Forward Deployed Engineer - New Verticals

Protege Inc.

Job Overview

Location

Remote

Job Type

Full-time

Full Job Description

📋 Description

• Serve as the founding Forward Deployed Engineer for a new AI data vertical, defining technical strategy and building the first reusable infrastructure from scratch.
• Partner directly with the General Manager to shape market strategy, commercial motion, and technical direction for the new vertical.
• Translate early customer demand into durable technical solutions that balance immediate delivery with long-term platform scalability.
• Build the initial MVP of integrations, tooling, and workflows leveraging the core Protege platform while extending it where necessary for vertical-specific needs.
• Make architectural decisions on what belongs in the core platform versus vertical-specific tooling, ensuring future engagements can reuse foundational systems.
• Lead end-to-end customer engagements from technical scoping and implementation to post-launch support, navigating complex data, integration, and stakeholder dynamics.
• Create the first technical playbook for the vertical, enabling future FDEs to onboard efficiently and avoid rebuilding from zero.
• Identify repeatable patterns, infrastructure gaps, and product opportunities from live customer work and surface them to Product and Engineering teams.
• Collaborate with Data Lab to address domain-specific data and research requirements for the vertical.
• Work cross-functionally with other Forward Deployed Engineers to align on shared tools, patterns, and approaches that compound across verticals.
• Act as the technical voice of the vertical within the company, advocating for customer needs and platform evolution.
• Ship production-grade systems that are maintainable, scalable, and designed for reuse across multiple customer deployments.
• Prioritize technical investments that unlock customer success, accelerate delivery velocity, and create long-term leverage for the business.
• Balance short-term customer needs with architectural integrity, making judgment calls on what to build now versus what to productize later.
• Operate in ambiguity with no predefined roadmap, creating structure and execution plans from first principles.
• Communicate technical concepts clearly to both senior technical and business stakeholders through written and verbal channels.
• Independently run technical scoping conversations with customers and translate ambiguous requirements into concrete technical execution plans.
• Continuously refine infrastructure, implementation patterns, and playbooks based on learnings from live customer engagements.
• Demonstrate reuse of technical foundations across multiple customer projects to prove durability and reduce bespoke work over time.
• Elevate proven vertical-specific capabilities into core platform features through partnership with Product and Engineering.

🎯 Requirements

• 3+ years of engineering experience, including meaningful 0→1 work as a founding engineer, early technical lead, or builder in a highly ambiguous environment.
• Strong engineering generalist instincts with a backend and data orientation.
• Hands-on experience with Python and SQL.
• Comfort working across infrastructure, application logic, and data systems.
• Ability to create structure where none exists and move quickly without a fully defined roadmap.
• Strong technical judgment, especially around short-term delivery versus long-term architecture.

🏖️ Benefits

• Opportunity to define the technical foundation of a new business line inside a company with an existing platform, real customers, and momentum.
• Direct partnership with the General Manager to shape market strategy and commercial motion.
• Work on cutting-edge AI data challenges with world-class investors and ambitious AI teams as customers.
• Culture built for builders who thrive on ambiguity, own outcomes, and want to shape the future of data and AI.
• High-trust, fast-moving environment focused on velocity and impact.
• Collaborative culture emphasizing kindness, candor, and shared ownership.

Skills & Technologies

Python

Remote

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Protege Inc.

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About Protege Inc.

Protege is a career development platform that helps early-career talent connect directly with industry mentors and secure paid apprenticeships. The company partners with employers to create short-term, project-based experiences that give participants real work opportunities while companies evaluate candidates for full-time roles. Its marketplace offers mentorship, skill-building projects, and application tools designed to reduce hiring bias and widen access to competitive industries such as tech, finance, and media. Founded in 2020 and headquartered in New York City, Protege has facilitated thousands of placements and aims to replace traditional campus recruiting with scalable experiential hiring programs.

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