Forward Deployed Engineer

Certus AI; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Certus AI is seeking a forward deployed software professional to embed with design-partner teams in the United States or overlapping US hours. You will implement and stand up safety-evidence workflows, translate subsystem changes into working packets within a week, and own accounts alongside founders.

You will write and debug code in a modern web stack (TypeScript or Python), handle repo ingestion, and provide concrete product feedback to accelerate next accounts to a paid seat.

Qualifications

• This role requires shipped production software experience.
• Ability to handle ambiguous customer problems and choose a path without a perfect spec.
• Ability to explain technical tradeoffs to a safety or hardware engineer.
• willingness to travel to a design partner; US hours overlap with founders.
• US-based or able to overlap US hours.

Responsibilities

• Sit with design-partner safety or hardware team to learn their change cycle.
• Stand Certus up beside Jama and IBM DOORS on one subsystem.
• Get the change cycle to a working evidence packet in about a week.
• Debug ingestion, drafts, and checks in the product when the packet stalls.
• Send concrete product feedback to the founding team to ease future accounts.
• Help the account move from wedge to paid seat once workflow holds.

Skills

TypeScript

Python

Web stack

Shipping production software

Debugging

Tools

Jama

IBM DOORS

Polarion

Job description

Remote, United States (or overlap with US hours) · Full-time · Forward deployed

About Certus

Certus is the Living OS for physical AI. We build AI-native operations for robotics, autonomy, and industrial hardware: safety evidence first, then supply chain and finance on the same record. Models propose, code verifies, and engineers review and sign. Certus can live inside Jama and IBM DOORS, and it can live outside them. Teams do not have to switch. We stand that workflow up with design partners. Certus is in NVIDIA Inception.

About the role

This is a forward deployed seat. You embed with a design-partner team, stand Certus up on a real safety-evidence workflow, and turn one subsystem change cycle into a working packet in about a week. You write what you learn back to the founding team, and you help that account go from the first wedge to a paid seat. The job is customer-facing and hands-on: TypeScript and Python, repo and document ingestion, and debugging the workflow when a real packet does not line up. You own the account with the founders.

What you'll do

• Sit with a design-partner safety or hardware team and learn how they run a change cycle today.
• Stand Certus up beside Jama and IBM DOORS on one subsystem.
• Get that change cycle to a working evidence packet in about a week.
• Debug ingestion, drafts, and checks in the product when the packet stalls.
• Send concrete product feedback to the founding team so the next account is easier.
• Help the account move from the wedge to a paid seat once the workflow holds.

What we're looking for

• You have shipped production software.
• You are comfortable with ambiguous customer problems and can pick a path without a perfect spec.
• You can write and debug code in a modern web stack. TypeScript or Python is enough to start.
• You can explain technical tradeoffs to a safety or hardware engineer who is not a software specialist.
• You are willing to travel to a design partner sometimes.
• You are US-based, or you can overlap US hours. Founders are in Portland, New York, and Seattle.

Nice to have

• Work in robotics, autonomy, automotive, aerospace, or industrial hardware.
• You have used Jama, Polarion, or IBM DOORS, or you have used ISO 26262, DO-178C, or IEC 61508 as a practitioner.
• Early-stage startup experience, including owning a customer outcome end to end.

How we work

You are in the customer conversation and in the repo. When the packet is wrong, you fix the workflow or you write down exactly what the product should do next. Founder-level ownership of the account, on an early team.

• Intro with a founder: your background, and why this seat.
• A working session on a messy design-partner workflow: how you would stand Certus up, and what you would debug.
• How you write product feedback the founding team can ship.