Forward Deployed Engineer
US$180,000 / yr base salary
Posted 13 Oct 2026
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5–6 yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Contract
- Full-time
| Base salary | US$180,000 / yr |
|---|
Location: New York, NY
Work Model: In-office
Industry: AI security / infrastructure (MCP)
Compensation: ~$180K base + bonus
About the Company
Our partner is an early-stage, well-funded startup building security infrastructure for the AI era, helping enterprises adopt MCP and AI tooling without leaking sensitive data. Backed by top-tier investors, the company has roughly $15M in enterprise pipeline and a product that solves a genuinely hard, technical problem. The team is small, high-caliber, and growing quickly.
The Opportunity
As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical lead in the room with enterprise customers before and after the sale. You will own the technical issues that make or break proofs of concept, troubleshoot integrations, and pilot solutions hands-on with customers, building real software rather than running demos.
You will work with senior engineers at large enterprises, including buyers in banking, healthcare, and financial services, so technical depth and presence matter. This seat suits both future founders and deeply technical engineers who are equally strong with people.
Responsibilities
- Lead pre- and post-sales technical engagement with enterprise customers
- Own and resolve the technical issues that determine proof-of-concept success
- Troubleshoot integrations and build hands-on solutions in customer environments
- Earn credibility with senior enterprise engineering and security teams
- Feed customer insight back into product and engineering
- Partner with sales and the founding team on complex enterprise deals
Requirements
- 5-6 years of experience, including software engineering and customer-facing work
- Computer science or statistics background from a strong program
- Experience in forward deployed, solutions, pre-sales, or field engineering, or in consulting after an engineering foundation
- Deep engineering understanding, with comfort around networking, authentication, and AI tooling such as MCP
- Strong presence with senior technical stakeholders at large enterprises
- Startup experience and a track record of commitment to past roles
- Based in the US; able to work from New York (San Francisco also considered)