Staff Software Engineer (Forward Deployed)
$210k - $300k • New York - Hybrid; San Francisco Bay Area - Hybrid
Posted 1d ago
About the job
As a Staff Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Invisible, you will lead high-impact, AI-powered solutions that reshape how clients operate their most critical workflows. You will drive the strategy, architecture, and execution of end-to-end systems, working directly with clients. This hybrid role combines AI engineering, software building, and technical consulting, making it ideal for someone who wants to be hands-on with models and close to their impact. The team is increasingly focused on applied AI work, building and deploying LLM-powered and agentic systems in production.
Responsibilities
- Partner with stakeholders to scope, design, and lead implementation of AI-driven solutions, including LLM and agentic systems.
- Identify transformational opportunities in ambiguous workflows and turn them into repeatable systems.
- Lead architecture design and trade-off discussions across performance, scalability, cost, and reliability, including for ML/AI-specific systems like RAG pipelines and production-grade AI applications.
- Own projects from discovery through full deployment, including client-facing delivery, internal coordination, and post-launch iteration.
- Build shared infrastructure, reusable components, and internal playbooks to level-up the team, including MLOps practices.
- Coach and mentor mid-level engineers and help shape the culture of forward-deployed AI engineering.
Requirements
- 8+ years of software engineering experience, including significant time building data, ML, or backend systems.
- Deep proficiency in Python with hands-on experience using Hugging Face, LangChain, OpenAI, Pinecone, and related ecosystems, including LLMs and AI Agents.
- Skilled in full-stack and API-based deployment patterns, including Docker, FastAPI, Kubernetes, and cloud environments (GCP, AWS, Azure).
- Experienced with workflow orchestration libraries, pub/sub systems (Kafka), and schema governance.
- Expertise in data governance and operations, including Unity Catalog, policy management, cluster/job orchestration, data contracts, Delta/ETL pipelines, and replay processes.
- Experience with MLOps frameworks and best practices for model versioning, monitoring, and lifecycle management, and designing scalable ML systems such as RAG pipelines.
- Strong product and system design instincts to translate business needs into technical architecture.
- Experience building usable systems from messy data and ambiguous requirements.
- Excellent communication and client-facing skills, with experience leading conversations with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Proven experience owning projects from scoping through deployment in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.
- Willingness to be on-call for customers.
- Willingness to travel for on-site client engagements.
- Available to work from the office a few days per week, depending on team needs.
Benefits
- Competitive pay reflecting market conditions and team member value.
- Salary structure accounts for regional differences in cost of living while maintaining internal equity.
- Annual salary range: $210,000 - $300,000 USD.