Forward Deployed Integration Engineer
Role Description
About This Role:
Join a well-funded, early-stage aerospace and defense manufacturing company that acquires established precision machine shops and transforms them into modern, technology-enabled operations. The company supports leading aerospace, defense, space, and maritime customers and is building a growing portfolio of advanced manufacturing businesses. This role embeds directly inside newly acquired facilities and owns much of the approximately nine-month post-acquisition integration and operating transformation.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Embed at newly acquired machine shops as the primary technical and operational point of contact during post-close integrations.
- Manage the flow of critical aerospace and defense components from planning and raw materials through machining, inspection, delivery, and issue resolution.
- Implement lean manufacturing practices and drive adoption of the company’s purpose-built manufacturing operating platform.
- Identify and execute improvements to equipment effectiveness, cycle times, quality, workflow, and production capacity.
- Build trust with machinists, engineers, quality teams, and facility leadership while turning lessons learned into a repeatable integration playbook.
Requirements:
All of the following will be required for a candidate to advance to an interview:
- 3–7 years of experience in a machine shop, manufacturing, production engineering, or similarly hands-on industrial environment, including at least two years of direct shop-floor experience.
- Strong understanding of GD&T and the ability to solve complex manufacturing-planning and production problems.
- Experience with relevant tools or processes such as CNC milling or turning, CAD/CAM, CMM programming, G-code, manufacturing ERP systems, lean manufacturing, or AS9100D.
- Demonstrated ability to independently drive change and execute in a resource-constrained startup, small-business, or high-ownership manufacturing environment.
Pay: $150,000.00 - $200,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- Do you have hands-on experience with GD&T and at least one of the following: CNC milling, CNC turning, CMM programming, or CAD/CAM?
- United States?
Ideal Answer: Yes Do you have at least 2 years of direct shop-floor experience in a machine shop or manufacturing environment?
Work Location: In person
About Forward Deployed Engineering
Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.
Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.
Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.
Similar Roles
Get the FDE Pulse Brief
Weekly market intelligence for Forward Deployed Engineers. Job trends, salary data, and who's hiring. Free.