The Opportunity

We’re partnering with an AI-first software company that is kicking some serious goals across Australia and the US. They're looking for a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer who can communicate directly with enterprise customers, understand complex problems, design the right solution and take ownership of delivering it into production.

You won’t be advising from the sidelines. You’ll be working directly with customers while remaining deeply involved in architecture, engineering and delivery.

What They’re Looking For

- Strong software engineering experience across backend, frontend and cloud infrastructure
- You don't need to have been a Forward Deployed Engineer before. Principal Engineers who can communicate well and deal with customers will be a great fit
- TypeScript, React, Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, AWS, CDK and Terraform - doesn't have to be a perfect match with your experience
- Proven experience owning complex technical initiatives from discovery through to production
- Experience solving ambiguous problems
- Robust adoption of AI-assisted and agentic software development practices
- Ability to balance technical depth with commercial thinking and strong communication
- A pragmatic engineering mindset focused on simple, effective solutions
- Experience designing cloud-native, distributed or enterprise-scale platforms

What You’ll Be Doing

- Work directly with customers to understand their problems and desired outcomes
- Translate complex business requirements into practical technical solutions




- Help customers use the existing platform while identifying where the product needs to evolve
- Own the delivery of critical customer initiatives from discovery through to production
- Lead technical architecture and implementation across the full stack
- Build alongside the internal product engineering team
- Use AI agents and coding tools to accelerate development without compromising engineering quality
- Lead technical discussions, design reviews and customer workshops
- Improve engineering standards across performance, security, reliability and observability

What Makes This Different

- You’ll combine customer consulting, product thinking and hands-on engineering
- You’ll solve large, complex problems rather than simply delivering predefined tickets
- You’ll work with AI as a core part of the engineering process, not as an occasional productivity tool
- You’ll have the autonomy to take a customer problem, shape the solution and drive it into production
- You’ll help define how enterprise software is delivered in an AI-native engineering environment

The Environment

- Work in a team of A players
- Sydney or Melbourne
- 90% remote, with occasional customer meetings and workshops
- Small, highly capable engineering team
- High-autonomy startup environment
- Modern stack including TypeScript, React, Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, ClickHouse, AWS, CDK and Terraform
- Experience with the exact stack is not required
- Competitive principal-level salary, with flexibility for an exceptional candidate
- Equity or performance-based incentive options available

📌 Principal Forward Deployed Engineer (Sydney)
🏢 Ndeva
📍 Sydney