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Forward Deployed Engineer, Federal

Cape· Engineering
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Hybrid (Hybrid: Arlington, VA)$175k - $235kFull-timePosted 4mo ago

About the role

Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) embed with federal customers to translate mission needs into working software, prototype integrations, and deliver deployment-ready solutions at the intersection of Business Development and Engineering.

Responsibilities

  • Own the technical delivery of Cape’s products into federal and national security customer environments—from first prototype through operational acceptance and sustainment
  • Embed with customer teams around the world to understand workflows, threat models, and constraints that don’t appear in any requirements document
  • Configure, integrate, and tune Cape’s mobile core capabilities against the specific mission profile of each deployment
  • Lead customer exercises, pilots, and demonstrations; structure them to produce decision-quality evidence rather than theater
  • Provide direct technical support during live operations and incidents; conduct root-cause analyses and drive preventive fixes back into the platform
  • Write production-grade code to build the glue, integrations, tooling, and one-off capabilities that unblock customer deployments
  • Prototype new product features in the field, validate them against real mission use, and work with core engineering teams to expand on successful hypotheses
  • Make sound tradeoffs between bespoke customer work and reusable platform investment—default toward the platform when the pattern repeats
  • Translate customer mission requirements into clear, prioritized engineering asks; translate engineering constraints back into language program officers and operators can act on
  • Advocate internally for customer priorities with concrete evidence: deployment data, operator quotes, blocking issues, and the cost of inaction
  • Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to inform the roadmap—surfacing patterns across deployments that warrant platform investment versus one-off solutions
  • Partner with Business Development and Solutions Architects on captures, pilots, and follow-on opportunities; provide technical credibility that converts pilots into programs of record

Qualifications

  • 2+ years of experience in a software engineering or forward deployed engineering role
  • Demonstrated technical competency across multiple domains—a “Swiss army knife” profile who can credibly code, debug networking issues, reason about systems-level tradeoffs, and learn quickly
  • Strong ability to scope ambiguous problems, sequence delivery, and make sound prioritization calls without explicit instruction
  • Excellent written and verbal communication; able to brief a flag officer, write a clear engineering ticket, and run a customer working session with equal fluency
  • High ownership and resourcefulness—comfort with the parts of the job that aren’t glamorous, and a track record of doing whatever needs to be done to deliver
  • Demonstrated ability to engage directly with customers to scope technical requirements and deliver against them end to end
  • U.S. citizenship and eligibility for a U.S. Top Secret security clearance (active TS strongly preferred)
  • Willingness to travel up to 50% to customer sites, military installations, and partner locations
  • Washington, DC or New York-based or willing to relocate

Skills

Required:Software engineeringNetworkingCustomer engagement

Benefits

  • 401(k) match
  • 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision premiums for you and your dependents
  • 12 weeks paid parental leave (for all parents, no waiting period)
  • Stipends for Family-forming needs
  • Stipends for Gender-affirming care
  • Unlimited PTO
Last updated Oct 21, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Cape

Cape is premium wireless coverage with an added layer of personal security.

Cape is premium wireless coverage with an added layer of personal security. Talk, text, and live with the confidence that you’re protected.

wireless coveragepersonal securityprivacy-firstmobile securityeSIMprivacy-oriented
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