Forward Deployed Engineers

ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW

Forward Deployed Engineers to embed directly within a large regulated utility client's grid operations, integration, and digital teams. Unlike a platform-specialist role, the FDE owns a problem end-to-end — sitting alongside client engineers and operators, building and shipping working software (including middleware, automation, and custom tooling) directly into the client's production environment, and iterating in near-real-time based on operator and stakeholder feedback.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Embed directly with client grid operations, IT, and business teams to observe workflows and surface the real (often undocumented) integration and automation problems worth solving.
• Design and ship working solutions directly into the client's environment — middleware integrations, internal tools, automation scripts, data pipelines — end-to-end from requirements to production.
• Operate comfortably against ambiguous, incomplete, or conflicting requirements; convert operator pain points into a working prototype in days, not sprints.
• Interface directly with client stakeholders — present solutions, gather feedback, and iterate live rather than working through layers of specification.
• Build and maintain integrations across legacy OT (SCADA, AMI/smart meter, outage management) and enterprise IT (SAP/ERP, CRM, billing) as needed to solve the problem at hand.
• Own reliability and handoff — document and productionize what starts as a prototype so it survives after the FDE moves to the next problem.
• Maintain compliance and security discipline (NERC CIP and related standards) even while moving at prototype speed.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years as a generalist software/integration engineer, with at least one prior forward-deployed, embedded, or client-facing delivery role (Palantir-style FDE, startup founding engineer, or equivalent).
• Demonstrated ability to ship production software directly at a client site with minimal process overhead — not just platform configuration.
• Working fluency across integration/middleware concepts (APIs, event streaming, message queues) even without deep specialization in a single platform.
• Prior exposure to utilities, energy, or another regulated, operations-heavy industry preferred; comfort with legacy/OT systems is essential.
• Strong stakeholder-facing communication — able to present technical tradeoffs to non-technical operators and executives.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Prior founding engineer, startup, or 0-to-1 product-building experience.
• Exposure to AI/ML-driven tooling (copilots, automation agents) built for operational teams.
• SAP PI/PO, cloud integration (Azure/AWS), or SCADA/AMI systems experience.