Forward Deployed Engineer (Principal)
Core
Principal Forward Deployed Engineer embedding with enterprise accounts to lead platform modernizations, AI inferencing deployments, and large-scale stateful workload migrations.
Role type
Principal Forward Deployed Engineer (Infrastructure Software)
Builds
Production-grade vSphere Kubernetes Service (VKS) and VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) topologies, distributed AI runtime frameworks, and cloud-native migration pathways.
Domain
Enterprise Infrastructure, Cloud Native, Distributed AI Systems
Deliverable
production ML models | product features | infrastructure
Required skills
Kubernetes internals, Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), Kubernetes Operators, Cluster API (CAPI), GitOps, AI inferencing pipelines, virtualized GPU environments, distributed stateful workloads, legacy to cloud native migration, Go/Python/Java systems programming, cross-distribution architecture
Preferred skills
C-level stakeholder management, reference implementation authoring, technical mentorship, multi-cloud interoperability strategies
Technologies
vSphere, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, Flux, NVIDIA vGPU/MIG/GPUDirect RDMA, vLLM, TGI, Triton, Ray, Milvus, Qdrant, Redis, Kafka, Pulsar, Apache Spark, Apache Flink, OpenShift, EKS, GKE, AKS, Rancher
Responsibilities
Act as primary technical authority bridging core engineering and C-level enterprise customer architects; Architect and validate production-grade VKS and VCF topologies for regulated deployments; Design and deploy production systems for real-time LLM inferencing and RAG pipelines; Lead end-to-end technical migration strategies for legacy bare metal to cloud-native Kubernetes; Engineer high-value prototype integrations and write production operators/CRDs to unblock strategic accounts; Synthesize customer pain points into concrete product requirements and prioritize features; Establish deployment standards and mentor Senior/Staff FDEs
Seniority
Principal, hands-on IC with strategic influence