Missionforce - Senior/Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Public Sector

salesforce.com, inc.; Hawaii; On-site; USD 148,500 - 365,200; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision benefits

Paid parental leave

401(k) plan

Employee stock purchasing program

Job summary

Salesforce.com, inc. is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer in Hawaii to serve as a technical lead on high-profile customer engagements, particularly in defense and aerospace missions. Your role involves architecting AI solutions and collaborating closely with mission stakeholders to ensure mission-critical outcomes.

Ideal candidates should have 8+ years of software engineering experience in environments such as AWS or GCP, as well as proficiency in languages like Java or Python. The position requires an active Secret or Top Secret clearance and the ability to travel up to 50% for customer engagements.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• Experience working in an air-gapped GovCloud environment.
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance required.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead on high-profile customer engagements.
• Engineer distributed systems running on major cloud providers.
• Mentor junior engineers and serve as a technical role model.

Skills

Java

GoLang

Python

Ruby

AI tools experience

Prompt engineering skills

Collaboration

Communication

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

Salesforce Data Cloud

Snowflake

Databricks

BigQuery

Job description

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword – it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we’re looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Eligibility

Must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) living on U.S. soil who does not hold dual citizenship and agrees to complete a U.S. federal government Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) for a Moderate Public Trust position. Candidates interested in the Hawaii location must be based in Oahu. Qualification for this job is contingent upon acceptable results from a background investigation as well as maintaining the specific level of U.S. government background investigation and clearance required for this role. Active Secret or Top Secret clearance is required.

About the Role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) on our Public Sector team, you will be embedded with U.S. Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and Aerospace clients to design and deploy bespoke AI solutions that drive mission‑critical outcomes. You will also architect the backbone of a planet‑scale platform that ships hundreds of features daily with rock‑solid reliability and security. This role demands a builder’s mindset, an AI‑first approach, and the technical depth to take complex challenges from concept to production.

Mission Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead on high‑profile customer engagements – designing, building, and deploying tailored Salesforce solutions for defense, intelligence, and aerospace missions.
• Engineer distributed systems running across thousands of compute nodes on AWS, GCP, Azure, or Alibaba Cloud.
• Develop Infrastructure‑as‑Code (Terraform), microservices (Kubernetes, Docker), and data pipelines.
• Build and ship high‑quality, production‑grade software using modern engineering practices, with AI as a core part of your development workflow.
• Design and orchestrate complex systems where AI agents integrate seamlessly into human workflows, driving efficiency and innovation at scale.
• Contribute to building and maintaining the shared system context, an explicit repository of system designs, constraints, and standards that enables AI to operate accurately and reliably.
• Critically evaluate code (human or AI‑generated) for correctness, quality, security, and performance.
• Partner directly with customers and mission stakeholders to translate complex needs into technical solutions.
• Lead rapid prototyping, root cause analysis, and best‑practice evangelism across teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and serve as a technical role model.

What We’re Looking For

The ideal candidate brings the following:

• 8+ years of hands‑on software engineering experience.
• Deep proficiency in Java, GoLang, Python, or Ruby.
• A demonstrated, genuine AI‑first approach to engineering – using AI to move faster, build fluency across the stack, and contribute well beyond your core specialty.
• Experience using AI tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Codex, Cursor, etc.) in development workflows.
• Advanced prompt engineering skills and the ability to write precise, structured prompts and cultivate the system context that makes AI outputs reliable, secure, and production‑ready.
• Experience with enterprise data platforms (Salesforce Data Cloud, Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery).
• Experience working in an air‑gapped GovCloud environment.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills – from command centers to executive briefings.
• Ability to travel 25‑50% of the time, as needed to customer sites.
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance required.

Preferred

• Background in defense/aerospace, classified environments (IL5/IL6), or federal civilian agencies.
• Prior experience in a customer‑facing, hands‑on technical lead or architect role.
• Salesforce platform experience (Agentforce, Data Cloud, Flows, LWC, Apex).
• Familiarity with IL5/IL6/CNSS #1253 requirements or deployment to classified environments.

Accommodations

If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or recruiting process, please submit a request via the accommodations request form.

Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non‑discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law.

Compensation and Benefits

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. The typical base salary range for this position is $148,500 – $365,200 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.

Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well, including time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program.