Forward Deployed Engineer

Job description

Job responsibilities

• 0-to-1 Deployment: Take validated proof-of-concepts from the pre-sales process and build the first production deployment.
• Edge-First Engineering: Deploy and operate computer vision systems on edge hardware in physical environments. Where conditions are unpredictable and connectivity is unreliable. This is hands-on, hardware-heavy work.
• Embed with Customers: Work on-site or deeply embedded with the customer’s engineering team during the initial deployment phase (typically 4–12 weeks per engagement).
• Production Engineering: Write production-grade code that will live in the customer’s environment. Handle the messy realities of real-world computer vision: lighting variability, camera calibration, model drift, network…
• Be Our Eyes and Ears in the Field: You'll be closer to the customer's real problems than anyone else at Roboflow.
• Knowledge Transfer & Handoff: Document your deployment architecture, create runbooks, and train the customer’s team so they can operate the system independently.
• De-risk New Deployments: Identify and resolve technical risks early. If a customer’s environment won’t support the planned architecture, you find the alternative before it becomes a project failure.
• Shape the Deployment Playbook: Codify repeatable deployment patterns, starter templates, and reusable artifacts that make future deployments faster and more reliable.

Job requirements

• Meaningful experience deploying technology in physical-world environments. We value breadth, working across different industries, hardware platforms, and deployment contexts, over depth at a single company.
• Strong proficiency in Python; experience with systems-level work (Docker, Kubernetes, networking, Linux) is highly valued.
• Hands-on experience deploying machine learning or computer vision models to production; you understand the gap between a working notebook and a reliable pipeline.
• Experience with edge computing hardware and constraints (NVIDIA Jetson, industrial cameras, limited connectivity, on-premise security requirements).
• Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills; you’re the person who figures out why it works in staging but not in production.
• Strong interpersonal skills - you'll be embedded with customer teams and need to build trust quickly while navigating their internal dynamics.
• Experience in one or more of Roboflow’s target verticals: manufacturing, logistics, food processing, automotive, or retail.
• Willingness to travel ~40–50% for on-site customer deployments.