Our client is an early-stage national-security technology company building agentic AI systems for U.S. intelligence, defense, and law-enforcement missions. Founded in 2025 and backed by $16.5M in seed funding, the company is already deploying with government customers.
This Forward Deployed Engineer is a core engineer at the point of contact with high-consequence customers. You will write production code, extend the platform, and personally deploy agentic AI systems into sensitive government environments. You will own the full arc from scoping and integration through live operation and customer trust.
What you'll do
• Build production features and extend agent capabilities with the core engineering team.
• Deploy and operate agentic AI systems in government and defense environments.
• Own integrations, infrastructure, live operation, troubleshooting, and technical customer relationships.
• Build rapid prototypes and field-expedient solutions under ambiguous conditions.
• Turn field requirements and edge cases into durable product improvements.
• Maintain infrastructure across varied hardware, networking, and security environments.
• Travel periodically to federal customer sites, primarily in the Washington, D.C. and DMV area.
Requirements
• 4 to 7 years of experience as a software engineer or Forward Deployed Engineer.
• Strong engineering fundamentals and production Python fluency.
• Comfort with Linux, shell scripting, integrations, infrastructure, and hands-on debugging.
• Experience owning a deployment end to end in a client-facing or internal environment.
• Experience doing technical work in an unstructured, customer-facing, or field environment.
• Success in a high-bar engineering organization, ideally a venture-backed startup or leading defense-technology company.
• Strong communication, judgment, urgency, and independent execution.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility to obtain a security clearance. An active clearance is strongly preferred.
• Ability to work five days per week in the New York City office and travel periodically to federal customers.
Benefits
• $180,000 to $250,000 base salary.
• 0.30% to 0.48% equity.
• Relocation support is available.
• Direct ownership of mission-critical deployments and core product development.
• Opportunity to join a small, high-caliber team at an early stage.
This role cannot sponsor visas. Candidates must be U.S. citizens and eligible to obtain a security clearance.
Skills Required
- 4 to 7 years of experience as a software engineer or Forward Deployed Engineer
- Strong engineering fundamentals and production Python fluency
- Comfort with Linux, shell scripting, integrations, infrastructure, and hands-on debugging
- Experience owning an end-to-end deployment in a client-facing or internal environment
- Experience doing technical work in an unstructured, customer-facing, or field environment
- Success in a high-bar engineering organization
- Experience at a venture-backed startup or leading defense-technology company
- Strong communication, judgment, urgency, and independent execution
- U.S. citizenship
- Eligibility to obtain a security clearance
- Active security clearance
- Ability to work five days per week in the New York City office
- Ability to travel periodically to federal customers
What We Do
Raydar is a talent acquisition and business consulting firm that connects world-class and emerging talent with growing organizations. It supports companies through team development, strategic hiring, and customized growth solutions, helping clients recruit roles such as engineers, product managers, executives, legal counsel, and quantitative traders. Raydar focuses on understanding each organization’s needs, culture, and long-term goals to build high-impact teams.
