Forward Deployed Engineer

Talent Vine Forward Deployed Engineer

At Talent Vine, we're pretty intentional about how we work. We were founded by former Palantir recruiters, and we're not trying to run a high-volume agency or push people into roles just to close something. We work with a small number of teams we actually believe in and try to help people think through what they should do next (even if that's not one of our roles!)

Right now, we're partnering with a handful of AI companies that are actually getting products into production. They're hiring Forward Deployed Engineers to work at the intersection of engineering, product, and the real world.

This is not a typical SWE role. There's no clean spec, no neatly scoped tickets, and no clear line between "your job" and everything else. The work is messy, fast-moving, and very visible — figuring out how to take powerful AI systems and make them actually work for customers.

Some people love that, a lot of people don't :)

What You'll Actually Be Doing

• Working directly with customers to understand how they operate and where things break
• Turning vague, real-world problems into working technical solutions
• Deploying and iterating on AI systems in live environments
• Going back and forth between customers and internal teams to shape what gets built
• Prototyping quickly, debugging issues, and owning things end-to-end
• Helping figure out what "good" looks like for deploying AI in production

What We're Looking For

• Strong engineering fundamentals (Python, TypeScript, Go, Java, etc.)
• Experience working close to users — not just building in isolation
• Comfortable operating without a clear roadmap or spec
• Able to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical people
• You like building, not just planning
• Interest in AI (hands-on experience is a plus, but not required)
• Grit and resilience

Why This Role

• You're working on real AI products being used in the wild
• High ownership, you're not just implementing, you're shaping
• Tight feedback loops with actual users
• Small teams, fast decisions, very little process

Who This Is Good For

• You like talking to users as much as building
• You get bored just picking up tickets
• You want to influence what gets built, not just how
• You do well in fast-moving, less structured environments

Most of our roles are hybrid in NYC but we also have with teams based in SF, DC, and remotely!