> 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/aedbb63ccf765de4

Smallstep posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs, remote, hiring in California, at $185,000–$230,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,864 postings with pay. Embeds with customers to get Smallstep's device identity platform into production, troubleshooting deployments across endpoint fleets, identity providers, and certificate authority services. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026.

- [Smallstep](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/smallstep)

Posted Aug 7, 2026 by Smallstep · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026

**$185,000–$230,000** + equity Remote, hiring in California Full-time

Embeds with customers to get Smallstep's device identity platform into production, troubleshooting deployments across endpoint fleets, identity providers, and certificate authority services.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Faedbb63ccf765de4&placement=top)
- [View posting at Smallstep](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/smallstep/81bd80bd-d0c3-4b03-9fca-2580a7b2e396/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

$185K–$230K Above the median

Midpoint $208K · median $190K

This job $185K to $230K. 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
3. Implementation
4. Operations

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Technical lead

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting reads as a senior role. What level are you at now?

The work is remote from the US. Can you work from the US?

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**: Remote

- **Employment type**: Full-time

- **Pay**:

## More like this

[Gray Swan](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/gray-swan)

### [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer – Enterprise](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2f8298f975b489cb)

San Francisco, CA Remote 2mo ago

$175,000–$220,000

[Harness](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/harness)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer (Implementation Engineering)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8bbe8200b00b1ea6)

Chicago, IL · New York, NY · +1 more Remote 6w ago

$170,000–$200,000

[Roboflow](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/roboflow)

### [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/d8c0abf8214d490b)

New York, NY · San Francisco, CA Remote 5mo ago

$180,000–$250,000

## The job description from Smallstep

Posted by Smallstep on Aug 7, 2026

Smallstep is an internationally distributed, remote-first company. We work reasonable, flexible hours and utilize technology to accomplish goals asynchronously. We look for folks who are thoughtful, can break down problems, and often work independently. You are trusted to work on your own and to ask for help when blocked. At Smallstep you get the benefit of working with a tight-knit team across many areas and contribute directly to the success of the organization.

Security is a core responsibility for all employees at Smallstep. All roles are expected to strictly adhere to our security policies, procedures, and best practices to protect company assets, customer data, and systems. All employees must remain vigilant, report potential security concerns, and participate in ongoing security training to ensure compliance with industry standards.

We're looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with customers deploying Smallstep's device identity platform and get them to production. The most common use cases are securing Wi-Fi, browser mTLS, SSH, VPN and other network based communication using credentials issued by Smallstep’s agent or an MDM. This role sits at the intersection of hardware, software, and the customer relationship: you'll move between a customer's endpoint fleet, their IdP, and Smallstep's own multi-service certificate authority services to get deployments unstuck.

### Responsibilities

- Diagnosing and resolving technical failures blocking deployments
- Acting as the technical escalation point for Technical Account Managers and Customer Success Engineers when a deployment needs deeper engineering involvement
- Shipping production Golang code to resolve root causes uncovered during deployment debugging
- Building proof-of-concept environments, using Bash and Terraform, and runbooks for new product surfaces ahead of polished UX
- Setting day-to-day priorities and assignments for Smallstep's deployment ops engineers
- Carrying a formal on-call rotation with defined SLAs
- Capable of maintaining a high level of customer experience and a service mindset even in the face of implementation challenges. Building software at the edge isn't for the weak.
- Growing the role over time into an even split between resolving live deployments, building reusable runbooks, and validating new use cases through proofs of concept

### Experience With …

- Debugging distributed, multi-service cloud architectures in live customer environments
- Troubleshooting TLS/mTLS at the protocol level, including certificate chain validation, trust stores, and handshake failures
- Production experience with certificate-based authentication, VPNs, enterprise Wi-Fi/EAP-TLS, RADIUS, SSH, OAuth
- Developing and shipping production Golang code
- Owning technical escalations directly with customers, in partnership with account teams

### Nice to Have

- Familiarity with certificate enrollment protocols such as SCEP and ACME DA
- PKI experience across macOS, Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS
- Experience with hardware-backed security mechanisms such as Yubikeys, TPMs, HSMs, or secure enclaves
- Experience carrying a formal on-call rotation with SLAs
- Prior experience in a customer-facing technical role, such as a forward deployed engineer or solutions engineer

### Technologies

- Golang, Bash, Terraform, Git, GitHub Actions
- SCEP, ACME, SCIM, mTLS, EAP-TLS, RADIUS, PKI, X.509, SSH, TPMs
- macOS, Windows, Linux, ChromeOS
- MDMs (Jamf, Intune, Workspace One, Google Workspace Admin, Iru), Wi-Fi/RADIUS, VPNs

We believe in action-based empathy. We actively work to create an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued as teammates and contributors. We know a diverse team is essential to create a vibrant and inclusive culture that fosters a true sense of belonging. By embracing the unique talents and perspectives of our entire team, we approach challenges in ways that a monocultural team simply cannot.

We’re committed to building a self-aware group that is collaborative and results- driven, representing a variety of skills, backgrounds, and lived experiences. We believe everyone deserves a competitive salary, industry leading benefits, the ability to share in the company’s success, and the psychological safety to be their truest selves at work.

Smallstep is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status. We encourage all those interested to apply.

[View posting at Smallstep](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/smallstep/81bd80bd-d0c3-4b03-9fca-2580a7b2e396/application)

## About Smallstep

Smallstep provides hardware-backed device identity and certificate management to secure access to enterprise networks, applications, and infrastructure.

Series A · 10–50 people

## Similar jobs

[6sense](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/6sense)

### [Sr. Data Scientist, Forward-Deployed](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/8eac81fe1ac3dfde)

San Francisco, CA Remote 11d ago

$168,349.5–$230,912.6

[Databricks](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/databricks)

### [Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Public Sector](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/440870dea6def209)

Berkeley, CA · Kansas City, MO · +1 more Remote New · 2d ago

$182,000–$250,208

[Prime Intellect](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/prime-intellect)

### [Applied Researcher - Forward-Deployed RL](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/0ed15e783d00992e)

San Francisco, CA · New York, NY Remote 2w ago

$150,000–$300,000

[Neo.Tax](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/neo-tax)

### [Solutions Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/b0d8ad66629a1f15)

Palo Alto, CA Remote 9d ago

$170,000–$190,000

[OpenAI](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/openai)

### [Applied AI Engineer, Enterprise - Healthcare Life Sciences (HLS)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/af85a409fcdae03e)

New York, NY · San Francisco, CA Remote New · Yesterday

$251,000–$278,000

- [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 Smallstep and want this page changed or removed? Email info@nextmove.md and we take it down.

Employer postings · [How we read postings](https://nextmove.md/fde/method)