Senior / Staff Forward Deployment Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

Senior / Staff Forward Deployment Engineer

Role: Senior / Staff Forward Deployment Engineer

Department: Engineering

Level: Senior Staff Individual Contributor

Team: Founding Team

Engagement Type: Contract-to-Hire

Contract Duration: 612-month contract with potential conversion to full-time

Mandatory: FAANG Product Top tier 1 Companies: Yes

Years of Experience Required: 8+ years
Rate: $65/hr on c2c

Location: Bellevue, WA

Primary Skill Set: Deployment, Embedding, LLM, Java/Python, Data pipelines (Snowflake/Databricks)

About the Role

Our client is building its founding Forward Deployment Engineering team and is seeking seasoned engineers to set the standard. As a Senior/Staff FDE, you will operate at the intersection of engineering and the customer. You will embed directly with internal business teams and external partners to transform powerful platformsAI/GenAI tools, data products, and custom integrationsinto working solutions that deliver tangible outcomes. You are a blend of builder, problem-solver, and trusted advisor: writing production code one day, mapping a complex real-world workflow the next, and advising senior stakeholders on strategy by the end of the week.

This is a high-impact role for an experienced engineer who has a proven track record, thrives in ambiguity, and operates with minimal oversight. As one of the first FDEs, you will not only deploy solutions but also define the operational framework for this team: establishing playbooks, standards, tooling, and the benchmark for future hires. You will also mentor junior engineers as the team scales.

What You'll Do

• Embed with internal teams and external customers to understand their workflows, pain points, and goals, then design and deploy fitting solutions.
• Build production-quality code, integrations, and automations across AI/GenAI, data, and software platforms to address specific business problems.
• Rapidly prototype and develop proofs-of-concept, iterate based on direct user feedback, and transition them into reliable, scalable production systems.
• Integrate data pipelines, APIs, and third-party systems, effectively managing the complexities of enterprise environments.
• Partner with end users and stakeholders by running demos, gathering requirements, troubleshooting live issues, and translating technical concepts into business value.
• Provide feedback on recurring pain points and friction to product and engineering teams to influence the core roadmap.
• Monitor and enhance solutions for reliability, performance, and adoption post-launch; you will own the outcomes, not just the deliverables.
• Establish the playbooks, standards, and tooling for the FDE function, and mentor junior engineers as the team expands.

What You'll Bring

• Experience: 8+ years of experience building and shipping software in production, including significant time owning complex, ambiguous projects end-to-end with minimal supervision.
• Technical Depth: Deep, hands-on programming expertise (e.g., Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or Go), strong system design judgment, and fluency working across the full stack and with APIs.
• Platform Fluency: Proven experience with data tools (SQL, pipelines, warehouses like Snowflake/Databricks) and/or AI/GenAI tooling (LLMs, RAG, agentic workflows). You possess broad knowledge and can quickly adapt to the right tool for the problem.
• Customer-Facing Track Record: A history of customer-facing or forward-deployed workyou have shipped solutions directly with end users, navigated enterprise complexities, and earned the trust of senior stakeholders.
• Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading projects, setting technical direction, and elevating the performance of those around you, whether formally or informally.
• Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; you can fluidly translate between deep technical details and high-level executive business value.
• Bias for Action: You ship, learn, and iterate quickly while maintaining a high-quality standard, and you bring order to ambiguous, fast-moving situations.

Nice to Have

• Experience deploying AI/ML or LLM-based solutions in an enterprise setting.
• Cloud experience (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with CI/CD and containerization.
• Experience as a founding or early member of a new team or function.
• Knowledge of the telecommunications or large-scale enterprise data domains.