Forward Deployed Engineer/Customer-Facing Software Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About the Opportunities

Continuum Recruiting works with a portfolio of venture-backed AI and technology companies hiring Forward Deployed Engineers and customer-facing Software Engineers. We are building an evergreen talent pool for multiple current and upcoming opportunities.

These roles sit at the intersection of software engineering, product, and customers. You may embed with customers, understand complex operational or technical problems, build the production solution, own the implementation through launch, and then use what you learn in the field to improve the underlying product.

Previous Forward Deployed Engineer experience is not required for every opportunity. Strong backend, full-stack, or product engineers who enjoy customer interaction, ambiguity, and end-to-end ownership can be excellent fits.

What You May Work On

• Own technical customer deployments from discovery and scoping through build, integration, go-live, and optimization.

• Write production software across backend services, APIs, integrations, data systems, and product interfaces.

• Build and configure AI/LLM-powered products, agents, workflows, and automation where relevant.

• Integrate with customer systems and third-party platforms, diagnosing difficult issues across APIs, data, infrastructure, and application layers.

• Translate ambiguous business or operational problems into concrete technical solutions.

• Work directly with technical and non-technical customer stakeholders, earning trust through strong execution and communication.

• Debug production issues and iterate rapidly based on real-world usage, performance data, and customer feedback.

• Identify recurring implementation patterns and turn them into reusable tooling, infrastructure, or core product capabilities.

• Partner with Product and Engineering teams to shape roadmap priorities based on what you learn in the field.

• In some roles, support technical scoping, demonstrations, expansion opportunities, or on-site customer implementations.

What We’re Generally Looking For

• Strong software engineering fundamentals with experience shipping and maintaining production software.

• Backend, full-stack, product engineering, or systems engineering experience; this is not a pure pre-sales role.

• Experience building APIs, integrations, or systems that interact with external services and production data.

• Professional proficiency in one or more languages commonly used across these opportunities, including Python and TypeScript/JavaScript.

• Ability to independently investigate unfamiliar systems, diagnose problems, and drive solutions through completion.

• Comfort working directly with customers or strong evidence that you can communicate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• High agency and comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.

• Strong written and verbal communication, including the ability to explain technical decisions, tradeoffs, and failure modes clearly.

Particularly Relevant Backgrounds

• Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Product Engineer, Customer-Facing Engineer, Implementation Engineer, or Solutions Engineer with substantial hands-on coding.

• Backend or Full-Stack Software Engineer interested in moving closer to customers.

• Applied AI Engineer or AI Product Engineer with strong production software fundamentals.

• Experience building production API integrations across multiple third-party systems.

• AI/LLM, agentic systems, RAG, orchestration, evaluation, or AI-enabled workflow experience.

• Python, TypeScript, React, Node.js, SQL, cloud infrastructure, or distributed systems.

• Experience at an early-stage or high-growth startup.

• Experience with enterprise customers, regulated environments, healthcare, fintech, vertical SaaS, or other complex operational domains.

What This Is Not

These are not traditional pre-sales positions centered on presentations, demos, or handing requirements to another engineering team. The strongest opportunities require engineers who can personally build, debug, and ship production systems while also operating effectively with customers.

What Varies by Opportunity

Individual roles vary in seniority, technical stack, compensation, equity, travel, visa sponsorship, and work arrangement. Current opportunities are based in New York, NY, San Francisco, CA, or are remote; specific hybrid, in-office, and travel expectations vary by opportunity. Some require occasional customer travel.

Our goal is to understand your technical strengths, customer-facing interests, location preferences, and career goals, then match you with the opportunities where your background is genuinely strongest.

Who Will Thrive in These Roles

The ideal engineer likes being close to the problem. You enjoy talking with users or customers, getting into an unfamiliar environment, figuring out what is actually broken or needed, and then writing the code that solves it.

If you are a strong software engineer who wants more ownership, more customer impact, and the ability to influence product direction through real-world deployments, these opportunities may be particularly well aligned.