> 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

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f3ee1777df7cfa29

Gradial posts a senior FDE role to build what the customer runs in Seattle, WA, at $145,000–$215,000 base, below the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,849 postings with pay. Leads customer-facing implementations of Gradial’s AI platform, owning full-stack enterprise deployments from discovery and prototyping through launch and optimization. Read from the employer’s posting on November 6, 2026.

- [Gradial](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/gradial)

Posted Jul 29, 2026 by Gradial · open on Greenhouse as of Nov 6, 2026

**$145,000–$215,000** + equity Seattle, WA

Leads customer-facing implementations of Gradial’s AI platform, owning full-stack enterprise deployments from discovery and prototyping through launch and optimization.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Ff3ee1777df7cfa29&placement=top)
- [View posting at Gradial](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gradial/jobs/4338055009)

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

$145K–$215K Below the median

Midpoint $180K · median $190K

This job $145K to $215K. Senior FDE postings, 1,849 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

Travel **Up to 10%**

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Individual contributor

### What they ask for

Experience

- **5+ years** software engineering or technical implementation

Background

- **Software engineering**
- **Implementation and data engineering**

### Do you meet what the posting states?

The posting asks for 5+ years. How many do you have?

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

The job is in Seattle, WA. 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**: Seattle, WA

- **Travel**: Up to 10%

- **Pay**:

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- [Other jobs at Gradial (2)](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/gradial)

## The job description from Gradial

Posted by Gradial on Jul 29, 2026

Gradial is building the AI-native system of work for enterprise marketing. Our agents turn ideas into live campaigns by executing across the tools, teams, and workflows enterprises already use—from content authoring and campaign assembly to quality assurance and brand compliance. We give marketers and creatives more time to shape brands, understand customers, and create work that moves people.

We’re tackling some of the hardest problems in applied AI: building agent harnesses, sandboxed execution environments, and orchestration that enable agents to plan, act, and verify their work reliably at enterprise scale. We’re growing rapidly, winning Fortune 500 and enterprise customers including AWS, T-Mobile, and Prudential. Our $65 million Series C led by Insight Partners is accelerating that momentum.

Join us to help define how people and AI agents work together. We move with urgency, reason from first principles, and take ownership from idea to customer impact. You’ll shape the product, own consequential problems, and build systems that some of the world’s leading brands depend on every day.

### The Role

We’re hiring a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to lead implementations of our AI platform directly with customers. This role is ideal for an experienced technically fluent builder who thrives at the intersection of engineering and problem solving; someone who wants to be hands-on with code while shaping how some of the world’s most recognizable brands modernize their content operations.

As a Senior FDE, you’ll own full-stack development for enterprise deployments, working side-by-side with customers to map complex workflows into scalable generative systems. You’ll move between discovery, prototyping, implementation, and post-launch optimization - translating real-world pain points into elegant technical solutions.

### What You'll Own

- Lead technical discovery and implementation for new enterprise customers, translating nuanced business processes into robust AI-native solutions.
- Build, deploy and optimize features that integrate customer systems with Gradial’s LLM driven platform.
- Develop reusable tools, adapters and configuration layers to support scalable enterprise onboarding.
- Collaborate with customer stakeholders (mainly within marketing, operations and engineering) to define requirements, surface edge cases and iterate in real time.
- Work closely with Gradial’s product and engineer teams to incorporate learnings from the field into our core roadmap.
- Contribute to internal technical documentation and implementation playbooks that accelerate future deployments.
- Own performance, reliability and maintainability for the solutions you ship, from backend architecture to customer UX.

### What We're Looking For

- 5+ years of software engineering or technical implementation experience, ideally in customer-facing contexts.
- Experienced in programming languages such as TypeScript or similar, with a strong understanding of APIs and systems integration.
- Ability to rapidly understand unfamiliar enterprise software architectures (CMS, DAM, workflow tools) and build integration paths.
- Excellent communication skills. Confident translating for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- High ownership mindset with comfort operating independently, navigating ambiguity.
- Demonstrated experience working with enterprise customers; particularly in content, marketing or digital operations.
- Experience with LLMs, generative AI pipelines and agent-style automation frameworks.
- Willingness to travel occasionally (<10%) for customer discovery, deployment and relationship building.

### Compensation

The salary range for this position is ** $145,000 – $215,000 annually**. Final compensation will be determined based on factors such as experience, skills, and qualifications. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for performance-based bonuses and equity awards. Gradial offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental & vision insurance, 401K retirement plan, paid time off, paid sick leave and other employee wellness programs.

### What we offer

- Performance-based annual bonus
- Meaningful equity awards
- Medical, dental & vision (fully covered for employees with 75% for dependents)
- Fertility & family-planning support
- 401k plan
- Unlimited PTO
- A beautiful Seattle office with a gym, sauna, and bike parking
- Free lunch three days a week in our HQ
- A front-row seat to building category-defining AI infrastructure

### You'll thrive here if you

- Learn quickly, actively seek out new challenges, and regularly reconsider “how it’s always been done.”
- Want to have real impact with zero bureaucracy.
- Have an innate drive for being 1% better than the day before, building towards greatness.
- Embrace AI as a core tool for problem-solving, innovation, and scale.
- Show customer-obsession (internal or external), high ownership/accountability, and bias for action.
- Communicate clearly, directly, with curiosity, and assuming good intentions.
- Thrive in fast-paced, hyper-growth environments where building better > maintaining status quo.

### AI Literacy & Interviewing Tools

As an AI-first company, we prioritize AI literacy as a core competency in our hiring decisions. We’re excited by candidates who thoughtfully apply AI tools in their work, but during interviews we’re focused onyou. This is your opportunity to show how you think, communicate, and solve problems. Over-reliance on AI-generated responses during the interview process (especially when it obscures your own voice) will result in disqualification. We want to understand your unique perspective and how you approach challenges, both with and without AI.

Gradial is dedicated to creating an environment where diverse perspectives are valued and all team members can grow. We offer competitive compensation, equity, flexible work hours, comprehensive benefits, and a collaborative culture focused on learning and impact.

[View posting at Gradial](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/gradial/jobs/4338055009)

## About Gradial

Agentic marketing-ops platform that executes campaign, content, asset, QA, and GEO work across enterprise CMS, DAM, ticketing, design, and data systems.

Series B · 10–50 people

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