Forward Deployed Engineer – Federal

About the role

The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) works at the intersection of business development and engineering, embedding with federal customers to translate mission needs into working software and ensuring Cape’s secure mobile network operates reliably in the field.

Key responsibilities

• Own technical delivery of Cape’s products into federal and national security customer environments, from prototype through operational acceptance and sustainment.
• Embed with customer teams worldwide to understand workflows, threat models and constraints, configuring mobile core capabilities for each mission profile.
• Lead customer exercises, pilots and demonstrations, providing decision‑quality evidence and direct technical support during live operations.
• Write production‑grade code to build integrations, tooling and one‑off capabilities that unblock deployments.
• Translate customer mission requirements into prioritized engineering asks and advocate for them with product and engineering leadership.

Required profile

• 2+ years of software engineering or forward‑deployed engineering experience with a “Swiss‑army‑knife” technical breadth.
• U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a Top Secret security clearance (active TS preferred).
• Willingness to travel up to 50 % to customer sites, military installations and partner locations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, able to brief senior officials and run technical working sessions.

Required skills

• Production‑grade programming (e.g., Python, Go, or similar).
• Networking and telecom fundamentals, including mobile core concepts.
• Debugging of networking issues and systems‑level trade‑off analysis.
• Experience with cloud or on‑premise infrastructure for telecom deployments.

What we offer

• Competitive salary $175k‑$235k (USD) plus equity.
• 401(k) match, 100 % medical/dental/vision coverage for employee and dependents.
• 12 weeks paid parental leave, unlimited PTO, and stipends for family‑forming and gender‑affirming care.