Forward Deployment Engineer – Expert - 5G/6G/NTN
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 22, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 13, 2026. Keysight scores B on the Alion truth index.
Keysight is at the forefront of technology innovation, delivering breakthroughs and trusted insights in electronic design, simulation, prototyping, test, manufacturing, and optimization. Our ~16,800 employees create world-class solutions in communications, 5G, automotive, energy, quantum, aerospace, defense, and semiconductor markets for customers in over 100 countries. Learn more about what we do.
Our award-winning culture embraces a bold vision of where technology can take us and a passion for tackling challenging problems with industry-first solutions. We believe that when people feel a sense of belonging, they can be more creative, innovative, and thrive at all points in their careers.
Responsibilities
The Expert Forward Deployment Engineer works inside a customer's development program as software developer, systems engineer, and deployment lead in one role, and ships production code. This person reduces broad concepts and business strategies into structured deployment projects, acts as the key technical lead and go-to person for Department or Senior Management on the most complex, high-impact engagements, diagnoses problems deep within the protocol stack (Layer 1 to Layer 3), modifies software, validates fixes, and delivers controlled releases during a customer's early development, integration, and regression cycles.
This is a customer-facing software engineering role where you will embed directly within a customer environment to customize, integrate, and deploy technology into real-world production systems, solving complex, high-impact problems.
Core responsibilities
- Reduce broad account concepts and business strategies into structured, multi-workstream deployment projects
- Act as the key technical lead and go-to person for Department or Senior Management on the most complex or highest-impact deployment engagements
- Architect and own solutions to problems that require a unique or highly specialized skill set
- Work onsite or closely with wireless customer development teams during major feature introductions
- Analyze signaling flows, traces, timing behavior, and performance data to isolate failures across Keysight and customer implementations
- Write and modify application and protocol-stack software, plus the supporting software and firmware the customer environment requires
- Develop and extend Python APIs that customer teams integrate against
- Build automation workflows inside the customer's workflows
- Create diagnostic instrumentation when existing tools are insufficient
- Develop, validate, and deploy controlled patches, feature flags, and interim releases under Keysight's release process
- Run rapid prototyping loops directly with customers to test and iterate on new features based on live feedback
- Act as a feedback loop to the core product and engineering teams, translating field problems into engineering requirements and defects for product management and R&D
- Incorporate broadly applicable field-developed improvements into the core product
- Mentor lower-levelengineers and help develop the broader forward deployment engineering team
Qualifications
Typically requires a Bachelor's or Master'sdegree (or equivalent) and 10+ years of relevant software/systems engineering experience. Post-graduate study and/or relevant certification/license may be required.
- Strong software-development experience across multiple software stacks
- Preferred expertise in at least one domain (PHY/L1, MAC/RLC/PDCP and L2, or RRC/NAS and L3), plus working knowledge of adjacent layers and end-to-end 4G, 5G, and 5G-Advanced system behavior
- Proficiency in C/C++ and Python (including API development), Linux, embedded or real-time software, and automated testing
- Experience debugging protocol interactions through logs, traces, packet captures, call flows, and timing analysis
- Familiarity with 3GPP specifications and the practical differences among standards compliance, interoperability, and implementation behavior
- Experience in design and test instrumentation and test emulation tools
- Ability to produce production-quality code that ships in a customer's build
- The judgment and customer presence to operate inside confidential development programs
- Excellent communication skills; able to explain technical trade-offs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
- Willingness to relocate or travel to a specific customer site as required by the assignment
- Specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise across multiple protocol layers, software stacks, and deployment domains
- Demonstrated technical leadership: ability to design solutions to unusually complex problems and set direction for other engineers
Other Information
This position is on-site in San Diego, California
Relocation is available for this position
Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position
Travel Requirement: Up to 50% travel to local client sites. Occasional international travel may also be required.
