Forward Deployed Engineer

Responsibilities:

• Own the Client's Outcome Embed with enterprise customers - on-site and remotely - to understand their supply chain operations, data estate, and what success actually looks like for their business.
• Scope and design technical solutions for messy, real-world logistics problems - with a clear line to measurable impact: cost per delivery, SLA performance, and empty kilometers.
• Own the full deployment lifecycle: architecture through go-live through steady-state.
• Build and Ship Design, build, and maintain backend services in Node.js or Python that power routing, planning, and execution at enterprise scale.
• Build and own the integrations connecting Locus to client ERPs, TMS, WMS, and OMS platforms - these integrations are often the riskiest part of a deployment.
• Write production code that runs under real load. If it isn't in production, it hasn't shipped.
• Be the Technical Interface with the Client. Run architecture reviews, lead integration workshops, and represent Locus in executive steering meetings.
• Be credible at every level of the client organization. Bring field learnings back into the product and platform teams.
• Push back when a client request would compromise platform integrity - and propose a better alternative.
• Show up on-site and travel to client sites - domestic and international, up to ~30% of the time - for kickoffs, integration sprints, go-lives, and post-live reviews.
• Build the kind of relationship where the client's ops lead calls you directly when something goes wrong at 2 am, not a support ticket.
• Be comfortable wherever the work is: a warehouse floor, a logistics control tower, a C-suite boardroom.
• Make the next deployment easier by documenting architecture decisions, integration patterns, and deployment playbooks.
• Work closely with Product, Customer Success, and Platform Engineering.
• Mentor junior FDEs and raise the technical bar across the team.

Requirements:

• We're looking for someone who is genuinely energized by deploying technology into difficult, real-world environments - and who measures themselves by whether the client's operation improved.
• Experience 5-8 years of backend engineering, with at least 2 years in a client-facing or deployment-heavy role.
• A track record of shipping production systems in Node.js or Python for enterprise customers.
• You've sat in client offices, understood how their operations actually run, and built what they needed - not what you assumed they needed.
• Bachelor's or Master's in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Technical Depth:

• Solid understanding of distributed systems and microservices - you can reason about failure modes, not just happy paths.
• Hands-on with relational and NoSQL databases; you make data-modeling trade-offs deliberately, not by default.
• Experience with event streaming or message queues (Kafka, RabbitMQ).
• Cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and containerized deployments (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Comfortable with CI/CD pipelines and production observability - you know what's happening in your systems after you deploy.

Nice to Have:

• Experience at a company that does forward-deployed or field engineering (Palantir style, or similar).
• Background in logistics, supply chain, or transportation management.
• Experience integrating AI/ML or LLM-based workflows into enterprise systems.
• Familiarity with geospatial data, routing algorithms, or optimization engines.

Skills

AWS, Azure, GCP, Node.js, Python, backend