Forward Deployed Engineers- Blackstraw.ai

Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

A Forward Deployed Engineer works at the intersection of business understanding, solution design and hands-on engineering translating complex business problems into effective technology solutions.

Experience: 8-15 Years

We are looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer who can work closely with customers and internal engineering teams to solve complex business problems using AI, Machine Learning, Data Engineering, and scalable software systems.

As an FDE, you will operate at the intersection of Engineering, AI/ML, Product, and Customer Success. You will understand customer requirements, translate them into technical solutions, build prototypes/POCs, deploy production-ready solutions, and iterate rapidly based on real-world feedback.

Key Responsibilities

• Work directly with customers and stakeholders to understand business problems, workflows, and technical requirements.
• Translate ambiguous business requirements into scalable technical and AI/ML solutions.
• Build rapid POCs, prototypes, MVPs, and production-grade applications.
• Develop and integrate LLM, GenAI, Agentic AI, RAG, and ML solutions where applicable.
• Design and develop backend services, APIs, data pipelines, and integrations.
• Work with engineering teams to productionize solutions with appropriate architecture, scalability, security, and observability.
• Debug and troubleshoot technical issues across application, data, model, and infrastructure layers.
• Work with customer data and integrate solutions with existing enterprise systems.
• Collaborate with Product, Data Science, ML Engineering, DevOps, and Solution Architecture teams.
• Own technical delivery from discovery POC deployment production adoption.
• Continuously improve solutions based on customer feedback and business outcomes.
• Communicate technical concepts effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Must-Have Skills

• 6+ years of software engineering / backend / data / ML engineering experience.
• Strong programming skills in Python.
• Strong understanding of Data Structures & Algorithms.
• Strong OOP and software engineering fundamentals.
• Experience building REST APIs / microservices using frameworks such as FastAPI, Flask, or Django.
• Strong understanding of system design and scalable backend architecture.
• Experience working with SQL/RDBMS and data processing.
• Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Hands-on experience with Docker and CI/CD.
• Ability to rapidly prototype and convert POCs into production-ready solutions.
• Strong debugging, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills.