Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

The Forward Deployed Software Engineer will work directly with U.S. government and military customers, ensuring the technical success of Swarm Aero’s Command & Control (C2) systems in real operational contexts. This role involves building critical integrations, debugging complex distributed systems, contributing to core service development, and shipping solutions that warfighters and government operators rely on.

Responsibilities

• Build and own critical software integrations that bring Swarm Aero’s C2 systems to life in customer environments, from initial deployment through production reliability across diverse hardware configurations and operational contexts.
• Debug complex distributed systems issues in the field, analyzing logs, network traffic, and system performance to resolve failures fast and with minimal support.
• Contribute to core service development alongside the engineering team, bringing field insight back into the product and shipping improvements that make a direct operational difference.
• Write code daily across the full stack – solving customer-specific integration challenges, contributing to core service development, and building monitoring and reliability solutions that hold up in the field.
• Support continuous operational environments, including non-standard hours, on-call response, and rotational coverage aligned to mission tempo.
• Travel domestically and internationally (up to 75%) to test sites and customer locations – deploying software, troubleshooting issues in the field, and feeding hard-won requirements back to engineering.
• Collaborate with U.S. military and government program offices on-site and remotely, translating complex operational requirements into software solutions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field
• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, or equivalent demonstrated ability
• Strong proficiency in at least one major programming language (Python, C/C++, Golang, or Java)
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals: NAT, DNS/mDNS, UDP/TCP protocols, multicast, and firewall configuration
• Experience with Linux system administration and shell scripting
• Proven debugging skills across complex software systems – you know how to read logs, use debuggers, and trace issues systematically
• Excellent communication skills for engaging with U.S. government and military customers and internal engineering teams
• Willingness and ability to travel 60% of the time, both domestically and internationally, including to remote or restricted-access locations
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance. Active Secret clearance preferred but not required.