Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

🚨 Software Engineer – Forward Deployed / Customer Engineering📍 Onsite, San Francisco I’m working with an early-stage defense AI company building technology to detect and conduct a novel class of AI-powered cyber operation.This is not conventional vulnerability research or zero-day hunting. The company is tackling a less-understood attack surface where the US currently lacks reliable detection and comparable operational capability.The business is already revenue-generating, has more than 18 months of runway and is deliberately building a very small, senior technical team.This is a high-ownership customer engineering opportunity for someone who can sit directly with users, work out what they actually need, then personally build and ship the solution end to end.You’ll work on:🤝 Working directly with customers and users to understand ambiguous or poorly defined requirements🧠 Figuring out what the customer actually needs rather than simply building what they initially ask for⚙️ Designing and building full-stack software solutions from scratch where required🚀 Owning the full loop from discovery and solution design through implementation, deployment and post-launch validation🔄 Configuring existing product capabilities while also writing new code where the problem requires it📊 Using customer feedback, adoption and real-world usage to determine whether the solution actually worked🛠️ Moving quickly across product, frontend, backend and infrastructure without waiting for handoffs from PMs or separate implementation teamsRequirements:✅ Evidence of personally delivering finished software used by real customers, users or demanding internal stakeholders✅ Strong full-stack engineering ability and the confidence to build substantial software rather than simply demo or configure products✅ Experience owning ambiguous requirements without needing a detailed spec, roadmap or PM translation layer✅ Ability to clearly explain what the customer asked for, what they actually needed, what you personally built and what happened after launch✅ Strong communication and people skills, with the ability to build trust directly with technical and non-technical users✅ Clear personal ownership of solution design, implementation and delivery—not simply contributing tickets within a larger team✅ High agency, strong technical judgement and the ability to move quickly with incomplete information⭐ Experience in forward deployed engineering, GTM engineering, product engineering, consultancy, agency work, freelancing or early-stage startups is highly valuable.You’ll join a very small technical team working on difficult national-security problems involving large-scale multimodal data, signal extraction, applied ML and agentic systems.The environment is highly hands-on and deliberately low on bureaucracy. Engineers are expected to make decisions independently, communicate directly with users and take responsibility for getting working software into production.💰 Package: Competitive base salary plus meaningful equity.