> 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.

# Deployment Lead

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/c76e9ba19967307c

Realm posts a FDE role to plan what the customer deploys first in US, at $110,000–$185,000 base, below the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,868 postings with pay. Realm’s first Deployment Lead owns customer deployments end to end, translating operational problems into workflows, measuring value, and feeding field evidence into product decisions. Read from the employer’s posting on November 9, 2026.

- [Realm](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/realm)

Posted Oct 14, 2026 by Realm · open on Ashby as of Nov 9, 2026

**$110,000–$185,000** + equity US Remote Full-time

Realm’s first Deployment Lead owns customer deployments end to end, translating operational problems into workflows, measuring value, and feeding field evidence into product decisions.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Fc76e9ba19967307c&placement=top)
- [View posting at Realm](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/realmalliance/49e73299-7e87-433a-b36c-da44da6cf184/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

$110K–$185K Below the median

Midpoint $148K · median $190K

This job $110K to $185K. Senior FDE postings, 1,868 postings: the middle 50% of posted pay is $160K to $220K, median $190K.

### The work

Plans what the customer deploys first

Balance **Mixed**

Project stages

1. Pre-sales
2. Proof of concept
3. Implementation
4. Operations

Travel **Up to 25%**

- **Coding**: Prototypes and scripts

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Technical lead

### What they ask for

Experience

- **3+ years** customer-facing technical role
- **5+ years** customer-facing technical role

Background

- **Solutions and customer 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 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**: US

- **Work arrangement**: Remote

- **Employment type**: Full-time

- **Travel**: Up to 25%

- **Pay**:

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- [Other jobs at Realm (4)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/realm)

## The job description from Realm

Posted by Realm on Oct 14, 2026

### Company Overview

Realm builds AI for the mining industry. We integrate with existing mine infrastructure — cameras, SCADA systems, drones, and data repositories — to predict equipment failures, detect unsafe behaviors, and optimize operations. Our platform deploys intelligence in various ways to improve productivity and safety — monitoring PPE compliance via computer vision, optimizing froth flotation processes, analyzing longwall shearer performance, tracking MSHA citation patterns, and more.

Our founders started their careers at Palantir before going on to build Blend Labs (publicly traded fintech, founded as CTO) and Even (acquired by Walmart). Our leadership team brings experience from Uber, Metropolis, and other high-bar organizations. We're a small, senior team that ships daily to production mines.

AI isn't just our product — it's how we build. We're an AI-first engineering team that uses the latest models and tooling throughout our development process, moving faster and at higher quality than traditional teams our size.

Our culture values high agency, deep ownership, collaboration, and autonomy across a fully remote workforce. Teams here move quickly and make meaningful contributions to a product that shapes global industrial outcomes.

### The Role

As Realm’s first Deployment Lead, you’ll turn customer problems into workflows that operators use every shift, and you’ll prove the value with data. You’ll own each deployment from discovery, deployment planning, adoption, and value measurement, working alongside the Forward Deployed Engineering and Product functions. When the product can’t do something yet, you’ll close the gap yourself with a manual report, a quick analysis or a prototype, then make the case for what engineering should build.

This role is hands-on and customer-facing. This role suits someone who is comfortable in front of executives and in the field, who does whatever it takes to deliver, and who wants to shape a product through direct contact with the people using it.

### What You’ll Do

- Spend ~25% of your time onsite with customers across North America
- Learn the operation firsthand. Shadow operators, supervisors and site leaders to understand their workflows, constraints and what success means to them.
- Own the deployment plan for each customer. Set goals with each customer, run the weekly cadence with their leadership, and hold both Realm and the customer accountable for results. Report risks early and directly.
- Run the weekly cadence with customer stakeholders, including leadership, and report on progress, risks, and next steps with clarity and confidence
- Build to fill gaps. Use SQL, Python or AI coding tools to create reports, dashboards and lightweight tools that solve a customer problem now and test whether it’s worth building properly.
- Shape the product. Turn what you see in the field into clear requirements, backed by data and site observations, and help Product and Engineering decide what to build next.
- Support growth. Join sales visits to show prospects what Realm can do in their environment, and find expansion opportunities in existing accounts.
- Build the function. Help build the processes, playbooks, and culture that will scale Realm's deployment function.

### What We’re Looking For

### Must-Have Qualifications

- 3–5 years in a customer-facing technical role (deployment, forward deployed, solutions engineering, TPM or product) where you owned outcomes, not only tasks
- A track record of leading complex deployments or projects end to end, including cross-functional work without formal authority
- You’ve built a process, playbook or team practice from scratch that others adopted
- Comfortable running meetings with senior stakeholders and delivering bad news
- Strong product judgment: you can tell what a customer asks for from what they need, and write it down clearly
- Hands-on building skills: you can put together a working report, dashboard or tool quickly
- Clear communication with everyone from frontline operators to executives
- US citizen or permanent resident

### Nice-to-Have Qualifications

- Deployed technology in industrial, mining, energy or government settings, and understand constraints like safety, uptime, shift schedules, connectivity and compliance (e.g., MSHA)
- Familiarity with computer vision, AI/ML, IoT or real-time data products, enough to explain what they can and can’t do
- Experience mentoring, managing or hiring
- Experience in sensitive or mission-critical customer environments

### Why Realm?

- Work on mission-critical problems at the intersection of AI, security, and global infrastructure
- Shape the brand and product of a category-defining company from the ground up
- High-ownership, high-impact role with direct influence on company growth
- Competitive compensation with significant equity upside
- Dynamic, remote work environment with global reach

### Perks/Benefits

🏥 Full medical, dental, and vision benefits

🌴 Unlimited PTO

💰401(k) with 4% safe-harbor match

📈 Equity in an early-stage, fast-growing company

💻 Home office allowance

[View posting at Realm](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/realmalliance/49e73299-7e87-433a-b36c-da44da6cf184/application)

## About Realm

Realm deploys AI on mines' existing cameras, SCADA, sensors, and records to reduce downtime, improve safety, optimize processing, and manage MSHA compliance.

Seed · 10–50 people

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- [Compare senior FDE salary ranges](https://nextmove.md/fde/salary/senior)
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