Forward Deployed Engineer

About the RoleWe're hiring an Forward Deployed Engineer to be the vital link between our customers and our engineering teams — spanning the full customer journey from early technical evaluation through deployment, production ramp-up, and long-term success. You'll partner directly with customers to bring robotic systems online, troubleshoot in the field, and feed real-world insights back into our product roadmap.This role is a rare blend of customer-facing, technical, and operational work, and it's a strong launchpad toward technical leadership or field engineering leadership as you grow with Chef.What You'll DoPartner with Sales during early customer engagements to assess needs and evaluate technical feasibilityWork closely with customer engineering and operations teams to understand workflows, constraints, and success metricsConfigure, test, and validate robotic systems in lab environments, adapting solutions to real-world production requirementsOwn and project-manage deployments end-to-end, coordinating across internal engineering, manufacturing, and customer teamsLead on-site installations, including system setup, qualification testing, and production rampTroubleshoot and resolve field issues spanning software, configuration, and hardware break/fixSupport customers post-deployment to drive adoption, ensure success, and surface expansion opportunitiesTranslate customer feedback into actionable input for Product and EngineeringQualificationsBS or MS in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related fieldHands-on experience in robotics, automation systems, motion planning, perception, or controlsFamiliarity with Linux/Unix environments, ROS, and scripting in PythonExperience2+ years in applications engineering, solutions engineering, field robotics, or another customer-facing technical roleTrack record operating independently in dynamic, real-world environmentsWork Style & LogisticsStrong communicator, comfortable working across technical and operational teamsHighly organized, able to manage multiple concurrent projects and deploymentsAvailable for non-standard hours as needed (occasional nights, weekends, on-call)Able to travel up to 75% across North America for on-site deploymentsNice-to-HavesExperience in food production, manufacturing, or another regulated production environmentExposure to electrical/CAD debugging or hardware-level troubleshootingExperience with Linux/Unix environments, ROS, and scripting in Python