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.

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

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

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

What's in it for you?

• 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.
• Report to the CEO: You'll help shape how the company onboards and scales its customer base.
• Develop a team: You'll mentor a group of forward deployed engineers who are early in their careers and ready to grow.
• 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.
• Equity upside: A meaningful equity stake in a company growing quickly with experienced operators at the helm.

What will your day look like?

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

Who are you?

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

Application & Contact Information

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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