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Smallstep is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to embed with customers deploying its device identity platform and certificate authority services. This role sits at the intersection of hardware, software, and customer relationships, requiring you to move between customer endpoint fleets, identity providers, and Smallstep's multi-service infrastructure to unblock deployments.
You will diagnose and resolve technical failures blocking production deployments, with common use cases including securing Wi-Fi, browser mTLS, SSH, VPN, and other network-based communication using device-issued credentials. You'll act as the technical escalation point for Technical Account Managers and Customer Success Engineers, shipping production Golang code to resolve root causes uncovered during deployment debugging.
Key responsibilities include building proof-of-concept environments using Bash and Terraform, creating runbooks for new product surfaces ahead of polished UX, and setting day-to-day priorities for Smallstep's deployment ops engineers. You'll carry a formal on-call rotation with defined SLAs and maintain high customer experience standards even during implementation challenges.
Required experience includes debugging distributed, multi-service cloud architectures in live customer environments; troubleshooting TLS/mTLS at the protocol level; production experience with certificate-based authentication, VPNs, enterprise Wi-Fi/EAP-TLS, RADIUS, and SSH; and shipping production Golang code. You should have experience owning technical escalations directly with customers in partnership with account teams.
Nice-to-have skills include familiarity with SCEP and ACME DA certificate enrollment protocols, PKI experience across macOS, Windows, Linux, and ChromeOS, hardware-backed security mechanisms (Yubikeys, TPMs, HSMs, secure enclaves), formal on-call rotation experience, and prior customer-facing technical roles such as forward deployed engineer or solutions engineer.
Smallstep is an internationally distributed, remote-first company with flexible hours and asynchronous work practices. The company emphasizes security as a core responsibility, thoughtful problem-solving, and independent work with collaborative support.
