Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Public Sector

About the role

Embed with government customers to understand their mission, scope the problem, and turn it into working software. Own delivery end-to-end: design, build, deploy, and maintain solutions at customer sites, from prototype to stable production. Build robust backend systems and data integrations that connect customer environments to Scale's platform and back. Partner with product and engineering to feed field signals back into the roadmap, so the patterns you build once become capabilities the whole team can reuse. Serve as the technical point of contact for customer stakeholders, guiding adoption and maximizing mission impact.

Required

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, ideally in customer-facing, forward-deployed, or government contexts.
• Strong production coding in Python and TypeScript (or comparable modern languages).
• Comfort across the stack, including cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP), containers, Linux, and networking fundamentals.
• Ability to operate independently in ambiguous, fast-moving environments and make sound trade-offs under pressure.
• An active TS/SCI clearance, or eligibility to obtain one.

Bonus

• Experience building or deploying systems powered by LLMs or generative models.
• Familiarity with Node and React, Kubernetes and Docker, and Terraform.
• Data engineering background covering ETL pipelines, data modeling, and data governance.

Location and travel

This role requires significant time on-site with customers. Expect 25% travel with up to 50% travel as necessary, and/or relocation to Washington DC or St. Louis.

Pay and benefits

Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process, and confirm whether the hired role will be eligible for equity grant. You'll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, retirement benefits, a learning and development stipend, and generous PTO. Additionally, this role may be eligible for additional benefits such as a commuter stipend.

About Scale

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world's most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications. We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status. We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities.