{"schemaVersion":"jobsearcher.job.v1","id":"0842f54e5e96fafccb12c3b3","url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/0842f54e5e96fafccb12c3b3","canonicalUrl":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/0842f54e5e96fafccb12c3b3","title":"Forward Deployed Engineer","description":"About Middesk:\nMiddesk makes it easier for businesses to work together. Since 2018, we’ve been transforming business identity verification, replacing slow, manual processes with seamless access to complete, up-to-date data. Our platform helps companies across industries confidently verify business identities, onboard customers faster, and reduce risk at every stage of the customer lifecycle.\nMiddesk came out of Y Combinator, is backed by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, and was recently named to Forbes Fintech 50 List.\nAbout the Role:\nWe're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE): a deeply technical builder and technical leader who thrives at the intersection of engineering, product, and real customer problems.\nYou'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with customers and internal product and engineering teams to design, ship, and iterate on mission-critical integrations and AI-driven systems that run in production. You'll write real code, own complex deployments end-to-end, and help shape how these systems are built across Middesk. Forward Deployed Engineers close the gap between product intent and real-world usage—acting as a tight feedback loop that shapes both how our product is used and what it becomes.\nYou will act as a technical leader, helping set direction, influence architecture, and establish best practices for how we deploy and operate systems in the real world.\nThis role is ideal for a recovering founder, a former core engineer who misses direct customer impact, or someone who thrives on ownership and wants to build real systems where the feedback loop is immediate.\nWhat You’ll Do:\nOwn Technical Direction for Deployments\nLead architecture and technical design for complex, customer-facing systems and integrations.\nMake and communicate clear trade-offs across speed, reliability, and scalability.\nIdentify systemic risks and drive improvements across deployments, not just one-off solutions.\nEstablish patterns and standards that other engineers can build on—helping define what \"great\" looks like for Forward Deployed Engineering at Middesk.\nBuild & Deploy Real Systems\nPartner deeply with strategic customers to understand their architecture, workflows, and constraints.\nDesign, build, and deploy production-grade integrations using Middesk APIs, data pipelines, and AI workflows.\nOwn deployments end-to-end: from architecture and implementation to rollout, monitoring, and iteration. Deployment quality matters—we operate in the critical path of customer systems.\nSolve ambiguous, high-impact problems that don't yet have established playbooks.\nAI, Agents & Evaluation\nBuild and operate LLM- and agent-based systems in real customer workflows.\nDesign and maintain evaluation frameworks (evals) to measure quality, reliability, and correctness of LLM outputs and agent behavior.\nCreate test harnesses, metrics, and feedback loops to continuously improve AI-driven systems.\nFeel comfortable running multiple coding agents or automated workflows in parallel, debugging failures, and reasoning about system behavior.\nInfluence Product & Engineering Direction\nTranslate deployment learnings into reusable abstractions, internal tooling, and product improvements.\nInfluence roadmap priorities by surfacing recurring patterns, technical gaps, and opportunities for leverage.\nParticipate in architecture discussions and contribute to org-wide technical decisions.\nWe believe engineering velocity is only valuable if it delivers customer value—your role is to make sure it does.\nLead & Raise the Bar\nLead through influence, not authority—setting a high standard for engineering quality and pragmatism in a high-ownership, high-trust environment.\nGuide engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on collaboration.\nEnjoy real autonomy, direct influence on product direction, and deep technical problems with real-world impact.\nWork with a team that values thoughtful engineering over performative process.\n\nWhat We’re Looking For:\nCore Requirements\n6+ years of experience building and shipping software in production environments.\nDemonstrated experience acting as a technical lead or domain owner for a team or major system.\nStrong proficiency in Python and at least one additional language (TypeScript, Go, etc.).\nExperience designing and operating distributed systems, APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure.\nComfort operating across the stack: backend systems, integrations, infrastructure, and tooling.\nStrong debugging instincts and an ownership mindset—you care deeply about failure modes, not just happy paths.\nStrong communication skills—able to articulate trade-offs clearly to engineers, product, and non-technical stakeholders.\nAI / LLM Experience (Strong Plus)\nHands-on experience building or deploying LLM-powered or agent-based systems.\nFamiliarity with LLM evaluation techniques (evals) and performance measurement.\nExperience orchestrating automated workflows, agents, or developer tooling powered by AI.\nClear understanding of failure modes and tradeoffs in applied AI systems.\nCustomer & Domain Experience\nExperience working in startup environments with high ambiguity and rapid iteration.\nBackground in fintech, compliance, or regulated systems where correctness and data quality matter.\nComfortable working directly with customers on complex technical problems.\nNice-To-Have:\nFormer founder or early startup engineer.\nExperience with identity systems, risk/fraud, or workflow automation.\nFamiliarity with observability, reliability engineering, or system safety practices.