Forward Deployed Engineer (up to $260k)

Dex; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex is seeking a founding Forward Deployed Engineer to own the technical journey from PoV to production, working hands-on with customer engineers on complex integrations.

You will shape adoption in critical environments, define playbooks, and contribute feedback to the product. Expect significant outward-facing scope and a platform to build a public developer brand.

Qualifications

• Proficiency in Go or Rust plus one of TS/Java/Python.
• Strong Kubernetes skills and cloud experience (AWS/GCP/Azure).
• Built and operated distributed backend systems in production.

Responsibilities

• Own technical path from PoV/PoC to production readiness and deployment.
• Collaborate with customer engineers and OSS evaluators on integrations and guidance.
• Move PoC to production with Kubernetes, cloud setup, observability and security.
• Support discovery workshops and on-call rotations for critical issues.
• Provide product feedback via docs, examples, SDKs and core product

Skills

Go

Rust

TypeScript

Java

Python

Kubernetes

Observability

AWS

GCP

Azure

Distributed systems

Customer-facing

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.

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.