Forward Deployed Engineer (up to $260k)

Dex; United States; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex is representing a founding Forward Deployed Engineer role working with a partner company to enable PoCs and drive production-ready adoption. The role combines deep hands-on engineering with strategic product feedback, across Kubernetes, cloud environments, and observability.

You will position the product in front of sophisticated customer engineers and help shape adoption in critical environments. Ideal candidates are fluent in Go or Rust and one of TypeScript, Java, or Python, with strong

Qualifications

• Proficiency in Go or Rust and at least one of TypeScript, Java, or Python.
• Strong Kubernetes skills and hands-on experience with cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure).
• Experience designing/operating distributed backend systems in production.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical path from PoV/PoC to production readiness and deployment.
• Collaborate with customer engineers and OSS evaluators on integrations and reference implementations.
• Drive transition from PoC to production-ready deployments including Kubernetes, cloud setup, observability, security, and networking.
• Support discovery workshops, POV planning, and on-call rotations for critical issues.
• Provide product feedback through docs, examples, SDKs, and core product improvements.

Skills

Go or Rust

TypeScript/Java/Python

Kubernetes

Observability

Distributed systems

Customer facing

Tools

Kubernetes tooling

Observability tooling

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure)

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

Dex is an AI recruiter agent that helps you run your job search. Tell Dex your stack, seniority, and what you want to build. We will manage your applications and surface other opportunities that are a fit.

The role

This company is building a lightweight runtime that turns AI agents, workflows, and backend services into durable processes. Their core mission is to free engineering teams from failure mechanics, letting them focus on business logic. The runtime is already in production at Fortune 500 enterprises, Tier 1 banks running critical financial workflows, and frontier AI startups. The team is small, founded by experienced leaders from foundational open-source projects and large-scale infrastructure, and backed by leading investors.

This is the founding Forward Deployed Engineer role. You won't just enable PoCs; you'll define the entire function: the playbook, the path-to-production patterns, and the feedback loop into product. You'll own the technical journey from initial PoV through production readiness and deployment, working hands-on with sophisticated customer engineers. This isn't a pure sales engineering role focused on presentations; it's deep technical ownership, building and shaping the product's adoption in critical environments. Expect significant outward-facing surface area and a platform to build a public developer brand.

The work

• Own the technical path from initial PoV/PoC enablement through production readiness and deployment.
• Work hands-on with customer engineers and OSS evaluators on integrations, reference implementations, and architecture guidance.
• Drive the transition from "PoC works" to "production-ready": Kubernetes, cloud setup, observability, networking, security, and operational patterns.
• Support early discovery workshops, POV planning, and participate in escalation and on-call rotations for critical customer issues.
• Feed product friction and papercuts directly back into the engineering team, contributing to docs, examples, SDKs, and the core product.

What You Bring

• Full proficiency in Go or Rust, plus at least one of TypeScript, Java, or Python.
• Strong Kubernetes skills, deep observability instincts, and hands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• You have designed and operated real distributed backend systems in production, understanding failure modes from direct experience.
• Comfortable being the technical face of a product in front of sophisticated customer engineers, including Staff and Principal levels.
• Eligible to work in Europe or the US.

This is a rare founding Forward Deployed Engineer role at a company solving a hard problem in AI infrastructure. Roles like this are often oversubscribed or hard to find, and it's even harder to get the full context before you apply.

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