> 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. # Software Engineer, Federal Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/aee86805e9f7a82d Factory posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in San Francisco, CA and 1 more with no pay posted. Build and deploy Factory's AI agent platform for the Department of War, Intelligence Community, and federal civilian agencies, including in classified and air-gapped environments. Read from the employer’s posting on November 8, 2026. - [Factory](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/factory) Posted Nov 2, 2026 by Factory · open on Ashby as of Nov 8, 2026 Pay not posted San Francisco, CA +1 Remote Full-time Build and deploy Factory's AI agent platform for the Department of War, Intelligence Community, and federal civilian agencies, including in classified and air-gapped environments. - [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Faee86805e9f7a82d&placement=top) - [View posting at Factory](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/factory/48962b15-6796-4f34-a4ca-4cebe142103d/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 Not posted 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 **Required, amount not stated** - **Coding**: Writes production code - **Builds for**: External customers - **Level**: Senior - **Role**: Individual contributor ### What they ask for Experience - **2+ years** Software engineering experience post-acquisition of a bachelor's or master's degree Background - **Software engineering** ### Do you meet what the posting states? The posting asks for 2+ years. How many do you have? 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 · Washington, DC - **Work arrangement**: Remote - **Remote work restrictions**: Location-flexible; preference for San Francisco, CA or Washington, D.C. (remote). - **Employment type**: Full-time - **Travel**: Travel required, amount not stated ## More like this [LangChain](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/langchain) ### [Deployed Engineer (Federal)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/40118733a4b00450) Washington, DC Remote 2mo ago $185,000–$300,000 · OTE [Lovelytics](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/lovelytics) ### [Lead Consultant, Gen AI ](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/49d6ba1b5b494dcd) Arlington, VA · Chicago, IL Remote 5mo ago $112,000–$160,000 [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 ## The job description from Factory Posted by Factory on Nov 2, 2026 ### About Factory Our mission is to create a world where software builds and improves itself. We build the platform for self-improving software development, helping the world's largest enterprise engineering teams turn their organizations into autonomous software factories. Customers including Nvidia, Blackstone, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Palo Alto Networks, Adobe, and T-Mobile run Factory to ship code, review PRs, run tests, and deploy continuously - getting smarter with every cycle. In 2026, we raised $200M at a $5B valuation, bringing our total funding to over $400M. We are backed by world-class investors and operators including Khosla Ventures, Sequoia, Blackstone, Ali Ghodsi (CEO of Databricks), and Frank Slootman (Former CEO of Snowflake). ### About the Role Factory is looking for innovative Software Engineers to join our founding Federal team. You will build and evolve cutting-edge AI systems that transform how government software organizations accelerate their productivity and innovation. You will work directly with the Department of War, the Intelligence Community, and federal civilian agencies to bring Factory to secure, classified, and air-gapped environments, helping the nation's most critical software teams operate as autonomous software factories. ### What you will do and achieve - Innovate at the forefront of AI by designing, developing, and deploying AI-driven agentic systems that enhance Factory's core AI capabilities for federal missions - Deploy and harden the Factory Platform in secure government environments, including GovCloud, on-premises, classified, and fully air-gapped networks, so it runs with limited or no internet connectivity and with self-hosted or government-approved models - Build security and compliance into everything you ship, partnering with Security and Infrastructure to achieve and maintain authorizations such as FedRAMP High and DoD Impact Levels (IL5/IL6), including access controls, audit logging, and continuous monitoring - Build multi-layered guardrails, observability, and explainability into our agents so government users can trust, audit, and understand how an agent reached its output - Engage directly with federal customers, on-site when needed, to understand their missions and workflows, define requirements with stakeholders, and own delivery from first prototype to accepted production deployment - Integrate Factory with the tools government engineering teams already rely on, including on-premises source control, CI/CD pipelines, ticketing systems, and DoD software factories - Work with product, engineering, and Federal go-to-market teams to integrate emerging AI research findings into practical, mission-focused solutions - Engage in iterative development processes, rapidly prototyping and refining AI functionalities based on real-world feedback to meet the evolving needs of government developers and program offices - Take the initiative in identifying and addressing product stability and scalability challenges, ensuring the Factory Platform reliably supports large-scale operational demands in high-consequence and resource-constrained environments - Lead the exploration and integration of large-scale data processing techniques to improve the reliability and effectiveness of our AI systems - Serve as the voice of the federal customer, bringing field insights back into Factory's core platform so that capabilities built for one mission become reusable across the public sector - Help build our Federal team from the ground up, partnering with leadership on technical proposals, capture strategy, and the product roadmap for our public sector business ### Qualifications - 2+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering roles post-acquisition of a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, AI, or a related technical field. - Demonstrated proficiency with LLMs and a track record of applying AI/ML techniques to solve complex, unstructured problems, ideally within the domain of software engineering or related areas. - Self-motivated and autonomous, with a proven ability to navigate ambiguous projects from conception to impactful deployment, ideally as part of a founding team, a new initiative, or a forward-deployed engineering group. - Strong communication skills that enable you to articulate technical concepts and strategies clearly at all levels, including to non-technical government stakeholders, coupled with a strategic mindset oriented towards innovation. - Comfort working directly with customers, including time on-site at customer locations. - A passion for public sector work and a belief in the potential of government institutions to deliver better outcomes through technology. - Experience deploying software in regulated or secure environments (e.g., AWS GovCloud, Azure Government, FedRAMP, DoD Impact Levels, or classified and air-gapped networks) is highly desirable, though not mandatory. - Familiarity with government work and its complexities, including procurement, compliance, and the accreditation (ATO) process, is a plus. - Experience with data-intensive applications and familiarity with the software development lifecycle are highly desirable, though not mandatory. ### Location We offer location flexibility for this role, with a preference for candidates based in our San Francisco, CA (HQ) or Washington, D.C. (remote). [View posting at Factory](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/factory/48962b15-6796-4f34-a4ca-4cebe142103d/application) ## About Factory Enterprise AI agents for autonomous software development—code, review, test, deploy end-to-end across 100k+ developers at Global 500 firms. Series C · 100–200 people ## Similar jobs [Groq](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/groq) ### [Sr./Staff Forward Deployed Engineer](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/16d9ba28146fcaf4) Dallas, TX · San Francisco, CA · +1 more Remote 6w ago $270,400–$401,600 [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 [TribalScale](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/tribalscale) ### [Forward Deployed Engineer (San Francisco)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/6f69a28d31f514b2) US Remote 3w ago Pay not posted [Defense Unicorns](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/defense-unicorns) ### [Senior Platform Engineer (FedD239)](https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/2d80b4f518bdc61d) Springfield, VA Remote 5w ago $148,750–$201,250 [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 - [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 Factory and want this page changed or removed? 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