Forward Deployed Engineer

Role and Responsibilities

• 0-to-1 Deployment: Take validated proof-of-concepts from the pre-sales process and build the first production deployment.
  • Data pipeline setup
  • Model optimization
  • Edge device configuration
  • Integration with customer infrastructure
• Edge-First Engineering: Deploy and operate computer vision systems on edge hardware in physical environments.
  • Hands-on, hardware-heavy work
• Embed with Customers: Work on-site or deeply embedded with the customer’s engineering team during the initial deployment phase (typically 4–12 weeks per engagement).
  • Build trust
  • Transfer knowledge
  • Establish the foundation for long-term success
• Production Engineering: Write production-grade code that will live in the customer’s environment.
  • Handle the messy realities of real-world computer vision
  • Lighting variability
  • Camera calibration
  • Model drift
  • Network latency
  • Edge hardware constraints
• Be Our Eyes and Ears in the Field: Surface the gap between what the customer says they want, what they actually need, and what the machine operators on the floor think.
  • Feedback loop back to Product and Engineering
• Knowledge Transfer & Handoff: Document your deployment architecture, create runbooks, and train the customer’s team so they can operate the system independently.
  • Provide a clean handoff to Roboflow’s Implementation Engineers for scaling and expansion
• De-risk New Deployments: Identify and resolve technical risks early.
  • Alternative architectures if customer’s environment won’t support the planned architecture
• Shape the Deployment Playbook: Codify repeatable deployment patterns, starter templates, and reusable artifacts that make future deployments faster and more reliable.

Required Skills

• Meaningful experience deploying technology in physical-world environments
• Strong proficiency in Python
• Experience with systems-level work (Docker, Kubernetes, networking, Linux)
• Experience with edge computing hardware and constraints (NVIDIA Jetson, industrial cameras, limited connectivity, on-premise security requirements)
• Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Experience in one or more of Roboflow’s target verticals: manufacturing, logistics, food processing, automotive, or retail
• Willingness to travel ~40–50% for on-site customer deployments

Preferred Attributes

• Experience in a professional services, deployment engineering, or forward deployed engineering role
• Familiarity with CV/MLOps tooling and practices (model versioning, monitoring, retraining pipelines)
• Deep industrial subject matter expertise
• The kind of person who can walk onto a production line and immediately start asking the right questions about throughput, defect rates, and inspection points
• Background in IoT, embedded systems, or infrastructure engineering alongside hands-on deployment experience
• You're a tinkerer outside of work