Forward Deployed Engineer
About the company
An innovative company is building a new class of AI systems designed to reason with the rigour of the scientific method. By combining deep learning with formal logic and physics-based modelling, they create verifiable, interpretable AI systems that collaborate with human researchers in high-stakes scientific and engineering workflows.
Their mission - 30×30 - is to deliver a 30× improvement in the speed, accessibility, and cost of semiconductor and photonic hardware development by 2030.
The role
You'll work directly with engineers, researchers, and engineering leadership at customer organisations, serving as a technical bridge between customer requirements and product capabilities. Fast-moving, high-impact, contract engagement.
What you'll do
Engage deeply with customer teams to understand device, circuit, and packaging design workflows
Build high-impact prototypes demonstrating AI-assisted photonic modelling, circuit optimisation, and simulation automation
Design and deploy agentic AI workflows orchestrating LLMs, physics-based models, simulations, and customer data
Convert field learnings into structured feedback that shapes product roadmap and architecture
Serve as a credible, trusted technical partner across pilots, evaluations, and early production deployments
What you bring
MSc or PhD in electrical engineering, photonics, applied physics, applied math, or equivalent
4+ years in software engineering, applied AI, forward deployed, or solutions engineering
Strong Python - scientific computing, workflow orchestration, API integration
Hands-on with modern AI tools: LLMs, APIs, agentic systems, orchestration frameworks
Excellent communicator - comfortable with engineers, engineering managers, and enterprise stakeholders
Nice to have: LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pydantic, Ray, or similar · EDA-style environments or hardware-software co-design · Cloud/HPC deployment · R&D or applied science collaboration
Hiring process
Screening (TechTree)
NDA signing
Live prototyping task with technical lead
Technical meeting with hiring manager and up to 2 other team members
45-minute meeting with CEO & Co-founder + HR Partner (reference check runs in parallel)
Offer
Setup
Contract position · Hybrid, 2-3 days/week in office