\nCompensation Range: $148K - $255K","company":"Middesk","rawCompany":"middesk","city":"Millbrae","state":"CA","isRemote":false,"isActive":false,"createdAt":"2026-05-11T21:10:58.847Z","occupations":[{"code":"15-1299.08","title":"Computer Systems Engineers/Architects","slug":"computer-systems-engineers-architects"},{"code":"15-1252.00","title":"Software Developers","slug":"software-developers"},{"code":"17-2199.00","title":"Engineers, All Other","slug":"engineers-all-other"}],"industries":[{"code":"541512","title":"Computer Systems Design Services","slug":"computer-systems-design-services"},{"code":"541511","title":"Custom Computer Programming Services","slug":"custom-computer-programming-services"},{"code":"513210","title":"Software Publishers","slug":"software-publishers"}],"jobPosting":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"JobPosting","title":"Forward Deployed Engineer","description":"About Middesk:\nMiddesk makes it easier for businesses to work together. Since 2018, we’ve been transforming business identity verification, replacing slow, manual processes with seamless access to complete, up-to-date data. Our platform helps companies across industries confidently verify business identities, onboard customers faster, and reduce risk at every stage of the customer lifecycle.\nMiddesk came out of Y Combinator, is backed by Sequoia Capital and Accel Partners, and was recently named to Forbes Fintech 50 List.\nAbout the Role:\nWe're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE): a deeply technical builder and technical leader who thrives at the intersection of engineering, product, and real customer problems.\nYou'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with customers and internal product and engineering teams to design, ship, and iterate on mission-critical integrations and AI-driven systems that run in production. You'll write real code, own complex deployments end-to-end, and help shape how these systems are built across Middesk. Forward Deployed Engineers close the gap between product intent and real-world usage—acting as a tight feedback loop that shapes both how our product is used and what it becomes.\nYou will act as a technical leader, helping set direction, influence architecture, and establish best practices for how we deploy and operate systems in the real world.\nThis role is ideal for a recovering founder, a former core engineer who misses direct customer impact, or someone who thrives on ownership and wants to build real systems where the feedback loop is immediate.\nWhat You’ll Do:\nOwn Technical Direction for Deployments\nLead architecture and technical design for complex, customer-facing systems and integrations.\nMake and communicate clear trade-offs across speed, reliability, and scalability.\nIdentify systemic risks and drive improvements across deployments, not just one-off solutions.\nEstablish patterns and standards that other engineers can build on—helping define what \"great\" looks like for Forward Deployed Engineering at Middesk.\nBuild & Deploy Real Systems\nPartner deeply with strategic customers to understand their architecture, workflows, and constraints.\nDesign, build, and deploy production-grade integrations using Middesk APIs, data pipelines, and AI workflows.\nOwn deployments end-to-end: from architecture and implementation to rollout, monitoring, and iteration. Deployment quality matters—we operate in the critical path of customer systems.\nSolve ambiguous, high-impact problems that don't yet have established playbooks.\nAI, Agents & Evaluation\nBuild and operate LLM- and agent-based systems in real customer workflows.\nDesign and maintain evaluation frameworks (evals) to measure quality, reliability, and correctness of LLM outputs and agent behavior.\nCreate test harnesses, metrics, and feedback loops to continuously improve AI-driven systems.\nFeel comfortable running multiple coding agents or automated workflows in parallel, debugging failures, and reasoning about system behavior.\nInfluence Product & Engineering Direction\nTranslate deployment learnings into reusable abstractions, internal tooling, and product improvements.\nInfluence roadmap priorities by surfacing recurring patterns, technical gaps, and opportunities for leverage.\nParticipate in architecture discussions and contribute to org-wide technical decisions.\nWe believe engineering velocity is only valuable if it delivers customer value—your role is to make sure it does.\nLead & Raise the Bar\nLead through influence, not authority—setting a high standard for engineering quality and pragmatism in a high-ownership, high-trust environment.\nGuide engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and hands-on collaboration.\nEnjoy real autonomy, direct influence on product direction, and deep technical problems with real-world impact.\nWork with a team that values thoughtful engineering over performative process.\n\nWhat We’re Looking For:\nCore Requirements\n6+ years of experience building and shipping software in production environments.\nDemonstrated experience acting as a technical lead or domain owner for a team or major system.\nStrong proficiency in Python and at least one additional language (TypeScript, Go, etc.).\nExperience designing and operating distributed systems, APIs, and cloud-native infrastructure.\nComfort operating across the stack: backend systems, integrations, infrastructure, and tooling.\nStrong debugging instincts and an ownership mindset—you care deeply about failure modes, not just happy paths.\nStrong communication skills—able to articulate trade-offs clearly to engineers, product, and non-technical stakeholders.\nAI / LLM Experience (Strong Plus)\nHands-on experience building or deploying LLM-powered or agent-based systems.\nFamiliarity with LLM evaluation techniques (evals) and performance measurement.\nExperience orchestrating automated workflows, agents, or developer tooling powered by AI.\nClear understanding of failure modes and tradeoffs in applied AI systems.\nCustomer & Domain Experience\nExperience working in startup environments with high ambiguity and rapid iteration.\nBackground in fintech, compliance, or regulated systems where correctness and data quality matter.\nComfortable working directly with customers on complex technical problems.\nNice-To-Have:\nFormer founder or early startup engineer.\nExperience with identity systems, risk/fraud, or workflow automation.\nFamiliarity with observability, reliability engineering, or system safety practices.\nCompensation Range: $148K - $255K","datePosted":"2026-05-11T21:10:58.847Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T21:10:58.847Z","hiringOrganization":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Middesk","sameAs":"https://jobsearcher.com"},"jobLocation":{"@type":"Place","address":{"@type":"PostalAddress","addressLocality":"Millbrae","addressRegion":"CA","addressCountry":"US"}},"identifier":{"@type":"PropertyValue","name":"JobSearcher","value":"0842f54e5e96fafccb12c3b3"},"url":"https://jobsearcher.com/jobs/0842f54e5e96fafccb12c3b3"}}