Forward Deployed Engineer
First seen by Alion on Aug 25, 2026.
The role :
As a Forward Deployed Engineer at knacklabs.ai, you will sit at the intersection of engineering and customer success. You'll embed directly with customer teams to understand their workflows, rapidly prototype and ship solutions using our platform, and turn those learnings into product improvements. This role is ideal for engineers who want high ownership, fast feedback loops, and direct exposure to how their code changes a customer's business.
What you will own :
1. Customer embedding :
- Work directly with customers to understand their business processes, pain points, and technical environments.
2. Solution building :
- Design, build, and deploy custom integrations, workflows, and applications on top of the knacklabs.ai platform.
3. Product feedback loop :
- Turn one-off customer builds into reusable, generalizable features by working closely with the core product and engineering teams.
4. Rapid prototyping :
- Write production-quality code under real deadlines, balancing speed with maintainability.
5. Technical troubleshooting :
- Debug issues across the stack, from data pipelines to APIs to front-end integrations, in live customer environments.
6. Ongoing ownership :
- Own the technical relationship with select customers post-deployment, ensuring solutions remain stable and scale with their needs.
7. Travel :
- Travel to customer sites as needed, expected occasionally and varying by account.
What we need from you :
- 1. Three or more years of professional software engineering experience, ideally including customer-facing or implementation work.
- 2. Strong proficiency in at least one backend language (Python, Node.js, Go, or similar) and comfort working across a full stack.
- 3. Experience with REST/GraphQL APIs, databases (SQL/NoSQL), and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure).
- 4. Demonstrated ability to work independently in ambiguous, fast-changing environments.
- 5. Strong communication skills. You can explain technical tradeoffs clearly to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
- 6. A bias toward action. You are comfortable shipping a working solution today rather than a perfect one next month.
Good to have :
- 1. Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or in a consulting or implementation role.
- 2. Experience working with AI/ML products, LLM-based applications, or data intensive systems.
- 3. Familiarity with enterprise environments, integration patterns, and security and compliance considerations.
- 4. Startup experience, or comfort with the pace and scope changes that come with an early stage company.
What we offer :
1. The opportunity to see your work directly and immediately impact real customers.
2. A high-ownership role with a direct path into product and engineering leadership.
3. Competitive compensation, including equity.
4. A collaborative, fast-moving team building at the frontier of applied AI.
Skills
Forward Deployment Engineering, Python, Node.js, REST API, GraphQL, IT Consulting