Forward Deployed Engineer

Luma

$120K — $145K *
Technical Services
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 2+ years of professional software engineering with end-to-end software delivery
  • Strong proficiency in a general-purpose programming language (Python, TypeScript, Go, or similar)
  • Ability to quickly learn and work across different technology stacks
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience
  • Willingness to travel to client sites as needed

Responsibilities

  • Engage directly with customers to understand their workflows and define problems
  • Develop production systems using Luma's APIs and internal tools
  • Prototype, launch, and maintain customer-dependable systems
  • Manage projects from initiation to deployment
  • Identify platform gaps and provide feedback to R&D for improvements
  • Leverage AI to optimize implementation while maintaining reliability

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work closely with customers and directly impact their workflows
  • Gain hands-on experience in a flexible, ambiguous engineering environment
  • Be involved in the full lifecycle of projects, from concept to delivery
  • Access to cutting-edge technology and the chance to contribute to product development
Full Job Description
Forward Deployed Engineers turn what Luma's models can do into systems customers actually rely on. You embed with a customer, learn their workflow, define the problem with them, and build the production system that solves it, with their data and their constraints. You own both the relationship and the code.

This is engineering at the edge, where ambiguity is the default and "what should we build?" is yours to answer. It's built for people who've already been the single point of ownership on a hard problem: a technical founder, the engineer who flew out and rebuilt a customer's workflow, a consultant who actually wrote the system. If you need a PRD and a well-defined ticket queue, this isn't it.

What You'll Own
  • Work directly with customers to understand their workflows, constraints, and goals, and define the problem yourself.
  • Build production systems on Luma's APIs, models, and internal tools.
  • Prototype, ship, iterate, and maintain systems customers depend on in real environments with real data.
  • Own projects end to end, from first conversation to deployed system.
  • Build around platform gaps when something's missing, and feed recurring patterns back to platform and R&D to productize.
  • Use AI to accelerate implementation, while the core of the work stays engineering judgment: what to build and how to make it reliable.

First 90 Days

One way the first 90 could unfold.
  • Days 1-30 - Immerse & Diagnose: Embed with a first customer, learn their workflow, and define the real problem.
  • Days 30-60 - Ship & Validate: Build and deploy a production system they actually use.
  • Days 60-90 - Scale & Systemize: Spot the pattern worth productizing and work with R&D to turn it into platform.

What You Bring
  • 2+ years of professional software engineering, with software shipped end to end.
  • Strong proficiency in at least one general-purpose language (Python, TypeScript, Go, or similar).
  • Ability to work across the stack and learn unfamiliar systems quickly.
  • Bachelor's in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience.
  • Willingness to travel to client sites as needed.

Nice to Have
  • A track record of shipping real systems with real users, not just assigned tasks.
  • High agency and strong prioritization: you find the core problem and move.
  • Comfort defining your own path when there isn't one.
  • Evidence of working directly with customers and translating what you heard into what you built.
  • Clear communication, including explaining a technical decision to a non-technical stakeholder.

Note: this body covers Forward Deployed Engineer (SF Bay Area) and Forward Deployed Engineer, EU (London / Remote UK / Munich).

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