Lead Forward Deployed Engineer | Hybrid Chicago

Job Description

Coda Search is proud to partner with a venture-backed, high growth startup on a Lead Forward Deployed Engineer hire. The role is based in downtown Chicago and is open to senior, staff, lead, or principal-level engineers in the Chicago metro area who can be on-site two days per week.

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Comp : Roughly between $175,000 - 200,000 (negotiable depending on experience) + bonus + meaningful equity package

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Benefits : Comprehensive benefits including H/V/D, 401(k), unlimited PTO & other ancillary benefits

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Location : Downtown Chicago, IL (Hybrid, 2 days on-site per week)

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What's in it for you?

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• Build first, lead by example: You'll be the most senior engineer on the team, writing code and setting the standard the rest of the team follows.
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• Report to the CEO: You'll help shape how the company onboards and scales its customer base.
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• Develop a team: You'll mentor a group of forward deployed engineers who are early in their careers and ready to grow.
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• Real product influence: Your judgment decides whether a customer request becomes configuration, a one-off extension, or a feature the whole customer base benefits from.
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• Equity upside: A meaningful equity stake in a company growing quickly with experienced operators at the helm.
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What will your day look like?

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• Lead the forward deployed team: Serve as the team's technical decision-maker, setting architecture direction, code quality standards, and technical guardrails.
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• Mentor through real work: Raise the bar through code review, pairing, and hands-on guidance on complex customer implementations.
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• Stay hands-on: Write backend code and build customer integrations yourself.
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• Work directly with customers: Join onboarding calls, learn each customer's workflows and integration needs, and turn them into sound technical solutions.
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• Make the build-or-reuse call: Decide whether a request should be configured, handled as a customer-specific extension, or recommended as a reusable product feature.
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• Partner with implementation managers: Work alongside the people running customer projects and know when to say yes and when to push back.
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• Work across teams: Collaborate with product, platform, integrations, AI, and implementation teams, and flag platform gaps you see in the field.
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• Put AI to work: Use AI-assisted development tools to move faster while keeping code quality high.
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Who are you?

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• You're a senior backend engineer. Your fundamentals are strong; the specific language matters less than how you build.
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• You've grown into a technical lead or player-coach. You've been a tech lead, staff engineer, or hands-on engineering manager, and you still write code.
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• You make architectural decisions. You're comfortable guiding less experienced engineers to sound technical choices.
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• You're strong with customers. You communicate clearly, build relationships, and turn business requirements into practical solutions.
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• You have a product mindset. You know when to build, when to reuse, and when to push back on a request.
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• You work well across teams. You navigate ambiguity and get things done with people you don't manage.
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• Bonus points for experience with forward deployed or implementation engineering, ERP integrations, EDI, or supply chain software.
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Application & Contact Information

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To apply, please apply directly here on LinkedIn. For more immediate consideration, feel free to send me an email directly to View email address on ziprecruiter.com.

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Related Terms : Forward Deployed Engineer, Lead Forward Deployed Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineering Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Backend Engineer, Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer, Tech Lead, Player Coach, Engineering Manager, Solutions Engineer, Implementation Engineer, Integration Engineer, Customer Engineer, API Integrations, ERP Integration, EDI, Supply Chain Software, B2B SaaS, AI-Assisted Development, Chicago Engineering Jobs, Hybrid Engineering Jobs