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As a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, you'll serve as a technical leader at the intersection of our engineering organization and our most strategic customers, including leading AI labs. You'll own the end-to-end lifecycle of high-impact deployments—from scoping complex technical requirements to architecting, building, and scaling solutions that directly improve customer workflows and model performance. You'll operate across the stack in highly ambiguous, fast-changing environments, and your judgment will shape how we approach our most critical partnerships. This is a unique opportunity to combine deep technical leadership with direct customer engagement—driving not just the 'what' and the 'how,' but setting the standard for how Handshake delivers at the highest level.
Job Responsibility:
Partner with AI labs and cross-functional stakeholders to deeply understand technical challenges, translate ambiguous requirements into actionable engineering plans, and drive alignment across teams
Own the design, architecture, and delivery of tailored, production-grade solutions for complex, high-impact customer needs
Mentor and uplevel other engineers through code reviews, architectural guidance, and establishing best practices for forward-deployed work
Make key architectural decisions around reliability, scalability, and security, and set the technical direction for repeatable deployment patterns
Rapidly prototype, test, and iterate on tools in response to real-time feedback
Create and maintain technical playbooks, documentation, and frameworks that enable the team to scale deployments efficiently
Requirements:
5+ years of professional software engineering experience
Meaningful time spent in customer-facing, solutions-oriented, or forward-deployed roles
Strong proficiency with ReactJS and TypeScript
Deep understanding of relational databases (e.g., PostgreSQL), data modeling, and system design
Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP), deployment pipelines, and production operations at scale
Demonstrated ability to lead technical projects end-to-end in ambiguous environments with shifting requirements
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills
Track record of mentoring engineers and raising the bar on engineering practices within a team
Nice to have:
Experience architecting and delivering production systems for LLMs or other AI-powered products in real-world, customer-facing environments
Background in building or contributing to component libraries, design systems, or reusable deployment frameworks
Proven experience with performance optimization and scaling of full-stack applications under real-world constraints and high-traffic conditions
Prior experience in a forward-deployed, solutions engineering, or technical consulting role at a high-growth company
What we offer:
Equity in a fast-growing company
401(k) match
Paid parental leave
Fertility benefits
Parental coaching
Medical, dental, and vision insurance
Mental health support
$500 wellness stipend
$2,000 learning stipend
Internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office