill them into precise, executable technical requirements for our core development teams to deliver.
• Write Code: Develop custom API endpoints, create automation tools, or write scripts to unblock critical customer workflows. Address code review feedback from internal engineering teams on more complex changes.
• Advocate: Act as a fierce internal advocate for your customer, ensuring their long-term technical needs are prioritized in the VAST product roadmap.

Requirements

Technical Expertise

• Distributed Systems & Storage: Deep, foundational knowledge of distributed systems, high-performance file systems, storage protocols, and performance tuning.
• Advanced Networking: Strong understanding of high-throughput fabrics, including InfiniBand, RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet), and 100GbE+ networking.
• Linux Internals: Advanced knowledge of Linux systems architecture, memory management, and kernel mechanics.
• Hands-on Development: Proficiency in Python and C/C++, with the ability to read, debug, and safely contribute to a complex, enterprise-grade codebase.
• System Operations (Plus): Experience operating large-scale AI training environments or high-performance compute (HPC) clusters is highly desirable.
• Modern AI Infrastructure (Plus): Experience working with containerized environments (Docker, Kubernetes) and modern AI/ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) is highly desired.

Professional Experience & Skills

• Experience: 5+ years in a highly technical, engineering role such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Resident Engineer, Systems Software Engineer, or Senior Systems Engineer with a track record of customer-facing collaboration.
• Composure under Pressure: A steady, analytical mindset when navigating complex technical challenges or high-stakes issues, with a focus on driving swift, logical resolutions.
• Diplomacy & Translation: Exceptional communication skills—the ability to explain complex distributed systems limitations to a customer executive, and equally comfortable explaining a business deadline to a core developer.
• Organizational Mastery: Highly organized and self-directed, with a proven ability to manage customer expectations and know when to set strategic boundaries to protect the product roadmap.
• Continuous Learning Mindset: Possess an insatiable curiosity and a desire to master new technologies. You are someone who proactively dives into unfamiliar technical concepts and comes up to speed rapidly in a fast-evolving ecosystem.

Travel

• Ability to travel or work on-site at customer locations as required (up to 25% travel).

Why Join VAST?

You will be working at the absolute cutting edge of the AI revolution. This isn't a role where you sit on the sidelines—you will have a direct, measurable impact on the infrastructure powering the future of technology, working alongside a world-class team that is redefining the data stack.