Forward-Deployed Engineer

About the Role

We are looking for a highly accomplished, deeply technical Senior Forward Deployment Engineer to serve as the dedicated technical engine and trusted advisor for a strategic enterprise client. In this role, you will not just consult from the sidelines; you will sit on the front lines. You will own the technical relationship end-to-end, serving as the client’s go-to technical expert, architecting complex Proofs of Concept (PoCs), building hands-on demos, and solving complex architecture and integration challenges in real time. If you thrive at the intersection of production-grade engineering, complex problem-solving, and high-impact client engagement, this role is for you. If you're not scared to use AI to help guide your, and our, work, this role is for you. If you're excited at the prospect of stepping across traditional role boundaries towards things like building agents, product ownership, and requirements analysis, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

• Dedicated Technical Advisory: Act as the primary, high-touch technical authority and advisor for a key enterprise customer, translating complex technical capability into strategic client value.
• Account Expansion & Sales Vigour: Proactively identify technical gaps and new business opportunities within the account. Partner closely with the presales team to put together future architectures, pitch new solutions, and drive the expansion of our platform.
• Rapid Prototyping & PoCs: Scope, design, and build custom demos, production-grade prototypes, and Proofs of Concept (PoCs) directly tailored to the customer’s unique ecosystem and edge cases.
• Architecture & Integration: Work hands-on with the customer's engineering, security, and infrastructure teams to design seamless deployment pipelines, custom integrations, and data flows, with a heavy emphasis on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) environments.
• Real-time Technical Problem Solving: Unblock customer engineering teams by debugging complex deployment, infrastructure, integration, or performance issues on the fly.
• Product Feedback Loop: Serve as the direct bridge between the customer’s engineering requirements and our internal Product & Core Engineering teams, advocating for features that drive enterprise adoption.

What We’re Looking For

Technical Expertise

• Senior Engineering Track Record: 10+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering, backend systems, cloud architecture, or site reliability engineering (SRE).
• Hands-on Coding: Strong proficiency in modern enterprise programming languages (e.g. Python, Java, TypeScript/Node.js, or even Rust or Golang).
• Cloud & Infrastructure Mastery: Deep experience with GCP cloud platform, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and modern CI/CD practices.
• Integration & Systems Design: Proven ability to architect REST/gRPC APIs, microservices, enterprise security integrations (SAML, OAuth, VPCs), and data pipelines.

Client & Advisory Skills

• Executive Presence: Ability to switch effortlessly between white-boarding code with senior developers and presenting architectural strategies to CTOs and VP-level stakeholders.
• Technical Ownership: High autonomy, grit, and a strong sense of ownership: you don't wait for answers; you invent solutions.
• Empathy & Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with a track record of building deep trust with client engineering teams.

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience in specialized domains relevant to our tech stack (e.g., AI/ML infrastructure, distributed systems, high-throughput data processing, or cybersecurity).
• Prior experience in forward deployment, technical pre-sales, or high-touch technical account management at a high-growth SaaS or deep-tech enterprise company.
• Track record working within financial services, payments, or the broader FinTech ecosystem, with a solid understanding of the sector's unique security, regulatory, and high-transaction requirements.
• Experience with other cloud platforms like Azure, AWS, and Huawei.

What Success Looks Like in Year 1

• First 90 Days: Build deep technical trust with the customer’s core technical team, fully understand their tech stack and architecture, and ship your first production integration or PoC.
• 6 Months: Become the indispensable 'go-to' technical expert for the account, reducing time-to-value for new client initiatives and driving architectural alignment.
• 1 Year: Expand the customer’s technical footprint with our solutions through successful PoCs, seamless system stability, and proactive feature delivery.