Forward Deployed Engineer

NextBigWhat; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

NextBigWhat in San Francisco is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our team and work directly with customers. You will write production code, build integrations, and deploy solutions in real-world environments, often moving from ambiguous problems to a production deployment in days or weeks.

This role requires strong software fundamentals, comfort talking with customers, and the ability to turn loosely defined requirements into working software with end-to-end ownership.

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and ability to write high‑quality production code.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, Java, or C++.
• Experience building full‑stack applications, backend systems, APIs, infrastructure, data systems, or technically complex products.
• Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar codebases, APIs, systems, and technical environments.
• Strong debugging and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working directly with customers.
• Ability to translate loosely defined business or technical problems into working software.
• High degree of ownership and ability to operate independently.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑moving environment where priorities can change quickly.
• Willingness to work in person in San Francisco and travel to customer sites when required.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with customers to understand their technical environment, workflows, and most important problems.
• Design and build production-quality solutions that solve real customer needs.
• Deploy and integrate the product into complex customer environments.
• Build APIs, integrations, data pipelines, internal tools, and product features as needed.
• Prototype quickly to validate solutions before turning them into robust implementations.
• Debug challenging technical issues across application, infrastructure, data, and integration layers.
• Translate ambiguous customer requirements into concrete technical solutions.
• Collaborate closely with product and core engineering teams to determine what should become part of the broader platform.
• Identify recurring customer problems and turn one-off solutions into scalable product capabilities.
• Own projects end-to-end, from initial customer conversations through implementation and deployment.
• Communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Spend time on‑site with customers when necessary to accelerate deployments and deeply understand their workflows.

Skills

Python

TypeScript/JavaScript

Go

Java

C++

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

About the Role

Our client is lookingfor a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work at the intersection of engineering, product, and customers.

You'll take complex customer problems, understand what actually needs to be built, and turn those requirements into working software—often moving from an ambiguous problem to a production deployment in a matter of days or weeks.

This isn't a traditional implementation or solutions engineering role. You'll write production code, build integrations and new product capabilities, and work directly with customers to make the technology successful in real-world environments.

You'll also act as a critical feedback loop between customers and the core engineering team, helping shape the product based on what you learn in the field.

This role is ideal for an engineer who is highly technical, resourceful, comfortable talking to customers, and energized by solving problems without a predefined playbook.

What You’ll Do

• Work directly with customers to understand their technical environment, workflows, and most important problems.
• Design and build production-quality solutions that solve real customer needs.
• Deploy and integrate the product into complex customer environments.
• Build APIs, integrations, data pipelines, internal tools, and product features as needed.
• Prototype quickly to validate solutions before turning them into robust implementations.
• Debug challenging technical issues across application, infrastructure, data, and integration layers.
• Translate ambiguous customer requirements into concrete technical solutions.
• Collaborate closely with product and core engineering teams to determine what should become part of the broader platform.
• Identify recurring customer problems and turn one-off solutions into scalable product capabilities.
• Own projects end-to-end, from initial customer conversations through implementation and deployment.
• Communicate technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Spend time on‑site with customers when necessary to accelerate deployments and deeply understand their workflows.

What We’re Looking For

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and ability to write high‑quality production code.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language such as Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Go, Java, or C++.
• Experience building full‑stack applications, backend systems, APIs, infrastructure, data systems, or technically complex products.
• Ability to quickly understand unfamiliar codebases, APIs, systems, and technical environments.
• Strong debugging and problem‑solving skills.
• Excellent communication skills and comfort working directly with customers.
• Ability to translate loosely defined business or technical problems into working software.
• High degree of ownership and ability to operate independently.
• Comfortable working in a fast‑moving environment where priorities can change quickly.
• Willingness to work in person in San Francisco and travel to customer sites when required.

You’re Probably a Great Fit If

You:

• Are an engineer who genuinely enjoys talking to users.
• Like figuring out what someone actually needs—not simply implementing exactly what they initially request.
• Can move comfortably between a customer meeting, architecture discussion, and coding session.
• Enjoy problems where the solution isn't obvious.
• Prefer shipping something useful quickly and iterating from real‑world feedback.
• Are comfortable owning a problem without being given detailed specifications.
• Can learn new technologies extremely quickly.
• Have strong technical judgment but aren't precious about which technologies you use.
• Get excited about seeing your work immediately used in real customer environments.
• Would rather build the solution than create a presentation explaining why someone else should build it.

Bonus Points

Experience with any of the following is a plus:

• Early‑stage startups or highly technical founding teams.
• AI/ML or AI‑native products.
• LLM applications, agents, RAG, model APIs, or AI infrastructure.
• Data engineering, ETL pipelines, or complex data integrations.
• Cloud infrastructure such as AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Docker, Kubernetes, or modern deployment infrastructure.
• Enterprise integrations and APIs.
• Developer tools or infrastructure products.
• Working directly with enterprise or highly technical customers.
• Previous experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Founding Engineer, Solutions Engineer, Product Engineer, or Solutions Architect.
• Technical side projects, open‑source contributions, hackathons, or other evidence of exceptional builder ability.

What Success Looks Like

In your first few months, you'll become deeply familiar with both the product and the environments in which customers use it.

You'll independently own customer deployments, identify technical blockers, and build solutions that move customers from experimentation to meaningful production usage.

Over time, you'll become one of the strongest links between customers and engineering—recognizing patterns across deployments, influencing the product roadmap, and turning solutions originally built for individual customers into capabilities that can scale across the entire customer base.

Why Join

You'll work on some of the company's most important technical problems while having direct visibility into the impact of what you build.

Instead of being several layers removed from users, you'll work directly with them, understand their problems firsthand, and have the autonomy to solve them.

You'll have the opportunity to operate across engineering, product, and customer deployment, making this an unusually high‑ownership role for engineers who want to build quickly and have an immediate impact.