Forward Deployed Engineer

Northwood Space•Washington, DC

5h•$170,000 - $225,000•Onsite

About The Position

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it. Forward Deployed Engineer: Mission Architects help customers adopt and succeed on Northwood's ground station network. You'll work with satellite operators to understand their missions, shape requirements, and guide them from first conversation through deployment and beyond. You'll partner closely with Business Development, Engineering, and Program Management throughout. This role suits a technically credible operator who can build trust with satellite customers, spot opportunities, and turn mission needs into clear priorities for our internal teams.

Requirements

7+ years in customer-facing technical roles: solutions or systems engineering, mission operations, technical business development, capture engineering, solutions architecture, or TAM.
Bachelor's in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or related field — or equivalent experience with mission systems, ground systems, networking, cloud, or satellite operations.
Track record taking complex customer engagements from discovery through deployment or expansion.
Proven ability to build trust with technical customers and turn ambiguous mission needs into concrete priorities.
Comfortable working in ambiguous environments spanning hardware, software, networking, and business objectives.
Strong communicator — able to lead technical conversations, write clear customer materials, and brief internal stakeholders.
Effective across BD, Engineering, Product, Program Management, and customer teams.
Willing to travel up to 30%.

Nice To Haves

Background in satellite communications, RF, space operations, ground stations, or telecom infrastructure.
Experience with proposals, technical evaluations, demos, pilots, or proof-of-concept work.
Experience managing technical relationships in mission-critical environments.
Familiarity with APIs, networking protocols, telemetry, scheduling systems, cloud infrastructure, or mission assurance.
Ability to obtain or hold TS/SCI clearance.

Responsibilities

Make customer missions succeed on Northwood's network.
Serve as the primary technical contact for customers during capture, evaluation, onboarding, and post-deployment.
Get hands-on with implementation and integration — working directly alongside customers and Engineering to bring up, troubleshoot, and validate their operations on the network.
Ship code, debug integrations, and validate operations alongside customers and Engineering
Support Business Development on qualification, proposals, and expansion.
Lead technical discovery, exchanges, demos, and readiness reviews alongside Program Management.
Learn each customer's mission, workflows, constraints, decision criteria, and success metrics in depth.
Translate customer needs into clear priorities for Engineering, Product, and BD.
Surface friction points, adoption blockers, and recurring needs that should shape the product and network.
Coordinate onboarding and deployment readiness — clarifying requirements, flagging risks, and aligning internal teams around customer objectives.
Build reusable discovery frameworks and customer-facing materials that help Northwood scale capture and customer success.