Forward Deployed Engineer - Chicago

The Role

As our first Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical point of contact for customers in the field-owning integrations, onsite deployment work, and the translation of real-world operational needs into robust, scalable technical solutions. You’ll work hands-on with customer systems, troubleshoot complex environments, and rapidly prototype tools and integrations needed to make Realm successful in mission-critical settings.

This role is deeply technical and field-oriented-focused on making the product work seamlessly in demanding industrial and government environments. You’ll embed with users, uncover operational realities, validate technical assumptions, and ensure our technology performs reliably under real-world constraints. This is an ideal role for someone who enjoys building in messy environments, thrives on customer interaction, and takes pride in shipping solutions that matter.

What You’ll Do

• Spend ~25% of your time onsite with customers across the US
• Build a ground-truth understanding of customer operations-shadowing operators, analysts, and frontline teams to understand workflows, constraints, and integration requirements
• Rapidly prototype tools and integrations in the field (“vibe-coding”) to validate ideas, solve urgent problems, and prove feasibility before handing off to engineering
• Troubleshoot and diagnose complex operational or systems issues across varied and sometimes degraded environments
• Translate field insights into clear technical requirements and integration specs for the engineering team
• Lead all technical integration work, including APIs, data pipelines, hardware/software interfaces, and security/compliance-sensitive deployment setups
• Work closely with engineering to ensure features, interfaces, and infrastructure align with real-world operational needs
• Represent customer technical realities internally-ensuring feasibility, reliability, and operational constraints are deeply understood
• Decompose ambiguous, real-world problems into well-scoped technical workstreams
• Ensure customers succeed in mission-critical contexts by enabling smooth deployment, data flow, connectivity, and operational reliability
• Inform the product and engineering teams with data, field observations, and frontline feedback-advocating for changes that reflect true customer needs
• Play a key role in pre-sales by traveling onsite with prospects to demonstrate and prove out the product's value before a deal closes
• Contribute to the foundation, process, and culture that will scale Realm’s forward deployed engineering function

Must-have Qualifications

• 2+ years of software engineering or forward deployed / mission operations experience, with a record of shipping impactful work
• Strong technical fluency and the ability to work closely with engineers-comfortable reading, writing, and debugging code enough to build prototypes
• Low ego, high EQ, and exceptional collaborative instincts-able to build trust inside Realm and with external partners
• Experience working directly with enterprise, industrial, government, defense, or security-critical products
• Strong coding skills, problem-solving ability, and grasp of computer science fundamentals
• Mastery of core development/infrastructure/DevOps tools (Git, Linux)
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional problem solving, influence technical teams, and drive projects from inception to delivery
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments-strong prioritization, structured thinking, and comfort balancing long-term vision with immediate needs
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to simplify complexity for a wide range of stakeholders
• Strong data instincts-comfortable analyzing data, forming hypotheses, and making data-informed decisions
• Hands-on prototyping and AI-assisted coding skills; comfortable hacking together real solutions quickly to test ideas
• Move fast, can tackle ambiguous problems, and sweat the details
• Based in US - citizen (preferred) or permanent resident

Nice-to-have Qualifications

• Experience working on-site with customers in field or operational environments
• Background deploying software to industrial or government settings, with an understanding of constraints like safety, latency, offline ops, or compliance
• Familiarity with mobile or web applications, cloud infrastructure, IoT/industrial systems, or real-time data pipelines
• Experience navigating sensitive or mission-critical customer environments
• Expertise around mining, industrial safety regulations, etc.

Full medical, dental, and vision benefits

• Unlimited PTO
• 401(k) with 4% safe-harbor match
• Equity in an early-stage, fast-growing company
• Home office allowance