Forward Deployed Engineer

United States Digital Space LLC; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

United States Digital Space LLC in Menlo Park is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to join their Applied AI team. This role involves working with strategic customers to design and develop production AI systems, requiring 25% onsite customer engagement.

The ideal candidate will have strong engineering skills, particularly in LLM applications, and the ability to lead multi-engineer commitments while remaining hands-on in architecture. A passion for building actual AI systems instead of prototypes is essential.

Qualifications

• Experience building and shipping customer-facing AI systems end to end.
• Ability to work in ambiguous situations and develop production AI systems.
• Experience mentoring other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and improve production AI systems.
• Work directly with strategic customers to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Travel for at least 25% of the time to engage with customers onsite.

Skills

Experience with LLM applications

Ability to lead AI engagements

Hands-on architecture and implementation

Strong engineering skills

Job description

the company | Forward Deployed Engineer | Menlo Park, CA | ONSITE

I’m part of the company’s Applied AI / Forward Deployed Engineering team, and we’re hiring for two roles: Forward Deployed Engineer and Senior Forward Deployed Engineer.

We work directly with strategic customers to design, build, deploy, and improve production AI systems on the company. That includes LLM applications, RAG and agentic workflows, evaluation frameworks, guardrails, observability, and production iteration using Snowpark, Cortex, and the company’s native AI capabilities.

For the FDE role, we’re looking for strong engineers who can build and ship customer‑facing AI systems end to end, especially if you’ve worked on LLM apps and care deeply about evals and quality. For the Senior role, we’re looking for someone who can lead multi‑engineer AI engagements, mentor other engineers, and still be hands‑on in architecture and implementation.

Both roles are customer‑facing and involve travel, including at least 25% onsite time with strategic customers.

If you like working in ambiguity, building real AI systems instead of demos, and partnering closely with customers to get things into production, these roles are a good fit.