About the job
Forward Deployed Engineer Lead
FullTime-Remote
USA
The Role:
We are looking for an exceptional full-stack software engineer who will act as a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Lead to serve as the critical interface between the central AI Application Modernization Factory and our application teams and develop and manage a team of FDEs, establishing playbooks and codifying best practices. The FDE will be temporarily embedded within delivery teams to directly drive the modernization of key applications, ensuring technical success, accelerated adoption of AI-assisted SDLC practices, and lasting upskilling of team members. This is a high-impact, hybrid role requiring advanced software engineering skills, deep knowledge of cloud-native patterns, and proven expertise in consultation, change management, and building strong rapport with diverse teams.
Key Responsibilities
Application Modernization Execution: Embed with application teams to provide hands-on technical leadership, driving the design, development, and delivery of modernization efforts (re-platforming, microservices adoption) to AWS cloud-native architectures.
Team Leadership & Mentorship: Directing and managing a team of FDEs, including performance management, career development, mentoring, and establishing operational excellence and best practices across the FDE team.
AI-First SDLC Adoption & Upskilling: Act as the subject matter expert on the AI Modernization Factory’s tools and processes (e.g., Cursor, Claude Code). Drive the adoption and change management necessary to embed AI-assisted software development practices into the team’s daily workflow.
Consultative Engineering & Change Management: Build trust and rapport with new, diverse teams quickly. Identify team-specific technical and process bottlenecks, recommending and implementing solutions, and effectively managing the people/process side of technical change.
Hands-on Software Development: Make significant code contributions, focusing on setting up architectural scaffolding, CI/CD pipelines, IaC (Terraform), and solving complex, blocking integration challenges for the embedded team.
Feedback Loop: Serve as the primary feedback channel, relaying practical challenges, tool deficiencies, and necessary process adjustments back to the central Principal Engineer and Architect to continuously improve the factory’s capabilities.
Standards & Quality: Ensure embedded teams adhere to the central factory’s engineering standards, including Twelve-Factor App principles, DevSecOps practices, and high-quality coding standards.
Required Qualifications & Experience
Experience: 5+ years of progressive experience in Software Engineering, with a focus on enterprise applications and application modernization.
Full Stack Proficiency: Strong hands-on experience across the full application stack (front-end, back-end, database, infrastructure). Expert proficiency in one or more modern technology languages (e.g., Python, TypeScript, C#, Java).
Cloud Native & IaC: Deep practical experience building and deploying scalable applications on AWS. Strong proficiency with Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), specifically Terraform.
Consulting & Change Management: Proven ability to onboard rapidly, assess team dynamics and technical landscapes, influence technical direction without formal authority, and drive organizational/process change within established engineering teams.
DevSecOps & CI/CD: Hands-on mastery of setting up and optimizing CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) and integrating DevSecOps best practices.
Architectural Understanding: Solid understanding of modern architectural patterns (microservices, serverless, event-driven architecture) and the principles of Domain-Driven Design (DDD).
Team Leadership & People Management: Proven experience in a formal leadership role, including hiring, mentorship, performance management, and developing high-performing engineering teams.
Communication & Interpersonal Skills: Exceptional communication, presentation, and listening skills. Ability to articulate complex technical issues and solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders effectively.
Preferred Skills (A Plus)
Prior experience in a consulting, Staff Engineer, or Forward Deployed role, specifically focused on technical adoption or modernization.
Direct experience training or mentoring other software engineers in new technologies or methodologies.
Hands-on experience with modern UI frameworks like React, NextJS, or similar.
Experience utilizing AI-assisted coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code) in a professional development environment.
Familiarity with containerization (Docker/Kubernetes) and serverless architectures (AWS Lambda).
