Forward Deployed Engineer

Here’s a summary of the role: We are looking for a rare hybrid talent — someone who can hack together end-to-end prototypes at speed while also standing confidently in front of a customer’s executive team. This role sits at the intersection of engineering, product, and business development . You will be one of the first technical faces customers meet, building semi-deployable prototypes, testing product-market fit in the wild, and representing us in high-stakes conversations with senior stakeholders. If you’re an entrepreneurial engineer who thrives in ambiguity, loves building quickly, and wants to see the immediate impact of your work with customers, this role is for you. Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll do (not all of it, just the important stuff): Rapidly design, build, and deliver end-to-end prototypes, demos, and proofs-of-concept that help prospects and partners experience the art of the possible. Partner with sales and business development teams to identify customer needs, run discovery sessions, and tailor prototypes to demonstrate value. Represent the company independently in executive-level meetings (SVP/C-level), confidently articulating both technical and business value. Act as a forward-deployed engineer — embedded in customer/partner environments, surfacing insights, validating opportunities, and feeding learnings back into the product roadmap. Collaborate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and marketing to shape product direction and positioning based on real-world engagements. Provide technical guidance during early partnership discussions, including APIs, integrations, cloud deployments, and lightweight AI/LLM-driven applications . Help establish repeatable frameworks, toolkits, and playbooks for scaling pre-sales prototyping efforts. These are the essentials you’ll need to get an interview: 3-5+ years of relevant, post-college work experience. Strong technical hacking and prototyping ability — shown proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar. Can independently build functional, semi-deployable solutions across modern stacks (Python/Node, APIs, data pipelines, cloud environments, front-end frameworks, etc.). Comfort working with AI/LLM-based tools, APIs, and modern developer ecosystems . Excellent customer-facing skills : discovery, prospecting, business development, and partnership alignment. Exceptional executive presence : confident, articulate, and able to hold your own with senior executives. Proven ability to operate independently in ambiguous, fast-changing environments . Strong communication skills: able to translate technical complexity into business value. Ability and interest to travel up to 25%, as needed to client sites, but flexible based on personal preferences. It would be great if you had these to, but we’ll support you if you don’t: Experience in technical pre-sales, forward-deployment, or field engineering roles . Background in B2B SaaS, enterprise software, or early-stage startups . Comfort balancing short-term prototyping with longer-term scalability considerations. Strong storytelling skills and the ability to craft narratives around prototypes and demos. Why Join Us? Shape the earliest moments of our customer and partner relationships. Have direct influence on product strategy by bringing back unfiltered customer insights. Work on cutting-edge technologies while owning high-visibility projects . Join a team that values entrepreneurial thinking, speed, and impact . This is a high-trust, high-impact role . You’ll be dropped into mission-critical situations, given the freedom to build, and trusted to represent the company at the highest levels. U.S pay range $130,000 — $150,000 USD About Us Diligent is the AI leader in governance, risk and compliance (GRC) SaaS solutions, helping more than 1 million users and 700,000 board members to clarify risk and elevate governance. The Diligent One Platform gives practitioners, the C-S