Lead Forward Deployed Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 14, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 11, 2026.
Description
Who We Are
The 4M story is likely one you haven't heard before: we're on a mission to unlock access to the world below us - to do for the world below ground what Google Maps did for the world above. By mapping subsurface infrastructure and making reliable, real-time utility data accessible to the construction and infrastructure industry, we're transforming a traditional, high-stakes industry.
We're a growing startup with 120 employees, based in Tel Aviv, Israel and Austin, Texas.
Why Join Us
Joining the Utility Owners Business Unit means you are at the forefront of a mission-critical expansion. You will have a direct impact on how major utilities manage their subsurface risk, preventing catastrophic damage and saving lives. This role offers a unique career trajectory: as a foundational hire, you have the opportunity to grow into owning broader product areas, leading new segments, or shaping our entire AI-product strategy as the business scales.
The Role
Think like a founder. This is our founding Forward Deployed Engineer in the US - you'll work at the intersection of engineering, product, and the customer, paired day to day with a Product counterpart. You take an ambiguous operational problem, go see how the work actually happens, build the software that solves it, deploy it in the field, and turn what you learn into a product.
Own the outcome, not the specification. You'll be the tip of the spear for a new product line: the platform Utility Owners use to run their locate-request and damage-prevention lifecycle end to end. Intake, classification, routing, field coordination, service levels, escalations, auditability, analytics, and AI-assisted workflows. Then you'll grow a US engineering team around it.
What You'll Do
- Build fast, build for real. Ship production-quality software in response to real customer problems. Prototype, validate in the field, then harden.
- Go where the work happens. Spend real time at customer and job sites. Work alongside field crews, operations teams, and physical devices.
- Own complex integrations. Enterprise APIs, utility GIS, national field-technology platforms, and the ticketing networks the industry runs on. Expect undocumented behavior, legacy systems, and messy data.
- Turn field learning into a product. Understand the difference between a one-off request and a reusable platform capability. Partner with core engineering so field wins become a scalable product.
- Lead. Set your own priorities, manage your time, and make architecture calls without a finished spec. As the product scales, you’ll also mentor engineers as the US team grows.
- Be an integral part of the R&D organization. Our engineering center is in Israel. You'll keep it close across time zones - clear updates, tight collaboration, and shared standards.
Requirements
What You Bring
- 8+ years building software, with a track record of shipping across the stack.
- Demonstrated success of personally building and deploying systems in ambiguous, customer-facing environments.
- Leadership experience with clear leadership instincts: mentoring, setting technical direction, or running a small team.
- Strong fundamentals in data and databases, cloud and distributed systems, security and authentication, and enterprise integration patterns.
- The ability to learn an unfamiliar system quickly and make it work in the field.
- Fluency with AI coding, agentic flows, and modern development practices to move faster.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, and the discipline to collaborate well with a remote team.
- Comfort with ambiguity. It should energize you, not block you.
Bonus if you are experienced with:
- Geospatial and GIS.
- IoT, mobile, or field hardware.
- Utility, energy, transportation, AEC, or industrial software.
Location and Travel
We prefer candidates open to hybrid, 3 days a week in our Austin, TX offices. We will also consider fully remote candidates based in the US who are open to regular travel to our Austin, TX offices.
Expect regular travel to customer and field sites, plus several trips a year to our R&D center in Israel.
Come work with us!
Ready to build the future of subsurface infrastructure? We encourage you to apply even if you don't check every single box above. We are looking for potential, curiosity, and a bias for action above all else. We look forward to meeting you!