The level of role will be based on applicable experience, education and skills; Most offers will be between the minimum and the midpoint of the Salary Range listed below:
California Pay Range: MIN $160,110.00 -MID $213,470.00 - MAX $266,840.00
Note: For other locations, pay ranges will vary by region
US Employees may be eligible for the following benefits:
- Medical, dental and vision
- Health Savings Account
- Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
- Life, Accident, Disability insurance
- Business Travel Accident and Business Travel Health
- 401(k) Plan
- Flexible Time Off, Paid Holidays
- Paid Family Leave
- Discounts, Perks
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Adoption Assistance
- ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan)
The Expert Forward Deployment Engineer works inside a customer's development program as software developer, systems engineer, and deployment lead in one role, and ships production code. This person reduces broad concepts and business strategies into structured deployment projects, acts as the key technical lead and go-to person for Department or Senior Management on the most complex, high-impact engagements, diagnoses problems deep within the protocol stack (Layer 1 to Layer 3), modifies software, validates fixes, and delivers controlled releases during a customer's early development, integration, and regression cycles.
This is a customer-facing software engineering role where you will embed directly within a customer environment to customize, integrate, and deploy technology into real-world production systems, solving complex, high-impact problems.
Core responsibilities
- Reduce broad account concepts and business strategies into structured, multi-workstream deployment projects
- Act as the key technical lead and go-to person for Department or Senior Management on the most complex or highest-impact deployment engagements
- Architect and own solutions to problems that require a unique or highly specialized skill set
- Work onsite or closely with wireless customer development teams during major feature introductions
- Analyze signaling flows, traces, timing behavior, and performance data to isolate failures across Keysight and customer implementations
- Write and modify application and protocol-stack software, plus the supporting software and firmware the customer environment requires
- Develop and extend Python APIs that customer teams integrate against
- Build automation workflows inside the customer's workflows
- Create diagnostic instrumentation when existing tools are insufficient
- Develop, validate, and deploy controlled patches, feature flags, and interim releases under Keysight's release process
- Run rapid prototyping loops directly with customers to test and iterate on new features based on live feedback
- Act as a feedback loop to the core product and engineering teams, translating field problems into engineering requirements and defects for product management and R&D
- Incorporate broadly applicable field-developed improvements into the core product
- Mentor lower-levelengineers and help develop the broader forward deployment engineering team
Typically requires a Bachelor's or Master'sdegree (or equivalent) and 10+ years of relevant software/systems engineering experience. Post-graduate study and/or relevant certification/license may be required.
- Strong software-development experience across multiple software stacks
- Preferred expertise in at least one domain (PHY/L1, MAC/RLC/PDCP and L2, or RRC/NAS and L3), plus working knowledge of adjacent layers and end-to-end 4G, 5G, and 5G-Advanced system behavior
- Proficiency in C/C++ and Python (including API development), Linux, embedded or real-time software, and automated testing
- Experience debugging protocol interactions through logs, traces, packet captures, call flows, and timing analysis
- Familiarity with 3GPP specifications and the practical differences among standards compliance, interoperability, and implementation behavior
- Experience in design and test instrumentation and test emulation tools
- Ability to produce production-quality code that ships in a customer's build
- The judgment and customer presence to operate inside confidential development programs
- Excellent communication skills; able to explain technical trade-offs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders
- Willingness to relocate or travel to a specific customer site as required by the assignment
- Specialized depth and/or breadth of expertise across multiple protocol layers, software stacks, and deployment domains
- Demonstrated technical leadership: ability to design solutions to unusually complex problems and set direction for other engineers
Other Information
This position is on-site in San Diego, California
Relocation is available for this position
Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position
Travel Requirement: Up to 50% travel to local client sites. Occasional international travel may also be required.
The level of role will be based on applicable experience, education and skills; Most offers will be between the minimum and the midpoint of the Salary Range listed below:
California Pay Range: MIN $160,110.00 -MID $213,470.00 - MAX $266,840.00
Note: For other locations, pay ranges will vary by region
US Employees may be eligible for the following benefits:
- Medical, dental and vision
- Health Savings Account
- Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
- Life, Accident, Disability insurance
- Business Travel Accident and Business Travel Health
- 401(k) Plan
- Flexible Time Off, Paid Holidays
- Paid Family Leave
- Discounts, Perks
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Adoption Assistance
- ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Plan)