Founding Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

Chainloop; United States; Remote; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Remote across EMEA

Competitive compensation

Job summary

Chainloop is seeking a founding, hands-on engineer to build a close partnership with major customers and a product engineering team focused on software development lifecycle data and security. You may develop a PoC, implement it in a complex environment, and contribute production code.

You will help establish how the forward-deployed engineering function operates and grows, including workflows and hiring, while aligning product priorities with customer needs.

Qualifications

• At least five years of senior or staff-level engineering or architecture experience.
• A record of leading technical discussions and solving complex problems for enterprise customers.
• Strong practical coding skills, including rapid prototyping and production implementation.
• Ability to manage customer relationships and translate between customer needs and engineering work.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical conversations with large and highly regulated organizations, understanding their environments, constraints, and goals.
• Build prototypes and implement customer integrations, turning successful approaches into maintainable solutions.
• Contribute regularly to the core product, including production-quality Go code.
• Identify customer needs and likely delivery blockers early, then communicate them clearly to product and engineering teams.
• Use customer feedback to help shape product priorities and roadmap decisions.
• Help define the team’s working practices and contribute to future hiring.

Skills

Enterprise customer leadership

Senior engineering leadership

Rapid prototyping

Tools

Go

Kubernetes

Cloud-native systems

DevSecOps

Software supply-chain security

Job description

Role overview

Build a close technical partnership between major customers and a product engineering team working on software development lifecycle data and security. This founding, hands-on role combines customer discovery and integration work with product development: you may develop a proof of concept, help implement it in a complex environment, and contribute production code. You will also help establish how the forward-deployed engineering function operates and grows.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical conversations with large and highly regulated organizations, understanding their environments, constraints, and goals.
• Build prototypes and implement customer integrations, turning successful approaches into maintainable solutions.
• Contribute regularly to the core product, including production-quality Go code.
• Identify customer needs and likely delivery blockers early, then communicate them clearly to product and engineering teams.
• Use customer feedback to help shape product priorities and roadmap decisions.
• Help define the team’s working practices and contribute to future hiring.

Requirements

• At least five years of senior or staff-level engineering or architecture experience.
• A record of leading technical discussions and solving complex problems for enterprise customers.
• Strong practical coding skills, including rapid prototyping and production implementation.
• Ability to manage customer relationships and translate between customer needs and engineering work.
• Adaptability, initiative, and a strong sense of responsibility for customer outcomes.

Nice to have

• Experience with Go, Kubernetes, cloud-native systems, DevSecOps, or software supply-chain security.
• Familiarity with applying AI in engineering or product contexts.

Benefits and work setup

• Full-time, remote role open across EMEA.
• Foundational influence on the product, engineering culture, and future team.
• Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.