Subscribe
bareinsights

Forward Deployed Product Manager

$130K - $220K New York, NY, US Mid Posted August 17, 2026

Role Description

About the Role

This is a high-ownership, generalist role working directly alongside the founding team of an early-stage govtech startup building AI-powered software for state and local governments. You'll operate across strategy, product, and operations — helping shape the company from the ground up at a critical stage of growth. The work is meaningful: better technology for government means real impact on how public services are delivered.

What You'll Do

  • Partner closely with the founder across strategic, operational, and fundraising initiatives.
  • Take end-to-end ownership of key projects to help run and scale the business efficiently.
  • Implement AI-native tooling across the full business to build a lean, fast, and scalable organization.
  • Contribute to 0-to-1 product and company-building efforts alongside a small, high-impact founding team.
  • Help drive the mission of making government agencies meaningfully more effective through technology.

What We're Looking For

  • 4–10+ years of experience, including time at a large technology company (FAANG or equivalent tier).
  • Early-stage startup experience (Seed through Series B) with demonstrated 0-to-1 building capability.
  • Genuine enthusiasm for the early-stage environment — moving fast, wearing many hats, and putting in the hours.
  • Hands-on experience with AI tools and workflows; willingness to learn and work with tools like Claude Code.
  • Mission-driven mindset with real interest in improving the public sector through technology.
  • Strong academic foundation — undergraduate degree from a well-regarded university.
  • Experience in or exposure to state/city government agencies, or consulting with public sector clients, is a plus.
  • Background as a chief of staff is a nice-to-have.
  • No visa sponsorship available — must be authorized to work in the US.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $130,000 – $220,000 USD annually. Equity participation expected given the early-stage nature of the role. Visa sponsorship: not available.

Location

On-site in New York City, NY, five days per week.

About Forward Deployed Engineering

Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.

Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.

Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.

Get the FDE Pulse Brief

Weekly market intelligence for Forward Deployed Engineers. Job trends, salary data, and who's hiring. Free.