> 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. # Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, Public Sector Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/6c5d5100c300639f Sitreps posts a senior FDE role to build what the customer runs in Washington, DC and 1 more, at $167,000–$203,000 base, level with the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Senior Forward Deployed Engineer for a venture-backed AI security company, helping public sector customers deploy AI evaluation, guardrail, and agent governance platforms in mission-critical environments. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Sitreps](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sitreps) Posted Sep 2, 2026 by Sitreps · open on Greenhouse as of Nov 8, 2026 **$167,000–$203,000** + equity Washington, DC +1 On-site Full-time Senior Forward Deployed Engineer for a venture-backed AI security company, helping public sector customers deploy AI evaluation, guardrail, and agent governance platforms in mission-critical environments. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2F6c5d5100c300639f&placement=top) - [View posting at Sitreps](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/sitrepsllc/jobs/4392928009) 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 $167K–$203K Level with the median Midpoint $185K · median $190K This job $167K to $203K. 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 2. Proof of concept 3. Implementation 4. Operations Travel **Up to 50%** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **5+ years** customer-facing engineering roles *Preferred* Background - **Software engineering** - **Solutions and customer engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now? The job is in Washington, DC · San Francisco, CA. Could you work in one of these? 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**: Washington, DC · San Francisco, CA - **Work arrangement**: On-site - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Up to 50% - **Pay**: ## More like this [BRG](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/brg) ### [Sr. Managing Consultant/Managing Consultant AI Architect - Financial Services Operations & Technology](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/bfa5488d7c799fe0) New York, NY · Chicago, IL · +3 more 2w ago $158,000–$210,000 [Accenture](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/accenture) ### [Full Stack Forward Deployed Engineering Manager](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/22c678035fc1bf46) Arlington, VA · Milwaukee, WI · +35 more 2mo ago $80,400–$316,300 [Selector](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/selector) ### [Senior Software/Solutions Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/99e7475abc057601) Santa Clara, CA New · 5d ago $150,000–$185,000 - [Other jobs at Sitreps (6)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/sitreps) ## The job description from Sitreps Posted by Sitreps on Sep 2, 2026 ### Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, Public Sector **Compensation:** $167,000 – $203,000 base salary, plus equity, company benefits, and incentive compensation. **Location:** Washington, DC or San Francisco, CA. These are the only two locations under consideration. No other locations, and no fully remote option. **Role Type:** Full-Time Employee, Individual Contributor **Work Model:** Customer-facing, with regular on-site engagement and up to 50% travel **Clearance:** U.S. Citizenship required; active clearance preferred, eligibility and willingness to obtain one required *Client name withheld. Sitreps Talent is managing the search, and interested candidates apply through Sitreps.* ### About the Client Our client is a venture-backed AI security company. Their platform helps government and enterprise customers put AI systems into production safely: evaluating models and applications before deployment, protecting sensitive data and enforcing policy at runtime, governing what AI agents are allowed to do, and maintaining the evidence trail oversight bodies require. The platform runs across cloud, hybrid, on-prem, edge, and air-gapped environments. The team is standing up a dedicated public sector organization, and these are early seats on it. ### About the Role Our client is looking for a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to help public sector customers deploy and operationalize their platform in mission-critical environments. This is a hands-on engineering role at the intersection of software engineering, customer deployment, AI assurance, and government technology. You will write code, debug complex systems, build integrations, support deployments, and create demos, prototypes, and workflows that help customers adopt the platform. You will work directly with customer engineering teams, mission users, security stakeholders, and the company's product and engineering teams to translate operational needs into working software, deployment architectures, and product feedback that shapes the roadmap and the public sector strategy. ### Responsibilities - Become deeply fluent in the company's evaluation, guardrail, and agent governance platform. - Work directly with federal customers to understand mission needs, technical requirements, pain points, and operational constraints, and convert them into practical solution architectures, integrations, and implementation plans. - Create tailored demos, prototypes, workflows, and collateral for federal executives, technical teams, and mission users, helping translate validated use cases into initial deployments. - Deploy, integrate, and support the platform across cloud, hybrid, on-prem, air-gapped, and government-controlled environments. - Troubleshoot complex implementations in partnership with engineering, platform, security, and customer teams. - Bring field learnings back to product, engineering, research, and go-to-market teams to shape roadmap, delivery patterns, and customer strategy. ### You Might Thrive in This Role If You - Have a strong technical foundation in software engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, or another quantitative field. - Communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences, from hands-on users to senior government stakeholders. - Enjoy solving hard technical problems in real customer environments, not just in controlled demos. - Are comfortable operating in fast-moving, ambiguous settings where you may need to build, test, explain, and iterate quickly. - Work well across users, engineers, product teams, security stakeholders, and mission owners. - Like turning field feedback into practical product improvements, deployment patterns, and customer value. - Are excited to help deploy custom AI evaluations, runtime controls, and agent governance systems in high-stakes public sector environments. ### Requirements ### Preferred Qualifications - 5+ years in customer-facing engineering roles, including solutions, sales, product, forward-deployed, or implementation engineering. - Strong coding ability in Python plus TypeScript, Java, Go, Bash, or similar. - Experience building, deploying, integrating, or operating production software systems across cloud, containerized, on-prem, or enterprise environments. - Working knowledge of AI/ML systems, including GenAI, LLM applications, evaluation, guardrails, observability, or agentic workflows. - Strong debugging, problem-solving, and technical communication skills, with the ability to operate independently in ambiguous customer environments. - Willingness to travel regularly to customer sites. - U.S. Citizenship required; active U.S. security clearance preferred, with eligibility and willingness to obtain one required. ### Nice to Have - Experience supporting Department of War, IC, federal civilian, or other public sector customers. - Familiarity with RMF, FedRAMP, IL environments, ATO processes, CMMC, or government software accreditation. - Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, Terraform, CI/CD, cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, or enterprise integrations. - Experience integrating with IdAM providers, SIEMs, data platforms, APIs, secure networks, or logging and monitoring tools. - Hands-on experience with AI evaluation, red-teaming, runtime guardrails, model observability, AI governance, or agentic systems. - Prior experience at a defense-tech, AI, cybersecurity, cloud, or enterprise SaaS company. - Active Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI clearance. [View posting at Sitreps](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/sitrepsllc/jobs/4392928009) ## About Sitreps Veteran career platform combining recruiting, AI transition guidance, pay data, job discovery, and community for military-to-civilian career moves. Bootstrapped · 10–50 people ## Similar jobs [EY](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/ey) ### [EY-Parthenon - Strategy and Execution - Growth Platforms - Software Engineer - Sr Assoc/Consultant](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/db242f263e15ea06) New York, NY · Atlanta, GA · +12 more Hybrid 2mo ago $130,000–$185,000 [SpaceX](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/spacex) ### [AI Engineer, Special Programs - Top Secret Clearance](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/dcc647133c0d24b0) Washington, DC 5mo ago $125,000–$220,000 [Veeam Software](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/veeam-software) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/4754fb0878ac63cf) San Jose, CA Hybrid 7w ago $137,160–$228,480 [LMI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/lmi) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer/Solution Architect - Clearance Required](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/efe4092f9087ff38) Washington, DC 2w ago $145,000–$250,000 [Clockwork Systems](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/clockwork-systems) ### [Senior Software Engineer, TorchPass Product Engineering](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/15c23388a215b20d) Palo Alto, CA On-site 4w ago $150,000–$230,000 - [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior) - [Similar jobs in SF Bay Area](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?region=sf-bay-area) - [Similar jobs that build what the customer runs](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs?role=builds-for-customers) Hiring at Sitreps and want this page changed or removed? 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