Forward Deployed Engineer

First Orion•North Little Rock, AR

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

Branded Messaging is First Orion's A2P RCS messaging platform team. We're hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to own the technical thread end-to-end — from pre-sales support through production deployment. Pre-sales technical support runs through this function: you'll run discovery, demos, and proofs-of-concept alongside First Orion's shared commercial sellers, then embed with the customer to write integration code, build reference implementations, and ship branded messaging into production. It's a hands-on engineering role at the customer edge, where you're measured on both deals won and working deployments — not slideware.

Requirements

4+ years in a hands-on forward deployed engineer, solutions / sales engineering, implementation, or integration engineering role in B2B SaaS — spanning customer-facing pre-sales and post-sale delivery, ideally in CPaaS, communications platform, or marketing technology
Strong coding ability in at least one mainstream language (Python, TypeScript/Node, Go, Java, or similar) — you build and debug real integrations, not just diagrams
Deep comfort with REST APIs end-to-end: reading docs, debugging webhook flows, writing example payloads, and shipping working client code
Strong demo and discovery skills — able to run a live technical demo and scope requirements fluidly with both technical buyers (eng/IT) and business buyers (marketing, CX, fraud)
Working knowledge of A2P messaging (SMS, MMS, or RCS); direct RCS experience is a strong plus
Customer-facing presence — able to earn trust on-site and carry the relationship from first technical call through production
Familiarity with one or more aggregator platforms (Twilio, Sinch, Infobip, Bandwidth) and integrating against them in production
Comfortable operating in a small, fast-moving dedicated team inside a larger parent commercial org, owning ambiguous problems end-to-end

Nice To Haves

Hands-on familiarity with RCS verification and the agent lifecycle (intent to launch, verification, scaling)
Experience building customer-facing integrations or deploying software inside the customer's environment
Working knowledge of TCPA, CTIA, or other messaging compliance frameworks
Prior in-seat experience at a messaging API, CPaaS, or RCS-adjacent company
Experience with brand identity / verified caller / trusted communications products (an adjacent First Orion domain)

Responsibilities

Own the technical thread across the full deal lifecycle — from pre-sales discovery and demos through production go-live and expansion — as the single Forward Deployed Engineer on the account
Run pre-sales technical support alongside First Orion's shared commercial Sales Executives: deep-dive discovery, tailored product demos, live brand console walkthroughs, and end-to-end message rendering across devices
Lead proof-of-concept engagements end-to-end — technical setup, success criteria, measurement, and sign-off — and author technical proposals, reference architectures, and RFP / security questionnaire responses
Embed with enterprise customers post-sale as the technical owner of their Branded Messaging deployment, writing integration code and reference implementations against the aggregator API, brand verification flows, and sender onboarding
Map customer messaging use cases to RCS capabilities (rich cards, carousels, suggested replies, verified sender) and stand up end-to-end proofs in the customer's own stack
Debug live integration issues across webhooks, message rendering, and device families, partnering with Engineering on platform-level fixes
Build reusable accelerators — sample apps, SDK snippets, deployment scripts, and runbooks — that shorten time-to-launch and de-risk the next deal
Feed prioritized field gaps back to Product and Engineering with working repros and clear customer evidence
Coach commercial Sales Executives and customer teams on Branded Messaging fundamentals so they can run early-stage qualification independently