Forward Deployed Engineer, Defense Tech (SJ)

Lavendo partners with startups and high‑growth companies to help them hire top‑tier sales, GTM, and technical talent. This role is with one of our clients; we’ll share full details about the company and interview process as we get to know you and confirm mutual fit.

About the Company

Our client builds integrated task systems — mixed reality headsets fused with compute hardware, on-body sensors, AI, and networking — purpose-built for the people doing the hardest work in the world: dismounted soldiers, submarine technicians, aircraft maintainers, power plant operators.

This isn't consumer tech. It's not a wellness app or a B2B dashboard. It's hardware and software that functions in air-gapped, austere, and fully disconnected environments — places where cloud-dependent tools simply fail.

The company is two years old, 55 people strong, and already holds real U.S. Army contracts. They just closed a $57.5M round. The ground floor has a very short window.

The Mission

Multiply the effectiveness of every individual on the front line — whether that's a soldier on a dismounted patrol, a technician maintaining a rocket, or an operator managing a power plant. In an era when skilled workers are retiring and global competition demands data-driven action, our client stands for renewed frontline grit, elevated for decisive action in all conditions.

The Opportunity

Our client needs someone who is good in the field — debugging a networking failure in a windowless room with no internet, representing the company in front of a program director, and shipping a fix before the end of the week.

You'll be the face of the company on the front line. A real engineer who writes production code on-site, solves problems no one anticipated, and brings the signal back to the core team so the product gets better — fast.

What You'll Do

• Deploy with defense, government, and industrial customers to build, debug, and ship software solutions in the field — often in air-gapped, austere, or fully disconnected environments with limited external support
• Cycle between customer sites and the office: gather signal, bring it back, iterate, repeat
• Diagnose and resolve technical problems on the fly — networking failures, firmware bugs, hardware integration issues — using Linux, Android, C, Rust, Python, or the appropriate tool for the situation
• Act as the company's ambassador on-site: credible at the executive and commander level, sharp enough to translate field learnings into product priorities
• Collaborate with a core engineering team of PhDs and domain specialists to resolve complex challenges that only surface in the real world

What You Bring

Hard requirements:

• U.S. citizenship (contractual)
• Active Secret clearance or clear eligibility to obtain one
• 3–5 years of hands-on software engineering experience with demonstrated onsite customer deployment in hardware-integrated or field environments
• Strong Linux fundamentals and networking knowledge applicable in disconnected, field environments without remote technical support.
• Proficiency in at least one low-level language (C, Rust) and comfort in Android/Java — must be polyglot and adaptable across abstraction levels
• A background where software touches the physical world: embedded systems, defense tech, robotics, aerospace, IoT, factory automation — the "bits and atoms" world
• Willingness to travel 35–50% domestically, based out of San Jose, CA

What will make you stand out:

• You've shipped software alongside soldiers, maintainers, or operators — not just enterprise IT teams
• You've worked in a startup and know what "rapidly changing priorities" actually means
• You've operated in air-gapped or disconnected environments

Key Success Drivers

• You move fast — austere environments and ambiguous problems energize you
• Engineers and commanders trust you — you earn credibility in the first five minutes on-site
• You operate without a playbook — when one doesn't exist in the field, you build it
• You feed the product — you don't just solve problems on-site; you bring the signal back and shape what gets built next
• You thrive in early-stage environments — a 55-person company with direct access to leadership and outsized individual impact is where you do your best work

Why Join?

• Meaningful equity at an early stage — 55 people, $70M raised, U.S. Army contracts in hand; you're still early
• $165,000–$220,000 base + competitive equity + unlimited PTO
• Direct access to leadership — this is a 55-person company
• Your work interfaces with defense systems, industrial assets, and mission-critical infrastructure
• The feedback loop is the whole point — go on-site, gather signal, ship improvements, repeat

The Interview Process

1. HR screen
2. [Optional] Internal recruiter Screen — Brief culture and mission fit check
3. Hiring Manager Screen — A conversation with the Platform Architect; background, motivations, and whether you have the "bits and atoms" profile
4. Technical Assessment — A live problem-solving session using a real challenge the team is working on
5. On-Site Loop — Interviews with the enterprise FDE team, the defense program team, and the core engineering team
6. Final CEO Interview — Last step before an offer; focused on culture, mission alignment, and the ambassador qualities expected of every FDE
7. Offer

U.S. citizenship is a hard contractual requirement. All candidates must be eligible for a Secret security clearance. Visa sponsorship is not available.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, disability, genetic information, veteran or military status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by law.