Forward Deployed Engineer

Department: Engineering Location: Bristol, UK Compensation: £60,000 - £85,000 / year Description We’re building the UK’s next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision-making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments. Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 200 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest-growing engineering businesses. About the role This role sits at the intersection of customers, engineering and product, helping turn complex operational problems into deployed technical capability. It involves spending significant time working alongside customers at their sites and in their operational environments, developing a first-hand understanding of their challenges, workflows and constraints. You'll take ownership of the technical success of customer deployments, from initial discovery and solution design through integration, deployment, testing and operational use. Working hands-on with Dovetail products and technologies, you'll configure, integrate and adapt solutions to meet real-world customer needs, while building a deep understanding of how customers use those products to identify opportunities to improve capability, usability and deployment. The role requires operating effectively in ambiguous and fast-moving environments, where requirements may not be fully defined and solutions need to be developed iteratively with users. Throughout all of this, you act as a direct feedback loop between customers and Dovetail's Product and Engineering teams, ensuring lessons from the field inform future product development. This is a forward-deployed role that requires significant time working at customer sites, with frequent travel across the UK and internationally. Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance. More information about security clearance is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels Key areas of responsibility Customer & problem discoveryEmbed with customers and end users to understand their missions, workflows, technical environments and operational challenges.Observe how users work in practice and identify problems or opportunities that may not emerge through traditional requirements gathering.Translate loosely defined customer problems into clear technical requirements, hypotheses and achievable outcomes.Build strong relationships with users and become a trusted technical partner who understands both their operational needs and Dovetail's technology.Solution design & engineeringDesign pragmatic technical solutions using Dovetail products alongside customer systems and third-party technologies.Rapidly develop prototypes and proof-of-concepts to test ideas with customers and validate technical approaches.Develop integrations, scripts, tooling, configuration and supporting software required to make deployments successful.Work across software, APIs, data, infrastructure and networks to solve end-to-end technical problems.Adapt solutions to customer environments, including those with challenging infrastructure, security, connectivity or operational constraints.Make appropriate engineering trade-offs between speed, robustness, security, maintainability and customer needs.Deployment & operational ownershipTake hands-on ownership of deploying Dovetail products into customer environments.Spend significant periods working directly from customer sites, particularly during discovery, trials, integration and deployment.Configure, integrate, deploy, test and troubleshoot Dovetail products across cloud, on-premise and potentially disconnected or edge environments.Diagnose technical issues across the full stack, resolving problems directly or working with specialist Engineering teams where required.Product feedback & developmentAct as the technical link between customers in the field and Dovetail's Product and Engineering teams.Capture structured feedback, technical findings and lessons from deployments.Identify recurring customer requirements and opportunities to improve Dovetail's products.Reproduce field issues and provide Engineering teams with clear technical evidence and context. Key skills, experience and behaviours EssentialStrong software engineering fundamentals, with practical programming experience in Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Java or similar.Strong understanding of Linux, networking, APIs and modern software development practices.Experience integrating, deploying and troubleshooting software across cloud and/or on-premises environments.Familiarity with containerisation and deployment technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.Experience working directly with customers or end users to understand problems and deliver technical solutions.Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to work through ambiguous or changing requirements and make pragmatic technical decisions.Able to communicate complex technical concepts clearly across Engineering teams, customer technical teams and end users.Comfortable taking end-to-end ownership of technical problems, from initial discovery through to deployment and resolution.DesirableExperience deploying or supporting systems in live operational or mission-critical environments.Experience with one or more of AI/ML, data engineering, geospatial systems or edge computing.Experience deploying solutions into disconnected, bandwidth-constrained or otherwise challenging environments.Experience working in defence, national security, emergency services or critical infrastructure. Working at Rowden We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are! We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants. Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible. Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!