Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer, AI-Native Public Sector Systems Compensation: $170,000–$190,000 base + equity Location: New York City — on-site, 5 days per week + some travel to meet with clients A high-growth AI-native Series A software company modernizing the critical systems used by public-sector organizations. This company is rebuilding the technology that powers essential government operations. Its configurable software platform replaces fragmented legacy systems with modern, secure infrastructure designed around complex real-world workflows across state, local, and federal environments. With customer adoption accelerating and the engineering organization growing quickly, the team is tackling increasingly challenging deployment, integration, and platform problems at scale. The Opportunity This is a hands-on engineering role for someone who wants to work close to users, solve difficult production problems, and see their software deployed into real operational environments. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you’ll own the technical final mile between a reusable core platform and the unique systems, workflows, and constraints of individual customers. You’ll build production software, design integrations, solve ambiguous technical problems, and identify patterns that should ultimately become reusable platform capabilities. You’ll join early enough to influence architecture, tooling, and engineering practices while working within a business already experiencing significant customer demand. What You’ll Do Build production software that adapts a common platform to complex public-sector workflows and environments.Translate ambiguous operational requirements into clear technical designs and working systems.Architect and implement integrations across legacy databases, APIs, infrastructure, and customer-owned systems.Decide where deployment-specific customization is appropriate and where functionality should become part of the core platform.Partner closely with product and deployment teams to resolve technical challenges and unblock customer implementations.Identify repeated engineering work and turn it into better abstractions, tooling, and reusable software primitives.Debug and resolve difficult production issues across unfamiliar systems and environments.Use AI-native development tools to accelerate delivery while maintaining strong independent engineering judgment.Feed insights from customer deployments back into the broader product and engineering roadmap. What You’ll Bring Strong software engineering fundamentals with experience building and shipping meaningful systems end-to-end.A track record of taking software beyond prototypes and operating it successfully in production environments.The ability to move comfortably between high-level architecture and hands-on implementation.Experience working with APIs, databases, integrations, data flows, and unfamiliar technical systems.Strong technical judgment and the ability to make pragmatic trade-offs in ambiguous environments.Hands-on experience using modern AI coding tools as part of your engineering workflow.A high degree of ownership and comfort operating in a fast-moving startup environment.Clear communication skills and the ability to work effectively with product, customer-facing, and non-engineering stakeholders.The ability to work on-site in New York City five days per week and travel approximately 20% of the time. Tech Stack AI-assisted engineering using tools including Claude and CodexSQL and legacy database integrationsAPIs and complex data integrationsSingle-tenant customer deploymentsAI and agentic workflow orchestrationInternal developer toolingReusable platform abstractions and software primitives Why Join? You’ll have the opportunity to shape an engineering platform at a point where both the technical complexity and customer demand are increasing rapidly. It’s a strong opportunity for an engineer who wants meaningful ownership, technically demanding work, direct customer impact, and the potential upside of joining an early-stage technology company. About People In AI People In AI is a specialist recruitment partner connecting exceptional AI, machine learning, data, and engineering talent with some of the most ambitious technology companies in the world. We work closely with founders, technical leaders, and hiring teams to represent opportunities accurately and help candidates assess genuine fit.