Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

Manifold; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Manifold is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to work at the intersection of AI, data infrastructure, and life sciences. You will embed directly with leading research institutions and biopharma companies to drive adoption and expansion of Manifold's AI platform.

You’ll collaborate with Product and GTM teams, build customer-specific data pipelines and tooling, and travel to customer sites up to 20% while staying current with AI and life sciences advances.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in a technical customer-facing role with life sciences exposure.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, GCP) and IaC patterns.
• Bachelor's or Master's in CS, Engineering, or related field.
• Willing to travel ~20% to customer sites.
• Hands-on data pipelines and AI-powered applications.

Responsibilities

• Embed directly with customers to understand their research environments and workflows.
• Scope and architect end-to-end solutions leveraging Manifold's AI platform to solve customers’ problems.
• Drive rapid time-to-value with fast onboarding, pilots, and clear paths to platform adoption.
• Develop and deliver technical artifacts: Data pipelines, agent configuration, process automation, domain-specific tooling.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, data, and application layers.
• Identify repeatable patterns, playbooks, and tooling for future deployments.
• Collaborate with core platform team to inform product roadmaps.
• Stay current on AI industry advancements and life sciences infrastructure.

Skills

Full-stack generalist

Customer-facing

Cloud infrastructure

Data pipelines

AI-powered apps

Stakeholder collaboration

Life sciences interest

Terra.bio experience

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/Engineering

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

Job description

Manifold is the AI platform for life sciences, accelerating life-changing medicines to patients. Our products speed up workflows in areas from target identification and clinical development to market access and precision medicine in the clinic, while maintaining the governance life sciences requires. Global companies and premier research institutions use Manifold to operate faster and more effectively. Backed by leading investors including Reach Capital, TQ Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, SilverArc Capital, and Industry Ventures, Manifold serves tens of thousands of users across hundreds of organizations globally.

About the role

Manifold is hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDEs) to work at the intersection of AI, data infrastructure, and life sciences. In this high-impact role, you will embed directly with leading research institutions, biopharma companies, and life sciences organizations to drive adoption, implementation, and expansion of Manifold's AI platform.

As an FDE, you’ll work closely with both Product and GTM teams, combining technical expertise with customer-facing skills to build innovative solutions that accelerate complex scientific workflows. We expect our FDEs to operate autonomously, thrive under ambiguity, and represent Manifold at the highest level in customer environments. Working at the intersection of AI and life sciences, you\'ll not only play a key role in Manifold\'s success but also help our customers bring life-changing medicines to patients faster.

What You’ll Do

• Embed directly with Manifold customers to understand their research environments and workflows
• Support Terra.bio and its user migration to the Manifold platform, serving as a technical bridge between existing Terra workflows and Manifold's new infrastructure
• Scope and architect end-to-end solutions leveraging Manifold's AI platform to solve customers’ most pressing problems
• Drive rapid time-to-value by ensuring fast onboarding, successful pilots, and clear paths to platform adoption
• Develop and deliver technical artifacts purpose-built for customers: Data pipelines, agent configuration, process automation, and domain-specific tooling
• Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, data, and application layers
• Identify repeatable patterns, playbooks, and tooling that accelerate future deployments
• Collaborate with the core platform team to inform product roadmaps
• Stay current regarding AI industry advancements and life sciences infrastructure

What You’ll Bring

• A full-stack generalist with 5+ years of experience in a technical customer-facing role who thrives in ambiguity and is energized by working directly with life science researchers
• Comfort navigating complex technical environments, including cloud infrastructure, data warehouses, APIs, and diverse data formats common in life sciences and healthcare
• Hands-on experience building and deploying data pipelines, custom integrations, and AI-powered applications, ideally in complex enterprise or research environments
• Able to collaborate with diverse stakeholders, from bench scientists to C-suite executives
• High agency with a bias towards speed, pragmatism, and ownership; You\'ve built AI into how you work. You\'re curious about new tools, resourceful in applying them, and have concrete examples of how AI changed your output.
• A genuine interest in life sciences, oncology, and healthcare; You\'ve done your homework on what it means to accelerate life sciences research and you can articulate why that mission matters to you.
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, GCP) and infrastructure-as-code patterns; Experience working in regulated data environments
• Bachelor's or Master\'s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field
• Willing to travel to customer sites as needed (estimated 20%)

What Sets You Apart

• Proficiency with Claude Code, Cursor, or equivalent agentic development practices
• Prompt engineering, agent development, and eval experience
• Prior experience in life sciences, biopharma, or the healthcare data industry
• Previous experience directly supporting Terra.bio

Why Manifold

• We offer the unique opportunity to work at the frontier of AI in life sciences, helping the world\'s leading research and clinical institutions adopt transformative technology.
• This is a high-autonomy, high-impact role where your work directly leads to positive customer outcomes that accelerate breakthrough science.
• You will gain exposure to a wide range of technical and business challenges across oncology, genomics, clinical data, and AI agent development.
• You will work with a collaborative team of engineers, scientists, and operators who are building something genuinely new and important.
• This is an opportunity to grow fast in a company that takes talent seriously. We offer strong compensation packages and excellent benefits.

Salary Range

The base salary range for this position is $150,000–$210,000 annually.

• Please note: Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors, including prior experience and expertise, and may vary from the amount above. This range does not represent additional compensation benefits (such as equity, 401K match or medical, dental or vision insurance).