AI Field Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

TradesApp

• $176K — $228K *
Technical Services
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 3-10 years in a client-facing technical or AI/ML engineering role
  • Strong Python programming skills
  • Experience with deploying AI/ML or generative AI applications
  • Familiarity with LLMs and open-source AI models
  • Proven ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
  • History of building POCs and advancing solutions to production
  • Strong problem-solving abilities, especially in ambiguous situations

Responsibilities

  • Engage with customers to identify their technical/business challenges
  • Design and create POCs, MVPs, and AI applications for production
  • Deploy and enhance LLM and generative AI systems
  • Utilize open-source models and AI/ML platforms for integrations
  • Collaborate with engineering teams and customer stakeholders
  • Translate customer needs into scalable technical solutions
  • Tackle complex AI and deployment issues and contribute directly to codebase

Benefits

  • Remote work options available
  • Sponsorship for H-1B transfers and TN visas
  • Potential for O-1 visa sponsorship case-by-case
  • Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI technologies
  • Meaningful equity participation in the company
Full Job Description
Location: New York, NY / San Mateo, CA / Remote, USA
Employment Type: Full-time
Experience: 3-10 years
Compensation: $176K-$228K base | $220K-$285K OTE + meaningful equity
Visa: H-1B transfers and TN visas sponsored; O-1 considered case-by-case
About the Role

We're hiring an AI Field Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our AI's high-velocity team

You'll work directly with ambitious AI-native companies to turn complex AI challenges into production-ready systems. This is a highly hands-on role sitting at the intersection of AI engineering, product, and customer delivery.

You'll build POCs, MVPs, and production integrations while working directly with customers, account executives, and engineering teams. You'll also engage with technical and executive stakeholders to discuss architecture, strategy, and business outcomes.

This is not a traditional consulting or solutions role you'll be hands-on-keyboard, writing code, deploying systems, solving technical problems, and contributing directly to our products and platform.
What You'll Do
  • Work directly with customers to understand their technical and business challenges.
  • Design and build POCs, MVPs, and production AI applications.
  • Deploy and optimize LLM and generative AI workloads in production.
  • Work with open-source models, inference infrastructure, and AI/ML platforms.
  • Collaborate with customer engineering teams, account executives, and Fireworks product/engineering teams.
  • Translate customer requirements into scalable technical solutions.
  • Troubleshoot complex AI, infrastructure, and deployment challenges.
  • Communicate technical architecture and tradeoffs to both engineers and executive stakeholders.
  • Contribute code and product improvements directly to the codebase.
  • Turn customer learnings into product feedback and help shape our roadmap.
  • Take ownership of projects from initial discovery through production deployment.
What We're Looking For

We're looking for engineers who combine strong technical depth with excellent customer-facing skills.

You may come from backgrounds such as:
  • Forward Deployed Engineer
  • AI/ML Engineer
  • Applied AI Engineer
  • AI Solutions Engineer
  • Solutions Architect
  • Sales Engineer
  • Customer Engineer
  • ML/AI Infrastructure Engineer
  • Customer Success Engineer with strong technical depth
Required
  • 3-10 years of experience in a client-facing technical or AI/ML engineering role.
  • Strong Python programming skills.
  • Experience building and deploying AI/ML or generative AI applications.
  • Experience working with LLMs and/or open-source AI models.
  • Ability to work directly with customers and communicate technical concepts clearly.
  • Experience building POCs and taking solutions toward production.
  • Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to operate effectively in ambiguous environments.
  • Willingness to work hands-on across engineering, customer delivery, and product.
Technical Experience

Experience with some of the following is highly relevant:
  • Python
  • vLLM
  • SGLang
  • TensorRT-LLM
  • Kubernetes
  • AWS, Azure, or GCP
  • AWS Bedrock / SageMaker
  • Azure AI Foundry
  • GCP Vertex AI
  • LLM fine-tuning, including SFT, DPO, or RFT
  • GPU infrastructure
  • Model inference and optimization

You do not need experience with every technology listed, but you should have strong fundamentals in AI/ML engineering and be comfortable learning quickly.

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