> 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, Physics & Simulation

Canonical URL: https://nextmove.md/fde/jobs/f51097ef995e7154

Periodic Labs posts a FDE role to build what the customer runs in Menlo Park, CA, at $250,000–$350,000 base, above the senior FDE median of $190,000 across 1,868 postings with pay. Forward deployed engineer responsible for end-to-end physics-based simulation workflows supporting advanced manufacturing customer engagements. Read from the employer’s posting on November 9, 2026.

- [Periodic Labs](https://nextmove.md/fde/companies/periodic-labs)

Posted Jun 3, 2026 by Periodic Labs · open on Ashby as of Nov 9, 2026

**$250,000–$350,000** + equity Menlo Park, CA On-site Full-time

Forward deployed engineer responsible for end-to-end physics-based simulation workflows supporting advanced manufacturing customer engagements.

- [See roles that fit me](https://nextmove.md/sign-up?from=%2Ffde%2Fjobs%2Ff51097ef995e7154&placement=top)
- [View posting at Periodic Labs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs/1bab7e17-20fd-4b82-a152-98b96375a626/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

$250K–$350K Above the median

Midpoint $300K · median $190K

This job $250K to $350K. Senior FDE postings, 1,868 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 (not covered)
3. Implementation
4. Operations (not covered)

Travel **Required, amount not stated**

- **Coding**: Writes production code

- **Builds for**: External customers

- **Level**: Senior

- **Role**: Individual contributor

### What they ask for

Visa

- **Sponsors visas**

### Do you meet what the posting states?

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

The job is in Menlo Park, CA. 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**: Menlo Park, CA

- **Work arrangement**: On-site

- **Employment type**: Full-time

- **Visa sponsorship**: Available

- **Travel**: Travel required, amount not stated

- **Pay**:

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## The job description from Periodic Labs

Posted by Periodic Labs on Jun 3, 2026

### About Periodic Labs

We’re an AI and physical sciences company building state-of-the-art models to accelerate breakthroughs across materials, energy, and beyond. Backed by world-class investors and growing rapidly, we operate at the pace the frontier requires. Our team brings deep expertise, genuine ownership, and an insatiable drive to push the boundaries of what’s scientifically possible.

### About the Role

We’re using AI-driven simulation to solve hard physical process optimization problems in advanced manufacturing. As a forward deployed engineer focused on physics and simulation, you will be the technical backbone of our most demanding customer engagements – spending significant time on-site, embedding directly with customer teams, and owning simulation workflows end-to-end.

You’ll work with our modeling and ML teams to build and calibrate physics-based simulations, turn customer process knowledge into computational models, and drive recipe optimization with direct feedback loops to production. This is a hands-on, high-ownership role at the frontier of AI for physical science.

This role requires travel to and extended time on-site in Taiwan.

### What You’ll Do

- Own the simulation workflow end-to-end for customer engagements, from model setup and calibration through optimization and results interpretation
- Run, debug and modify physics-based simulations of complex physical processes in diverse domains, such as microfluidics, charge transport and structural deformation
- Work on-site with customer engineering teams on-site to understand process constraints, interpret simulation results into real process improvements
- Write tools, skills and agents to reliably drive end-to-end LLM-based simulation workflows, including experimental validation, parameter fitting and recipe optimization
- Build and extend simulation tooling in Python – job submission, parameter sweeps, output parsing, integration
- Feed domain insights back to the research and product teams, shaping the next version our platform

### You Will Thrive in This Role If You Have

- A strong foundation in numerical simulation of continuum systems – fluid dynamics, heat transfer, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, or similar – gained through graduate research, industry, or both
- Hands-on experience solving partial differential equations numerically, including mesh generation, solver tuning, and debugging numerical instabilities
- Solid Python skills for scripting and scientific computing (NumPy, SciPy, or similar)
- A process engineer’s instinct: you treat simulations as tools for answering real process questions, not just jobs to run
- Strong communication skills and genuine comfort working directly with customer engineers
- Willingness to spend extended periods on-site in Taiwan
- A self-starter mindset: you can take a technical problem from definition to deployed result without much hand-holding

### Especially Strong Candidates May Also Have

- CFD background, including tools like OpenFOAM, ANSYS Fluent, Star-CCM+, or custom solvers
- Grad-level research experience building simulation software in domains like mechanical or chemical engineering, weather modeling, astrophysics, or materials processing
- Familiar with semiconductor manufacturing processes
- Familiarity with physics-informed ML, surrogate modeling, or neural operators applied to simulation acceleration
- Experience integrating simulation tools into larger software platforms or automated optimization pipelines
- Mandarin proficiency for on-site collaboration in Taiwan
- Lab or experimental background, with an appreciation for how simulation connects to physical data

### Mechanics

**Minimum education: **Bachelor’s degree or similar experience

**Location: **Menlo Park, CA + frequent travel to Taiwan

**Compensation: **$250,000-$350,000 + equity

**Visa sponsorship: **Yes, we sponsor visas.

[View posting at Periodic Labs](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/periodic-labs/1bab7e17-20fd-4b82-a152-98b96375a626/application)

## About Periodic Labs

AI scientists running autonomous robotic labs that synthesize and characterize materials, training models on real-world experimental feedback to accelerate discovery.

Seed · 50–100 people

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