Forward Deployed Engineer

Xcede; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Xcede in New York City is seeking a seasoned Founding Forward Deployed Engineer to act as technical lead on high-stakes deployments, owning both technical and business value outcomes end-to-end. You will set the bar for customer engagement and deployments of our technology, helping establish the foundation for deployment.

You will ramp quickly toward management responsibilities and help grow a team that can operate under pressure to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience.
• 0→1 experience building reusable capabilities under ambiguity.
• Led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production.

Responsibilities

• Act as the technical lead for customer engagements, owning problems end-to-end from definition to resolution.
• Operate with agency, delivering outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and high technical quality.
• Guide deployment strategy and help define the operating model for swift, safe execution.
• Define and build deployment primitives that increase both customer impact and engagement velocity.
• Operate as a player-coach, setting a high bar for execution while helping grow the team through direct, actionable feedback.
• Codify successful patterns into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for the firm.
• Identify early signals and elevate them with urgency—whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices.

Skills

Technical leadership

Deployment engineering

Client engagement

Cross-functional collaboration

Problem solving

Job description

A top NYC-based tech company is looking for a seasoned Founding Forward Deployed Engineer. You will operate as a technical lead on high-stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own both technical and business value outcomes end-to-end. You will set the bar for customer engagement and deployments of our technology, helping establish the foundation for deployment.

You will ramp quickly toward management responsibilities and help grow a team that can operate under pressure to deliver meaningful outcomes for customers. You will also help shape how AI can be leveraged to drive real-world impact, as well as how the team organizes to deliver that impact. You will partner closely with the firm's core functions to ensure field work informs roadmap priorities, drives new exploration, and supports safe deployment at scale.

In this role, you will:

• Act as the technical lead for customer engagements, owning problems end-to-end from definition to resolution
• Operate with strong agency, delivering outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and high technical quality
• Guide deployment strategy and help define the operating model for swift, safe execution
• Define and build deployment primitives that increase both customer impact and engagement velocity
• Operate as a player-coach, setting a high bar for execution while helping grow the team through direct, actionable feedback
• Codify successful patterns into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for the firm
• Identify early signals and elevate them with urgency—whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices

You may thrive in this role if you:

• Bring 4+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience
• Have 0→1 experience building reusable capabilities under ambiguity, and can make disciplined standardization-versus-customization decisions instead of defaulting to bespoke work
• Have led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production