Role Overview
We’re hiring a founding Forward Deployed Engineer to help build a new vertical from the ground up. You’ll be the first FDE dedicated to this vertical, working directly with the GM to define the market, strategy, and early commercial motion. Your job is to turn early customer demand into durable technical capability: defining what the vertical needs, building reusable infrastructure on top of our existing platform, and establishing the technical patterns that future engagements and future hires can build on.
What You'll Do
Build the Technical Foundation
- Partner with the GM and early customers to define what the vertical actually needs technically.
- Build the first MVP of reusable patterns, integrations, and tooling that future engagements will run on, leveraging our core platform where it fits and extending it where the vertical requires something new.
- Make architectural decisions about what belongs in the platform layer versus vertical-specific tooling.
- Create the initial technical playbook so future FDEs can build on a real foundation rather than starting from scratch.
Own First Deals End-to-End
- Lead the first customer engagements in the vertical, from technical scoping through delivery and post-launch support.
- Write robust code that solves immediate customer problems while compounding into reusable infrastructure.
- Navigate real-world complexity across customer data, integrations, workflows, and stakeholder dynamics.
- Translate messy customer requirements into systems that are durable and maintainable.
Shape What Becomes Product
- Partner with Product and Engineering to identify which patterns from early customer work should become core platform capabilities.
- Surface repeatable use cases, infrastructure gaps, and product opportunities from live engagements.
- Help determine when the vertical is ready to evolve from bespoke delivery into a repeatable product motion.
Partner Across the Company
- Work directly with the GM or Solutions Lead to define the vertical’s technical strategy and commercial approach.
- Partner with Data Lab on domain-specific data and research questions.
- Collaborate with other FDEs on shared patterns, tools, and approaches that should compound across verticals.
- Serve as the technical voice of the vertical as it grows.
What You Bring
Must Haves
- 3+ years of engineering experience, including meaningful 0→1 work as a founding engineer, early technical lead, or builder in a highly ambiguous environment.
- Strong engineering generalist instincts with a backend and data orientation.
- Hands-on experience with Python and SQL.
- Comfort working across infrastructure, application logic, and data systems.
- Ability to create structure where none exists and move quickly without a fully defined roadmap.
- Strong technical judgment, especially around short-term delivery versus long-term architecture.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to work directly with senior technical and business stakeholders.
- Ability to independently run technical scoping conversations with customers and translate them into concrete execution plans.