Forward Deployed Engineer: Customer-Focused Builder

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

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.