Forward Deployed Engineering Lead

Fdetimes; New York (NY); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Lovable is seeking an exceptional Forward Deployed Engineering Lead to build and lead an FDE team that ships AI-powered software with customers around the world. You will stay hands-on, write production code, and shape how the function operates across regions.

You’ll work with top customers, set a high technical bar, and influence product direction while grow­ing the team and standardizing processes for scale.

Qualifications

• 12+ years in software engineering, architecture, and customer-facing delivery.
• Proven track record leading technical teams with hands-on coding.
• Strong frontend and backend fundamentals across modern stacks.
• Architectural thinking for distributed systems and scalable platforms.
• Experience delivering end-to-end AI-enabled solutions.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Forward Deployed Engineering team locally and globally.
• Work directly with ambitious customers, writing production code.
• Define standards, playbooks, and scalable practices for FDE globally.
• Partner with customers to understand workflows and solve hard problems.
• Translate deployments into core product and platform improvements.
• Contribute to product strategy and technical roadmap.
• Recruit, mentor, and develop high-performing engineers.

Skills

Software engineering

Technical architecture

Customer-facing engineering

Hands-on leadership

Full-stack fundamentals

Tools

React

TypeScript

Golang

Rust

Cloudflare

GCP

AWS

LLM tooling

Job description

TL;DR - We’re looking for an exceptional Forward Deployed Engineering Lead to help build the future of AI-powered software creation. You’ll build and lead an exceptional FDE team, while working alongside our other FDE leaders to shape how the function operates globally. You’ll remain deeply hands‑on — working directly with our most ambitious customers, writing production code, and building alongside your team.

Why Lovable?

Lovable is the software creation platform that gives people the power to act on the problems closest to them. For decades, turning an idea into software required so much capital, technical fluency, and time that many ideas never came to life. Lovable is the counterargument: a platform for all people with ideas, ambition, and problems worth solving. From solopreneurs to small business owners to teams at companies like Adidas and Zendesk, people have built over 60 million projects on Lovable since its launch in November 2024. And we’re just getting started.

We’re building a generational company from Stockholm, with growing teams in London, Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Our team is small, talent-dense, and moving quickly, with a culture rooted in extreme ownership, high velocity, and low-ego collaboration. We look for people who care deeply, ship fast, and are eager to make a dent in the world.

Lovable is one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential Companies and has been recognized on the Forbes AI 50 and CNBC Disruptor 50, reflecting our momentum as one of Europe’s fastest-growing AI companies and one of the most ambitious places to build in this next era of software.

What makes this role special?

You will

• Build and lead the FDE team in your location
• Join a small group of FDE leaders defining how the function operates and scales globally
• Stay deeply hands‑on — personally building and shipping alongside your team
• Partner with customers building never‑seen-before AI systems
• Set a high technical bar across architecture, engineering, and execution
• Turn patterns from real deployments into core product and platform improvements
• Influence our product direction, technical roadmap, and how FDE works at Lovable

If you want to build an exceptional engineering team without stepping away from building yourself — this is that role.

What we’re looking for

• 12+ years across software engineering, technical architecture, and customer-facing engineering
• Experience leading and developing high-performing technical teams
• A track record of remaining deeply hands‑on as your leadership scope has grown
• Strong full-stack engineering fundamentals across modern frontend and backend development
• Strong architectural thinking and familiarity with distributed systems
• Experience owning complex technical engagements end-to-end
• Exceptional product intuition and ability to work directly with users
• Ability to move comfortably between writing code, making architectural decisions, leading engineers, and working with senior customer stakeholders
• High agency and comfort operating in high-ambiguity, high-velocity environments

Bonus if you’ve

• Built a team or technical function from zero
• Worked on agentic AI systems or built with LLMs in production
• Led zero-to-one product development
• Worked in a founding or early-stage startup environment
• Worked across high-growth startups, big tech, consulting, or enterprise AI

What you’ll do

In one sentence: build the team that deploys intelligence into the real world — and deploy it alongside them.

• Recruit, develop, and lead an exceptional team of Forward Deployed Engineers
• Work directly with customers to understand their workflows, needs, and hardest technical problems
• Personally design, prototype, and implement solutions alongside your team
• Own and guide projects from idea → architecture → shipping → iteration
• Set the technical bar through architecture decisions, code reviews, and hands‑on engineering
• Translate insights from customer deployments into foundational platform improvements
• Partner with other FDE leads to shape standards, playbooks, and how the function scales globally
• Contribute to core product strategy, technical decisions, and cultural foundations

Our Tech Stack

We choose tools that empower both humans and AI

• Frontend: React, TypeScript
• Backend: Golang & Rust
• Cloud: Cloudflare, GCP, AWS, multiple LLM providers
• Tooling: GitHub Actions, OTEL, Grafana, Terraform, and more
• Always evolving with what works best