> AI agents: this is one page of Nextmove’s FDE site, in Markdown. Nextmove is a job board and free career service for forward deployed engineers (FDEs). Each posting is classified from its text, not its title: the kind of work, how much of it is production code, pre-sales weight, time at customer sites, travel, remote arrangement, level and posted base pay. The site also publishes the aggregates: median pay by level, metro, company and kind of work, and which companies started hiring FDEs each week. Every page under https://nextmove.md/fde is served this way; the index of pages is https://nextmove.md/llms.txt. # Forward Deployed Engineer Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4733b2449ae72e66 Middesk posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in San Francisco, CA, at $148,000–$255,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. A customer-facing engineer who owns production integrations and AI-driven systems end-to-end, partnering with customers and internal teams to solve complex technical problems. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Middesk](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/middesk) Posted May 6, 2026 by Middesk · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 **$148,000–$255,000** + equity San Francisco, CA Hybrid Full-time A customer-facing engineer who owns production integrations and AI-driven systems end-to-end, partnering with customers and internal teams to solve complex technical problems. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F4733b2449ae72e66&placement=top) - [View posting at Middesk](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/middesk/a72b1048-1001-49b1-92bd-9c44574f939b/application) Free. Upload your resume once, see why each FDE role fits, and get introduced only when you say so. ## At a glance ### Posted base pay $148K–$255K Above the median Midpoint $202K · median $190K This job $148K to $255K. Senior FDE postings, 1,864 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K. ### The work Builds what the customer runs Balance **Mostly building** Project stages 1. Pre-sales (not covered) 2. Proof of concept (not covered) 3. Implementation 4. Operations - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: Both - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **3+ years** building and shipping production software Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 3+ years. How many do you have? The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now? The job is in San Francisco, CA. Could you work there? Which of these have you used in production? Answer each one. Nothing is saved or sent. [What postings ask for, by background →](https://nextmove.md/fde/paths) ## Conditions - **Location**: San Francisco, CA - **Work arrangement**: Hybrid - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Pay**: ## More like this [Salesforce](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/salesforce) ### [Software Engineering, AI Systems (SMTS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/270724389386ab3d) San Francisco, CA · Bellevue, WA · +1 more 1mo ago $148,500–$246,000 [Cogent Security, Inc.](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/cogent-security-inc) ### [Forward Deployed Agent Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8b2ffedbcbde8090) San Francisco, CA Hybrid 7w ago $100,000–$300,000 [Amazon (incl AWS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/amazon-incl-aws) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer, AWS Forward Deployed Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/e4b5aa282dcdc7d7) East Palo Alto, CA · San Francisco, CA · +3 more New · 2d ago $143,700–$223,600 ## The job description from Middesk Posted by Middesk on May 6, 2026 ### About Middesk: Middesk is building the data and intelligence infrastructure that helps businesses work together with confidence. We started by creating a comprehensive platform for understanding businesses, bringing together authoritative and proprietary data to help customers verify business identities, onboard customers faster, and manage risk throughout the customer lifecycle. Today, Middesk is used by more than 700 banks and fintechs, and in 2025 we verified more than 7 million companies. We've also expanded beyond business verification to help companies form, register, manage, and maintain their businesses, supporting more than 50,000 companies in setting up over 100,000 accounts required to hire employees, run payroll, and stay compliant. Middesk came out of Y Combinator, and is backed by Sequoia Capital, Accel, Insight Partners, and Canapi. We're proud to be named on the Forbes Fintech 50 and Best Startup Employers lists. ### About the Role: We're hiring a **Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)** who thrives at the intersection of engineering, product, and real customer problems. You'll work directly with customers and internal teams to design, build, and deploy production-grade integrations and AI-driven systems. You'll own complex technical problems end-to-end, from understanding customer needs to shipping reliable systems in production. You'll also turn what you learn in the field into improvements that shape Middesk's product and engineering direction. This role is ideal for a recovering founder, a former core engineer who misses direct customer impact, or someone who thrives on ownership and wants to build real systems where the feedback loop is immediate. ### What You’ll Do: - **Build and deploy real systems:** Partner with customers to design, implement, and operate production-grade integrations using Middesk APIs, data pipelines, and AI workflows. - **Own deployments end-to-end:** Drive technical design, implementation, rollout, and iteration, making pragmatic trade-offs across speed, reliability, and scalability. - **Build AI-powered workflows:** Develop LLM- and agent-based systems, including evals, test harnesses, and feedback loops to measure and improve quality. - **Solve ambiguous problems:** Tackle complex customer challenges without established playbooks, working across backend systems, infrastructure, and tooling. - **Shape the product:** Turn customer learnings into reusable solutions, internal tooling, and product improvements that benefit the broader customer base. ### What We’re Looking For: - 3+ years of experience building and shipping production software, with strong proficiency in either Python or Ruby and at least one other language (TypeScript, Go, etc.). - Experience designing and operating APIs, distributed systems, and cloud infrastructure. - Strong debugging skills and comfort working across the stack, from backend systems to integrations and infrastructure. - Ability to independently own ambiguous technical problems and make sound architectural trade-offs. - Strong communication skills and comfort collaborating directly with customers and cross-functional teams. - Experience building or deploying LLM-powered applications, agents, or AI workflows, including familiarity with evals and common failure modes. ### Nice-To-Have: - Former founder or early-stage startup engineer. - Experience in fintech, compliance, identity, risk, or fraud. - Experience building developer tools, workflow automation, or reliability and observability systems. [View posting at Middesk](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/middesk/a72b1048-1001-49b1-92bd-9c44574f939b/application) ## About Middesk API-first platform for business identity verification (KYB), fraud prevention, and underwriting — used by fintechs, banks, and marketplaces to onboard business customers faster. 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