Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems

ABOUT US: AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal. Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now. Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable https://modal.com/blog/lovable-case-study, Ramp https://modal.com/blog/how-ramp-built-a-full-context-background-coding-agent-on-modal, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale. We recently raised a $355M Series C https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September. Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn https://github.com/mwaskom/seaborn,Luigi https://github.com/spotify/luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience. THE ROLE: Modal is seeking an experienced Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to partner with our sales team and drive technical sales success. As an FDE, you will be the technical voice in our sales process, working directly with Account Executives to help enterprise customers understand how Modal can transform their AI/ML infrastructure. You will: - Partner with Account Executives to identify, qualify, and close strategic enterprise opportunities - Lead technical discovery sessions with prospective customers to understand their current infrastructure, pain points, and requirements - Design and present compelling technical solutions that demonstrate how Modal addresses customer needs - Architect migration paths from existing cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) to Modal's serverless platform - Conduct technical demos, experiments, and proof-of-concepts that showcase Modal's capabilities - Navigate complex technical evaluations and address security, compliance, and integration concerns - Build trusted advisor relationships with technical decision-makers including CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and ML Engineering leads - Collaborate with product and engineering teams to communicate customer feedback and influence product roadmap - Support contract negotiations by providing technical expertise on implementation timelines, resource requirements, and success metrics REQUIREMENTS: - 5+ years of experience in solutions engineering, sales engineering, or customer-facing technical roles - Deep hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) including compute, storage, networking, and managed services - Strong knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, container orchestration) - Experience with databases (SQL/NoSQL), data pipelines, and distributed systems architecture - Understanding of ML/AI infrastructure challenges including model training, inference, and MLOps workflows - Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation) and CI/CD pipelines - Proven track record of supporting enterprise software sales cycles ($100K+ ACV) - Exceptional presentation and communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and business audiences - Strong business acumen with understanding of enterprise buying processes and procurement - Experience building migration strategies and implementation roadmaps for large-scale infrastructure changes - Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams including sales, product, and engineering - Experience selling or implementing serverless computing, container platforms, or ML infrastructure solutions