Role Description
We're looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer who can work directly at the intersection of technology and business — embedding with stakeholders, understanding their real-world problems, and translating ambiguous requirements into working solutions. This is a hands-on, client-facing engineering role where technical depth meets strong communication and business acumen.
What You'll Do
- Work directly with stakeholders and end clients to gather, interpret, and refine requirements — often starting from ambiguous or loosely defined problems
- Translate business needs into technical solutions quickly, iterating in close collaboration with the client
- Build, prototype, and deploy solutions using Python and SQL to solve real operational and analytical problems
- Apply modern AI tools (LLM-based copilots, agentic frameworks, prompt-driven automation, etc.) to accelerate development and enhance solution capabilities
- Troubleshoot issues on the ground, think critically under pressure, and drive problems to resolution independently
- Clearly communicate technical concepts, trade-offs, and progress to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Act as the technical face of the team in front of clients — building trust through clarity, responsiveness, and follow-through
What We're Looking For
- Requirement comprehension: Ability to quickly grasp what stakeholders actually need, even when it isn't clearly articulated, and turn it into an actionable plan
- Stakeholder engagement: Comfortable working directly with clients/business stakeholders, not just through intermediaries
- Communication: Strong verbal and written communication with clear, confident articulation of ideas and technical topics
- Problem-solving: Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills; able to break down complex or unclear problems into solvable pieces
- Programming: Proficiency in at least one programming language, Python strongly preferred
- SQL: Solid, hands-on SQL skills — writing, optimizing, and reasoning about queries against real datasets
- AI tooling: Practical, hands-on experience with at least one modern AI tool (e.g., Copilot-style coding assistants, LLM APIs, agentic tools, or similar)
Nice to Have
- Prior experience in a client-facing or consulting-style engineering role
- Experience working in fast-paced, ambiguous environments with shifting priorities
Pay: $60.00 - $70.00 per hour
Expected hours: 8.0 per week
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Dallas, TX 75244
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.
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