What is a forward deployed engineer?
A forward deployed engineer is a software engineer who works with a customer, usually on-site, and builds the software that solves that customer's problem on the company's own product. The role sits between engineering, consulting and account ownership: you scope the problem with the client, build the solution, and stay with it through go-live. This page explains the role in general and what it looks like at Structify.
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What does a forward deployed engineer do?
A forward deployed engineer embeds with a customer, learns how their business actually runs, and builds working software for it on their company's product. The job covers scoping the problem, connecting the customer's systems and data, writing and shipping the software, and owning the relationship until it runs in production. What they learn in the field goes back to the product team.
How is a forward deployed engineer different from a consultant or a solutions engineer?
A consultant advises and often hands the build to someone else. A solutions engineer usually works before the sale, showing how the product fits. A forward deployed engineer is on the hook after the sale: they write the production code, on the company's product, and stay until it is in use.
Where did the forward deployed engineer role come from?
The title was popularized by Palantir, which sent engineers to work directly inside customer organizations. AI companies have since adopted it, because getting AI to work in a real business depends on the customer's systems, data and processes as much as on the model.
What forward deployed engineers do at Structify.
Our customers are mostly operators in manufacturing, distribution, energy and construction. The work runs in this order.
- 01
Embed on-site
Sit with the people doing the work and learn how the business actually runs, including the steps that live in spreadsheets and people's heads.
- 02
Connect the systems
Connect the ERP, the MES, the quality system, the engineering prints and the spreadsheets into one data map the customer owns.
- 03
Scope the problem
Turn what you learned into a ranked list of where AI pays off, agreed with the client, with the systems each application touches.
- 04
Build the solution
Build the applications on Structify with our platform and engineering team, for example turning customer prints into control plans or answering ERP questions in Slack.
- 05
Own it through go-live
Stay with the client until the software is in daily use, and bring what you learned in the field back to the product.
The skills the role takes.
2-4 years of work experience
Enough time in a job to know how real organizations make decisions, and where work gets stuck.
Consulting or legacy industry experience
You have worked with clients, or inside the kind of business that runs on older systems and paper.
Technical thinking
You are comfortable with data, systems and how software fits together, and you learn a new system quickly.
Clear communication
You can explain a tradeoff to a plant manager and an engineer, especially when the conversation is difficult.
Problem solving
You solve problems that nobody has written down yet, and you learn fast when the first answer is wrong.
Forward deployed engineer, in person in Brooklyn, NY.
Current openings, including this one, are listed on the careers page. To apply, email careers@structify.ai.
Related guides and posts.
- Careers at StructifyCurrent open roles, including forward deployed engineer.
- Structify for manufacturingWhere forward deployed engineers spend most of their time.
- Precision machining case studyA two-week build that turned customer prints into control plans.
- AI ERPHow AI gets built on the ERP a customer already runs.
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