Forward Deployed Engineer

Thought Machine•New York, NY

1d•$140,000 - $220,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Forward Deployed Engineer is Thought Machine's primary technical interface with the client. FDEs embed directly with client engineering teams to design, build, and deliver production-ready implementations of Vault and associated products. This is a hands-on, generalist engineering role that spans backend development, systems integration, infrastructure, and technical consulting—driven by one goal: making the client successful. FDEs operate across the full project lifecycle ensuring requirements are implemented, tested and work to improve the product based on client feedback. You will be expected to travel to client sites (up to 25% of your time), work autonomously in complex environments, and act as the connective tissue between Thought Machine's product engineering and the client's delivery teams.

Requirements

Strong hands-on experience with one of Python or Go.
Comfortable working with ambiguous requirements to quickly iterate client ideas.
Working knowledge of Linux/Unix environments, container orchestration (Kubernetes), databases (PostgreSQL or equivalent), and messaging systems (Kafka or equivalent).
Practical experience with at least one major cloud provider (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including deploying and operating workloads in production.
Demonstrated ability to work directly with external clients or partners in a technical delivery capacity.
Can explain complex systems to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, and you are comfortable owning outcomes.
Experience delivering technical projects end-to-end.
Understand what it takes to move from design to production—not just the happy path, but the edge cases, rollback plans, and operability concerns.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with retail banking, payments, ledgers, or regulatory environments.
Understanding of the operational rigor expected in FSI.
AWS Solutions Architect, GCP Professional Cloud Architect, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, or equivalent certifications.

Responsibilities

Embed with client engineering teams on-site and remotely to deliver working implementations of Thought Machine Vault products, from initial design through production readiness.
Own the technical success of your assigned client engagements—you are accountable for solutions that work in practice, not just in architecture documents.
Work closely with client architects, engineers, and programme leads to translate business requirements into technical delivery plans.
Act as technical point of contact for the client, building trust through deep competence and consistent delivery.
Write production-quality code (primarily Python/Go; additional languages a plus) to build integrations, tooling, data pipelines, contribute to core products and extensions that connect Vault to the client's ecosystem.
Debug, troubleshoot, and resolve complex technical issues across distributed systems—including databases, messaging systems, container orchestration, and cloud infrastructure.
Design and deliver scalable solutions covering high availability, disaster recovery, capacity planning, and security in collaboration with client and internal teams.
Contribute to internal tooling, frameworks, and reusable patterns that accelerate delivery across all FDE engagements.
Support the Commercial team during presales by answering deep technical questions, running proof-of-concept implementations, and demonstrating feasibility.
Advise clients on best practices for Vault implementation, including system design beyond Vault's boundaries—empowering genuine digital transformation.
Serve as the voice of the client internally—channel technical feedback, pain points, and feature requests to product and engineering teams.
Identify patterns across engagements that can be turned into product improvements, documentation, or shared tooling.