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Salary: USD 223,000 - 247,000 / annual
Buildkite's CI/CD platform is trusted by leading engineering teams including Canva, Meta, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA. As one of Buildkite's first Forward Deployed Engineers, you will take on scoped engagements with strategic customers from design through delivery, working hands-on with production code and real customer access.
You will spend time on site with platform teams running some of the most demanding CI/CD workloads in the world, sitting in the room with their engineers and executives. You remain accountable until what you build works and is handed off cleanly. You'll help shape how the Forward Deployed function operates by implementing the first engagements and letting what you learn inform the playbook.
You'll sit in the Revenue organization alongside Solutions Architects and Technical Account Managers, close to customers and Sales, while working hand-in-hand with Product and Engineering teams in Australia. The role is based on the US West Coast with approximately 25% travel to customer sites.
Key responsibilities include:
- Scoping engagements before deals close by partnering with Solutions Architects and TAMs to identify true gaps between customers and Buildkite
- Spotting patterns across customers and bringing them back to Product so recurring workarounds become roadmap items
- Turning gaps into defined engagements with clear deliverables, estimates, and exit criteria signed off by both customer and Buildkite
- Building core platform features held to the same bar as product engineers, then handing off cleanly so your work becomes a supported part of Buildkite benefiting all customers
- Helping Solutions Architects and Account Executives recognize Forward Deployed opportunities and explain the role in plain terms
Requirements:
- You have shipped production software end-to-end in recent years: code you owned and were accountable for, not just contributed to
- You would pass the same technical bar as Buildkite's product engineers
- You can translate business needs into technical specs and back again, staying composed when customer executives are frustrated
- You are comfortable with large, established enterprises: structured evaluations, security reviews, and leaders who want to understand the why before committing
- You can scope work: take vague asks, craft them into something defined and shippable, be clear about scope, and balance that line when new asks emerge mid-engagement
- You prioritize solving the customer's problem over selling more or building something shiny
- You have product judgment: you can distinguish one-off requests from something every customer needs
- You want to build and stay close to customers, and you don't want to give up either
- You're excited to help build a new function, knowing this means running the first engagements yourself and letting what you learn shape the playbook
Bonus experience:
- Led or supported a migration from another CI/CD system
- Early engineer at a developer tools, infrastructure, or B2B SaaS company, or worked in a forward deployed role
- Worked inside or alongside the engineering org of a growth-oriented SaaS company or large enterprise
- Already use Buildkite
