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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Principal Forward Deployment Engineer (FDE) - **Company:** ACCEL LLC - **Location:** Seattle, WA, United States (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $162,000.0 - $199,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** JavaScript (Programming Language), Artificial Intelligence, Architectural Patterns, Software as a Service, Cloud Engineering, Data Infrastructure, Extract Transform Load (ETL), Data Security, Java Database Connectivity, Python (Programming Language), OAuth, Open Database Connectivity, Role-Based Access Control, Salesforce.Com, Server Administration, Software Deployment, SQL Databases, Large Language Models, Snowflake, Prompt Engineering, Generative AI, Backend, Deployment Automation, Production Code, Front End Software Development, Virtual Agents, Api Design, Databricks - **Published:** August 16, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.careerjet.com/jobad/us7a86d1252ea37847fc24366fe22f8680 ## About the Role * Bring 15+ years of engineering or technical delivery experience, including 2+ years managing high-performing FDE or customer-facing engineers * 7+ years as a Solutions Architect, Principal SE, Forward Deployed Engineer, or Technical Lead at a data platform, AI, or enterprise SaaS company * Customer-facing track record with senior technical buyers and architecture review boards * High agency; comfortable being the senior technical voice in the room with the customer * Ability to translate complex AI + data concepts into executive-ready architecture proposals * Has built and shipped production AI applications, not just prototypes * Worked on a SaaS Platform in an Architect Profile (or closely aligned role) * Have led high-pressure technical projects from prototype to production * Write and review production-grade code across frontend and backend using JavaScript or Python * Have built or deployed systems powered by LLMs or generative models and understand how model behavior affects product experience * Simplify complex work and make fast, sound decisions under pressure * Elevate team performance through clarity, not process * Operate with urgency in ambiguous or evolving environments * Translate field experience into sharp, actionable feedback for Product and Research * Build deep trust with your team by modeling calm, focus, and judgment when it matters most * Strong AI/ML literacy: LLM capabilities, agentic architectures, RAG patterns, prompt engineering, and when to apply each * Able to define Multi-tenant Architectural patterns and security objectives * Hands-on enterprise data integration: SQL, ETL/CDC pipelines, API design, ODBC/JDBC, and multi-source connectivity * Able to design governed data access for AI agents, RBAC, OAuth 2.1, semantic scoping, and audit-trail requirements * Experience with modern data stacks (Snowflake, Databricks, Salesforce) and cloud-native deployment patterns * Experience mentoring junior engineers without requiring direct reporting relationships Nice to Have: * Direct experience with the MCP protocol and AI agent frameworks (LangChain, CrewAI, Copilot Studio) * Prior experience as an FDE or in a similar embedded customer-facing engineering role ## Description As a Principal FDE, you'll be the senior technical leader inside our most strategic enterprise engagements. You'll embed with customers to translate AI ambitions into production architectures, designing how data, AI, and governance fit together end-to-end. You'll be the technical voice the customer trusts and the field-level expert whose patterns shape what we build next in product. You'll lead FDE through high-stakes, ambiguous customer deployments and own technical and business value outcomes end to end. You'll grow a team that can operate under pressure and help our organization learn from the field. The FDE works directly with strategic customers and designs how AI, data and governance come together end-to-end to ensure deployments are scalable, secure, and deliver measurable outcomes. This role goes beyond solution design. By shaping architectures, defining best practices, and identifying product gaps in real time, the Architect directly influences the evolution of the platform. Their work creates patterns that accelerate future deployments, strengthen technical credibility with enterprise buyers, and reduce time to value across engagements. You'll partner closely with Product, Research, Sales, and GTM to ensure fieldwork informs roadmap priorities, drives new exploration, and supports safe deployment at scale. Your decisions will influence how we are trusted by the customers closest to our deployment work. Your success will be measured by how consistently your team ships, how clearly you deliver signal to Research and Product, and how durable your team and delivery model prove to be. In this role you will: * Run technical discovery workshops with customer architects, data leaders, and AI teams, mapping data sources, MCP Workspace scoping, and agent tooling requirements * Own the scoping for AI deployments with clear acceptance criteria around agent accuracy, data coverage, and governance * Translate complex AI + data concepts into executive-ready architecture proposals; defend trade-offs to CxO-level stakeholders * Lead and grow a team of FDE delivering production systems with frontier models * Own end-to-end delivery outcomes through clarity, speed, tight coordination, and technical quality * Own the technical solution end to end, from customer discovery and workflow scoping through architecture, hands-on implementation, evaluation, production deployment, adoption, and handoff * Partner credibly with customer engineers, operators, and domain experts to frame ambiguous problems, define scope, and translate business workflows into technical requirements and measurable outcomes. * Design solutions across various AI sources covering MCP server configuration, semantic context modeling, and governance integration * Architect agent orchestration, defining which data, schemas, and actions each agent can access in production * Design governed access patterns for AI agents: RBAC, OAuth 2.1, semantic scoping, and audit-trail requirements * Define AI Best practices using agents, skills and LLMs to drive successful customer outcomes * Identify architectural and product gaps during live enterprise engagements and partner with Product and Engineering to define scalable solutions * Author technical specifications and implementation recommendations for enhancements, including both features and core architectural improvements * Build reusable reference architectures, deployment patterns, and MCP blueprints that reduce implementation friction and accelerate future customer deployments * Translate recurring customer deployment challenges into scalable platform capabilities and architectural standards * Codify what works into tools, playbooks, and roadmap inputs that create leverage for our enterprise customers * Notice early indicators and raise them with urgency, whether in product behavior, customer environments, or delivery practices * Use judgement to distinguish what requires action and what does not * Set a high bar for FDE performance and support each person's growth through direct, actionable feedback * Define how we staff and support field teams that can scale without added complexity ## Related Videos - [AI Won't Fix Your Engineering Culture](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100266-ai-won-t-fix-your-engineering-culture) - [How Cisco embraced a DevOps culture within its network engineering team](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/99-how-cisco-embraced-a-devops-culture-within-its-network-engineering-team) - [Developing the Backend with Stefan Lingler, CTO at Shpock](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100360-developing-the-backend-with-stefan-lingler-cto-at-shpock) - [Keeping applications secure by evolving OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100152-keeping-applications-secure-by-evolving-oauth-2-0-and-openid-connect) - [Headless by Design: Building Enterprise Systems That Agents Can Actually Use](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100092-headless-by-design-building-enterprise-systems-that-agents-can-actually-use) - [Hacking AI at the Edge of the Indian Ocean](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/100177-hacking-ai-at-the-edge-of-the-indian-ocean) ## Related Articles - [How to Become an AI Engineer](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/331-how-to-become-an-ai-engineer) - [From Prototype to Production: Build AI Agents with This Free 4-Course Learning Path](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/655-from-prototype-to-production-build-ai-agents-with-this-free-4-course-learning-path) - [What is Agentic Programming and Why Should Developers Care?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/625-what-is-agentic-programming-and-why-should-developers-care) - [Graph and AI Trends 2026: Why Is AI Running but Not Yet Delivering?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/680-graph-and-ai-trends-2026-why-is-ai-running-but-not-yet-delivering) - [Highest Paying Tech Companies for Developers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/220-highest-paying-tech-companies-for-developers) - [Navigating the AI Shift](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/629-navigating-the-ai-shift)