Forward Deployed Engineer
Quick facts
- Pay
- $200K-$300K base salary
- Type
- Full-time
- Location
- New York, New York
- Industry
- Information Technology — 671 open jobs
- Visa in listing
- H-1B, OPT
- Apply
- Free to apply — never pay anyone for a job offer or visa sponsorship
Job description
Our client is a Lightspeed-backed AI holding company modernizing the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. The company acquires profitable engineering firms and embeds software teams directly with their operators to identify high-leverage workflows and ship applied-AI products. It has raised a $5M seed round, has $100M in acquisition capital, and is building a small, founder-minded team in New York.
You will embed directly inside acquired engineering firms and own the complete arc from customer discovery to production deployment. This is a true forward-deployed engineering role: you will build software, develop trusted operator relationships, make product decisions from noisy feedback, and turn one firm's successful workflows into reusable platform capabilities.
You will work on-site with acquired firms, own discovery through production iteration, build full-stack applied-AI products, lead working sessions with non-technical users, and mentor junior engineers.
Requirements
5+ years of full-stack product-engineering experience, including genuine customer-facing or forward-deployed ownership. Demonstrated ability to own discovery, build, deployment, and iteration end to end with real users. Strong product judgment and the ability to translate ambiguous operator pain into clear build decisions without detailed specifications. Production experience with LLMs, RAG, agent frameworks, document parsing, or adjacent applied-AI systems. Excellent English communication. Experience as a founder, founding engineer, early engineer at a Seed-to-Series-C startup, or an FDE is especially relevant. Willingness to travel Monday through Thursday, two to three weeks per month, during the first 100 days after an acquisition.
Benefits
$200K-$300K base salary. 0.1%-0.75% non-dilutive profit interests with anti-dilution protection at platform acquisitions. Full-time and on-site five days per week in SoHo, New York City, with frequent acquisition-related travel. Visa sponsorship and transfers, including OPT, H-1B, and TN, may be considered.
Visa sponsorship record
No public sponsorship records foundWe didn't find H-1B, H-1B1, E-3 or green card (PERM) filings under the name Raydar in the Department of Labor and USCIS data. That doesn't mean the job can't be sponsored — the company may file under a different legal name, be new to sponsorship, or sponsor a visa that isn't in these datasets (for example H-2B or J-1).
Tip: ask the recruiter early, in writing, which visa they sponsor and whether they cover the legal and filing fees.
Which visas can work for this job
Occupation: Software Developers (SOC 15-1252).
- Mentioned in the listing
H-1B, OPT
- H-1B cap-exempt employer
Regular cap-subject employer — a new H-1B needs to win the lottery in March (unless you already hold cap-counted H-1B status).
- TN (citizens of Canada and Mexico)
This kind of role may fit the USMCA profession “Computer Systems Analyst (or Engineer, for engineering-degree holders)” — it depends on the actual duties. No lottery, no cap; you need the matching degree or license.
- E-3 (Australia) and H-1B1 (Chile, Singapore)
Same degree requirement as H-1B, but no lottery and a separate quota that is rarely filled.
- O-1 (extraordinary ability)
For candidates with awards, publications, press, a high salary or critical roles at distinguished organizations. No cap, no lottery; the employer files a petition.
- STEM OPT extension (F-1 students)
Requires an E-Verify employer. We didn't find this company in the E-Verify list — ask HR.
Salary vs prevailing wage
Level IV (fully competent)Software Developers · New York (state median of areas). Annual prevailing wages set by the Department of Labor (OFLC).
| Level | Prevailing wage | H-1B lottery odds* |
|---|---|---|
| Level I | $84,937 | ~15% |
| Level II | $107,244 | ~31% |
| Level III | $128,658 | ~46% |
| Level IV | $149,208 | ~61% |
This job pays $200,000–$300,000 a year — that's Level IV (fully competent). In the wage-weighted H-1B lottery a Level IV registration gets 4 entries; estimated selection chance about 61% — better than average.
* Odds are DHS projections for the FY2027 wage-weighted lottery (actual results vary by year and employer). Since the FY2027 cap season the H-1B lottery is weighted by wage level: Level I = 1 entry, II = 2, III = 3, IV = 4. The level is set by the offered wage against the prevailing wage for the occupation and worksite. Separately, a $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions for workers outside the US was announced in 2025; as of September 2026 a federal court ruling keeps it unenforceable while appeals continue — check the current status.
Sources: U.S. Department of Labor OFLC disclosure data (H-1B/H-1B1/E-3 LCA, PERM), OFLC prevailing wage data, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, E-Verify participating employers. Data loaded: LCA FY2024–FY2026, PERM, USCIS Data Hub, OFLC wages; updated 2026-10-03. Employers are matched by name, so records of companies with similar names can occasionally be mixed up. This is general information, not legal advice — talk to an immigration attorney about your case.