Associate Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

Associate Forward Deployed Engineer Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Annual Salary: JPY 5,000,000-12,000,000

Work Style: Hybrid (3 days onsite / 2 days remote per week)

About The Opportunity We are seeking an Associate Forward Deployed Engineer to help enterprise organizations solve real business challenges through AI-powered applications and workflow automation.

This role is ideal for an early-career software engineer who has hands-on development experience and is eager to deepen their expertise in generative AI, full-stack engineering, and production-grade software delivery.

You will work alongside experienced engineers and business-facing technical specialists to develop, deploy, and continuously improve AI solutions for enterprise environments.

Rather than focusing solely on prototypes, you will help deliver reliable applications that are adopted in day-to-day business operations. You will also contribute to reusable components and technical standards that can be applied across multiple projects.

Structured mentorship and engineering reviews will support your development toward independently delivering end-to-end AI solutions within your first year.

Key Responsibilities Business Discovery & Solution Design

• Participate in customer discovery sessions to understand business processes and operational challenges.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications and implementation plans.
• Collaborate with senior engineers and technical stakeholders to define practical AI solutions.

AI Application Development

• Build applications using LLMs, RAG, AI agents, and workflow automation.
• Develop backend and frontend functionality using Python and TypeScript.
• Integrate enterprise SaaS applications and business systems through APIs.
• Improve model performance and application quality through prompt engineering, evaluation, and failure analysis.

Deployment & Production Operations

• Deploy applications to cloud environments.
• Implement testing, monitoring, and operational safeguards.
• Improve system reliability, security, performance, and maintainability.
• Design guardrails, fallback mechanisms, and human-in-the-loop processes.

Productization & Continuous Improvement

• Convert project-specific implementations into reusable components, templates, and standard architectures.
• Document technical decisions and share engineering best practices.
• Collaborate with product teams to incorporate feedback from real-world implementations.

Required Qualifications

• At least one year of software engineering experience or equivalent sustained development experience.
• Hands-on experience with Python or TypeScript.
• A foundation in backend or frontend development and an interest in expanding into full-stack engineering.
• Experience developing or prototyping applications using LLMs or generative AI through work, internships, or personal projects.
• Ability to learn from code reviews and technical feedback.
• Fluent Japanese proficiency for requirements discussions, technical communication, and documentation.

Candidates outside the Associate-level eligibility criteria may be considered for a standard-level engineering position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI, Machine Learning, or a related technical field.
• Experience with React, Next.js, Node.js, or full-stack development.
• Cloud development experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure.
• Familiarity with LangChain, LangGraph, or similar AI frameworks.
• Experience with RAG, AI agents, or business workflow automation.
• Knowledge of LLM evaluation, observability, guardrails, or human-in-the-loop systems.
• Experience integrating SaaS platforms through APIs.
• Personal projects, open-source contributions, internships, or hackathon experience.
• Ability to work with English-language technical documentation.

Ideal Candidate

• Proactive, curious, and comfortable learning unfamiliar technologies.
• Able to investigate problems, test ideas, and improve solutions independently.
• Focused on software quality, reliability, and maintainability.
• Interested in combining hands-on coding with business problem-solving.
• Motivated to build practical AI solutions that deliver measurable value.

Technical Environment

• Python, TypeScript, React, Next.js
• LLMs, RAG, AI agents, and workflow automation
• LangChain and LangGraph
• Cloud infrastructure, Docker, and Kubernetes
• PostgreSQL, BigQuery, and external data sources
• GitHub and modern AI-assisted development tools

Training & Career Development

• Structured onboarding and mentorship from senior engineers.
• Regular code reviews and architecture reviews.
• Hands-on experience across the full software development lifecycle.
• Support for technical learning, certifications, language development, and AI development tools.
• Potential career paths in senior engineering, technical leadership, engineering management, product management, or technical consulting.

Compensation & Benefits

• Annual salary: JPY 5,000,000-12,000,000.
• Fixed overtime allowance covering 45 hours per month; additional overtime is paid separately.
• Salary reviews twice a year and bonuses twice a year.
• Stock option programe available.
• Support for AI tools, development tools, books, certifications, and language learning.
• Refreshment allowance of up to JPY 5,000 per month.
• Housing allowance of up to JPY 30,000 per month for eligible residents.
• Hybrid work arrangement with three onsite days and two remote days per week.
• Increased onsite attendance may be required during the initial onboarding period.

Compensation is negotiable based on experience, skills, and previous salary.

Selection Process

• Resume screening
• Coding assessment
• Four to five interviews
• Reference check before the final interview
• Offer

The selection process evaluates AI fundamentals, system design, coding ability, problem-solving, Japanese communication, and team collaboration.