Forward Deployed Engineer – Federal

Cape

Forward Deployed Engineer at Cape, a privacy-first mobile carrier, ensuring products work for federal and national security customers. Collaborating on deployments and troubleshooting in real-time.

Posted 6/9/2026full-timeWashington, DC • District of Columbia, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesJuniorMid-Level💰 $175,000 - $235,000 per yearWebsite

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

TypeScript

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

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
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 the technical credibility that converts pilots into programs of record

Requirements

What you’ll need

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

Benefits

Comp & perks

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
Gender-affirming care
Unlimited PTO

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills & Tools

software engineeringcodingdebuggingnetworkingsystems-level tradeoffsroot-cause analysisproduction-grade codeintegrationprototypingtechnical support

Soft Skills

problem scopingprioritizationwritten communicationverbal communicationcustomer engagementownershipresourcefulnesscollaborationadaptabilitycritical thinking

Certifications

U.S. citizenshipTop Secret security clearance