- Use this when the company is hiring its first dedicated FDE or building the function from a very small base.
- Hiring the first FDE does not make this a management role, so decide that before you set the level.
- Say who makes hiring, roadmap, security and commercial decisions, because a founding engineer needs to know what they cannot decide.
- Keep only outcomes the company can observe, and promise no number of customers, launches or revenue that is not real.
- Before publishing, check the range and conditions against how to set compensation for an FDE role.
[EMPLOYER: company name] — Founding Forward Deployed Engineer
Location: [EMPLOYER: location or approved remote region]
Work arrangement: [EMPLOYER: office, hybrid schedule, or approved remote arrangement]
Travel: [EMPLOYER: expected travel range]
Employment: [EMPLOYER: status]
Compensation: [EMPLOYER: base range, equity, bonus, and location rules]
Work authorization: [EMPLOYER: policy and sponsorship details]
Why we are hiring
[EMPLOYER: company name] has [number or description of current customers or deployments] using [product] to solve [problem]. We are hiring the first dedicated FDE to lead [first customer or workflow] from [current state] to [production result], and to turn what we learn into a repeatable way for the next engineer to deliver the work.
[EMPLOYER: State whether this is an individual contributor or people management role, and describe any management responsibilities.] You will work closely with [EMPLOYER: founder, engineering lead, product lead, or customer lead]. [EMPLOYER: State who makes hiring, roadmap, security and commercial decisions.]
What you will own
- Work with [EMPLOYER: first customer or user group] to understand the workflow, the constraints and what a useful result looks like.
- Decide what to build, configure, defer or escalate within an agreed technical and product scope.
- Design and ship [EMPLOYER: product integrations, AI workflows, data tools, or customer applications] in production.
- Create a simple delivery lifecycle: discovery, scope, build, validation, launch, monitoring and handoff.
- Write the first runbooks, checklists and reusable components that make later deployments safer.
- Bring specific product gaps and repeated customer needs to product and engineering.
- Explain progress, risks and trade-offs to customer and internal decision-makers.
What success looks like in the first [EMPLOYER: six months]
- [EMPLOYER: A named customer workflow is in production or reaches the agreed pilot milestone.]
- [EMPLOYER: The team can explain what the FDE owns, what the customer owns, and what happens after launch.]
- [EMPLOYER: At least one repeated delivery step has a documented method or reusable tool.]
- [EMPLOYER: Product feedback is tied to observed customer work, with a clear owner for each follow-up.]
[EMPLOYER: Keep only outcomes the company can observe. Do not promise a number of customers, launches or revenue unless those commitments are real.]
Required experience
- Taking a technical project from an unclear problem through build, testing and use in a real environment.
- Writing and debugging production software in [EMPLOYER: actual languages and stack].
- Working directly with customers, users, operators or another team that depends on the system.
- Making scope and technical trade-offs, communicating them, and following through.
- Creating lightweight documentation and repeatable practices while continuing to deliver.
Useful additional experience
- [EMPLOYER: domain knowledge]
- [EMPLOYER: APIs, data integration, cloud, AI systems, or deployment work]
- [EMPLOYER: experience at an early-stage company or in a new function]
- [EMPLOYER: incident response, observability, security, or regulated environments]
We welcome evidence from software engineering, solutions engineering, implementation, data engineering, technical consulting or another role that combines building with direct problem-solving. Prior management experience is not required unless this job includes people management. [EMPLOYER: Delete that sentence where management is part of the real role, and describe it plainly.]
How the role will develop
[EMPLOYER: Explain whether the next step is deeper technical ownership, a larger customer portfolio, building the FDE team, or another path. Do not promise a title or a promotion timeline.]
Working conditions and application
[EMPLOYER: Describe office days, travel, project cadence, customer contact, on-call expectations, benefits, accommodations, interview stages and application instructions.]
Apply: [EMPLOYER: application link]