Forward Deployed Software Engineer

Encord • San Francisco, CA

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

Encord is seeking an exceptional Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE) to join their product engineering team. This is an engineering-first role where FDSEs are the technical owners responsible for integrating the Encord platform into strategic customer environments. They will work directly with client engineering teams to identify issues, design, build, and implement solutions. As an early member of the Forward Deployed team, the individual will significantly influence a critical function for Encord and its customers, combining hands-on engineering with direct client ownership. The role involves making system design decisions under real customer load and solving complex integration and workflow problems. The FDSE will operate autonomously, defining their own solutions, managing client relationships, and providing feedback to the product roadmap.

Requirements

• 3–8 years in a software engineering role
• Experience building or working with data integrations and APIs
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to thrive in ambiguity and take ownership without being told what to do

Nice To Haves

• Python is a big plus
• Prior experience at a high-growth startup is a plus

Responsibilities

• Design and ship high-quality, production-grade code that integrates Encord into customers' most complex data and ML pipelines
• Own system design decisions for customer deployments, balancing correctness, scalability, and speed
• Work directly with clients' engineering teams to diagnose problems, scope solutions, and ship fixes end-to-end
• Build data integrations and technical solutions that support customer onboarding, adoption, and scale at pace
• Communicate technical plans and tradeoffs clearly to both engineering counterparts and non-technical stakeholders
• Operate with a high degree of autonomy: identify the right problem to solve, decide how to solve it, and see it through with minimal oversight
• Collaborate with product and engineering to feed customer insights back into the roadmap
• Help define and scale the Forward Deployed function as an early team member

Benefits

• Competitive salary, commission, and meaningful equity in a high-growth startup
• Strong in-person culture — most of the team works from our London office 4+ days/week
• 25 days annual leave + UK public holidays
• Annual learning & development budget
• Travel for customer visits, events, and conferences across the UK and Europe
• Company lunches twice a week
• Monthly socials & bi-annual team offsites

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed