Forward Deployed Engineer

Lightning AI • Seattle, WA

16d • $120,000 - $250,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Lightning AI is seeking an experienced Forward Deployed Engineer to partner directly with customers to architect, build, and deploy production AI systems and workflows on Lightning AI’s platform. This role owns the customer journey from early exploration through production deployment, translating ambiguous business goals into reliable, observable systems with clear quality, latency, scalability, and cost outcomes. The position sits at the intersection of software engineering, research engineering, AI infrastructure, product thinking, and customer engagement. The engineer will work closely with customer engineering teams as well as Lightning’s internal product and engineering organizations to deliver production-ready AI systems that help customers realize value quickly and scale with confidence. This is a hands-on engineering role that combines software development, AI infrastructure, technical customer engagement, and product thinking. Successful candidates will be highly technical, customer-oriented builders who thrive in fast-moving environments and enjoy solving ambiguous, real-world AI systems problems. This role is based in one of our hubs (New York City, San Francisco, or Seattle), with a minimum of 2 in-office days per week and occasional team and company offsites.

Requirements

• Strong software engineering experience building and maintaining production systems in one or more general-purpose programming languages, with Python strongly preferred
• Experience working directly with customers in highly technical environments, such as Forward Deployed Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Applied AI Engineering, Technical Product Engineering, or related roles
• Familiarity with AI/ML pipelines and the lifecycle of model development, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring
• Experience deploying and operating production AI/ML systems in cloud or distributed environments
• Familiarity with modern AI infrastructure and tooling such as Docker, Kubernetes, APIs, model serving systems, or distributed inference workloads
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, especially when working through complex technical topics with customers, engineers, and cross-functional stakeholders
• Ability to translate business needs into technical solutions and drive projects from initial concept through production delivery
• Ability to execute effectively in ambiguous, fast-moving, high-growth environments
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field

Nice To Haves

• Experience building, deploying, or optimizing large-scale AI/ML systems in production environments
• Experience with modern AI stacks and tooling such as vLLM, TensorRT, Ray, LangGraph, vector databases, or workflow orchestration systems
• Familiarity with inference optimization, distributed systems, or GPU-accelerated workloads
• Startup experience or experience operating in highly cross-functional environments
• Track record of rapidly shipping proof-of-concepts and production systems while maintaining strong engineering quality
• Advanced degree (Master’s or PhD) in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, AI, or a related technical field

Responsibilities

• Partner directly with customers to design, implement, and deploy end-to-end AI systems and workflows on Lightning’s platform
• Translate vague customer objectives into clear technical specifications, proof-of-concepts, and scalable production implementations
• Own customer technical engagements end-to-end, from early discovery and architecture through deployment, monitoring, and expansion
• Develop and maintain production-grade software systems and services using modern programming languages, with a strong preference for Python
• Build reliable, observable systems with strong attention to latency, throughput, quality, scalability, and cost efficiency in production environments
• Debug and optimize AI systems across inference infrastructure, model behavior, APIs, and distributed workloads to improve performance and reliability
• Work closely with customer engineering teams throughout the full lifecycle of AI deployments, including technical discovery, implementation, deployment, and scaling
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Lightning’s product and engineering teams to improve platform capabilities, influence roadmap priorities, and identify opportunities for reusable product improvements
• Navigate ambiguity with sound technical judgment, making thoughtful tradeoffs and selecting the right tools and approaches without introducing unnecessary complexity
• Demonstrate strong ownership and accountability in execution, with a commitment to delivering high-quality outcomes for both customers and internal teams

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental and vision coverage (U.S.); Private medical and dental insurance (U.K.)
• Retirement and financial wellness support (U.S.); Pension contribution (U.K.)
• Generous paid time off, plus holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Professional development support
• Wellness and work-from-home stipends
• Flexible work environment
• Discretionary bonus
• Meaningful equity component

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior