Forward Deployed Engineer - US National Security

About the role

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will work directly with TRM's national-security customers — deploying our platform into their environments, sitting with the people who use it, and building what the mission actually needs. This is a generalist engineering role. In a given quarter you might ship application code, debug a Kubernetes workload in a restricted environment, design a data schema, stand up cloud infrastructure, or prototype an entirely new capability because a customer described a problem nobody has solved yet. You will often be the only TRM engineer in the room. What you build enables our government customers to use TRM securely in the most demanding environments in the world — and carries what you learn there back into the product.

Responsibilities

• Deploy, integrate and operate TRM's platform inside customer environments - cloud and air-gapped - and own the outcome, not just your slice of it.
• Sit directly with mission users, translate what they need into working software, and build it: integrations, data pipelines, and prototypes that prove out a capability before it's a product.
• Deliver across whatever the problem requires — application code, Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, databases, data flow - rather than staying inside one specialty.
• Act as the technical bridge back to TRM's product and engineering teams, carrying mission context into the roadmap.
• Diagnose and resolve hard problems in constrained environments, with limited tooling and limited outside help.

Requirements

• Strong programming ability in Python and/or Node.js/TypeScript, with real fluency developing with AI — coding agents and LLM tooling are part of how you ship, and you have judgment about where they help and where they don't.
• Hands-on Kubernetes: deploying, debugging and reasoning about real workloads. Maintaining someone else's cluster is not the same thing.
• Production AWS experience — building environments, not just consuming them.
• Working fluency with relational databases (PostgreSQL or similar): schema design, query tuning, moving data around safely.
• Range. Concrete examples of delivering outside your primary specialty — a new language, datastore or platform you picked up because the project needed it.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication. You will be the only engineer in front of a customer regularly, and comfort there is not optional.

Skills

• Infrastructure as code (Terraform) and GitOps (Argo CD)
• Data engineering at scale — orchestration, streaming, columnar/analytics stores
• Distributed systems design and debugging
• Building machine learning or agentic systems
• Deep Linux/Unix and networking, especially in restricted or disconnected environments
• Prior delivery inside classified or otherwise regulated government environments

About The Team

Small, senior and high-trust. Everyone owns a real surface end to end; nobody is handed a queue of tickets.

We are the closest team at TRM to our customers, and we put them first. We do what it takes for their mission to succeed.

We align to US-eastern hours, on-site and remote, and we communicate across a lot of channels — high-side chat, high-side and low-side email, Slack, phone, Signal, Google Meet — switching between them fast when the situation calls for it.

Weekly team syncs plus project check-ins. We keep tracking current in Linear and raise problems the moment we see them rather than at the next standup.

Life at TRM

We are building a safer world. That promise shows up in how we work every day. TRM moves quickly. We are a high velocity, high ownership team that expects clarity, follow-through, and impact. People who thrive here are energized by hard problems, experimentation, and continuous feedback. If something takes months elsewhere, it will ship here in days. Our work sits at the intersection of AI, national security, and fighting crime. The problems are complex, the stakes are real, and the environment evolves quickly. The pace and intensity of the work reflect the importance of the mission.

As a result, the way we operate requires a high level of ownership, adaptability, collaboration, and creative problem-solving. At TRM, You Should Expect:

• Priorities and targets to change quickly as we experiment and iterate
• Work that often requires operating with a high degree of ambiguity
• A high level of personal ownership and accountability
• Close collaboration across teams and functions
• Frequent, high-touch communication
• Creative problem solving and out-of-the-box thinking
• A pace that rewards urgency, adaptability, and outcomes

This environment is energizing for people who enjoy building, solving hard problems, and making progress in situations that are not always fully defined. It also requires comfort navigating ambiguity, adjusting course as new information emerges, and maintaining focus and positivity in a fast-moving and intense environment. We also recognize that this style of operating is not for everyone. If you are primarily optimizing for predictability or a consistently balanced workload, we encourage you to use the interview process to pressure test whether this environment is truly the right fit. We want teammates who thrive here, not just survive here.

At the same time, many people find this work deeply rewarding. If you are excited by meaningful problems, motivated by ambitious goals, and energized by working alongside mission-driven colleagues, there is a good chance you will find TRM to be an exceptional place to grow and contribute.

AI Fluency at TRM

AI fluency is a baseline expectation at TRM. We believe AI meaningfully changes how top performers operate. We expect every team member to use AI to accelerate and reimagine their craft, not just automate surface tasks. At TRM, AI Fluency Means You Are Among The Top 10 Percent Of Operators In Your Function In How You Apply AI To:

• Accelerate repeatable workflows
• Structure and solve problems
• Improve output quality
• Increase speed and leverage

You will be evaluated on applied AI fluency during the interview process.

Leadership Principles

We hire and grow against three leadership principles. They’re the standards for how we operate, treat each other, and make decisions.

• Impact-Oriented Trailblazer: We put customers first and move with speed, focus, and adaptability. We treat every plan like an experiment – test, ship, measure, and iterate quickly.
• Master Craftsperson: We care deeply about our craft. We balance speed with high standards, own outcomes end‑to‑end, and invest in getting better everyday.
• Inspiring Colleague: We add clarity and energy, not noise. We bring humility, candor, and a one‑team mindset — giving and receiving feedback to make the team stronger.

About TRM

TRM is a Series C company with $220M in total funding, backed by Goldman Sachs, Bessemer, Y Combinator, Thoma Bravo, and others. Headquartered in San Francisco, TRM operates as a distributed-first company with hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington D.C., London, and Singapore.