Forward Deployed Software Engineer

About the role

Encord, the data layer for Physical AI and enterprise, is looking for a Forward Deployed Software Engineer (FDSE) to join its engineering team. This is an engineering-first role: FDSEs take the Encord platform into strategic customer environments, work directly with users and their engineering teams, make system design decisions and build production software. As an early member of the Forward Deployed team, you will work hands-on across the stack, from APIs and data workflows to backend services and product surfaces.

Key responsibilities

• Design and build production software for complex data, ML and application environments
• Own system design decisions for deployments, balancing correctness, scalability, performance and speed
• Work directly with customers and their engineering teams to understand ambiguous problems and define the right technical solution
• Build across the stack, from APIs and data workflows to backend systems and product-facing functionality
• Own deployments from technical scoping through implementation, rollout and iteration
• Turn recurring customer problems into reusable tooling and product capabilities
• Debug complex production issues across reliability, performance and data flow
• Communicate technical decisions and trade-offs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Feed deployment insights back into Product and Engineering and help shape the FDSE function as it grows

Required profile

• 4+ years of software engineering experience with strong CS fundamentals
• Experience building production software across the stack, from product-facing applications and APIs to backend services and data workflows
• Strong system design judgment and experience making architecture decisions for complex software
• Experience owning technical problems end to end, from design through production
• Experience working directly with users, customers or external engineering teams is a plus
• Bonus: experience in a high-growth startup, developer platform or ML/data product environment

Required skills

• Strong coding skills in a modern language; Python is a plus
• Strong product judgment, technical communication and stakeholder management

What we offer

• Competitive salary, commission and meaningful equity in a high-growth startup
• Clear, accelerated growth opportunities
• Strong in-person culture: 4 days per week
• Daily team lunches and dinners, annual learning and development budget
• Health, dental and vision coverage
• US employees: 18 paid vacation days plus US public holidays; UK employees: 25 paid vacation days plus UK public holidays
• Frequent travel across the U.S., London and Europe, bi-annual offsites and monthly socials