Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI / Agentic Software (Toronto)

Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI / Agentic Software (Toronto)

25 Aug
|
Carnaby Fox
|
Toronto

25 Aug

Carnaby Fox

Toronto

? We're Hiring: Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI / Agentic Software

? POSITION DETAILS

? Locations: | Toronto, Canada

? Work Model: Hybrid

? Office Requirement: Minimum 3 days/week — 4 days preferred

? Employment: Full-time

? Experience: 3–6 years

? Base Salary: $185,000+ Base

? Equity: Competitive equity

✈️ Travel: 2–3 days/week to portfolio company locations

? Visa: H-1B transfers, OPT transfers & relocation supported

? Hiring: Multiple openings

About the Opportunity

We’re looking for Forward Deployed Engineers who can operate at the intersection of software engineering, AI, product, and business operations .

This is a highly hands-on, Palantir-style FDE opportunity within a software holding company . You will work directly with portfolio companies, understand their operational challenges, identify high-impact opportunities for AI and agentic automation, and then build, deploy, operate, and improve production systems end-to-end .

This is not a presentation-heavy solutions role . You will be expected to write production code, work directly with operators and executives, and take ownership of measurable outcomes.

What You'll Do

? Embed with portfolio companies

- Work directly with portfolio companies to understand their operating models, workflows, and business priorities.
- Build relationships with GMs and operational leaders and quickly earn their trust.
- Identify the 2–3 highest-leverage workflows where agentic software can create meaningful impact.

? Build and deploy AI-powered solutions

- Design and build the initial “wedge” for each deployment.
- Develop integrations, prompts, evaluations, UI surfaces, and agentic workflows.
- Launch the first production agentic loop using the organization’s core platform.
- Own the entire technical delivery cycle rather than handing work between specialized teams.

? Operate systems after launch

- Monitor and tune deployed systems in production.
- Adjust autonomy levels and gating based on real-world performance.
- Track outcomes and continuously improve deployed workflows.
- Transition stable solutions to portfolio operations teams when appropriate.

? Act as the technical partner to business leaders

- Serve as the technical face of the organization to portfolio company GMs.
- Translate ambiguous operational challenges into clearly scoped technical solutions.
- Set expectations, communicate trade-offs, and ensure stakeholders understand the value created by the system.

? Build reusable organizational knowledge

- Bring lessons from deployments back to HQ.
- Identify recurring patterns across companies and verticals.
- Codify successful approaches into reusable playbooks.
- Help accelerate future deployments by turning individual solutions into repeatable systems.

Required Technical Skills You should be comfortable owning a production system from backend through frontend and data layer .

Core requirements:

- Strong full-stack engineering capability.
- TypeScript or Python for backend development.
- Strong React experience.
- Strong SQL proficiency.
- Ability to independently own end-to-end technical delivery.




- Experience programming with Go and/or TypeScript .
- Experience working with modern AI development tooling and coding agents.
- Strong understanding of LLMs / foundation models and agentic workflows.

AI / Agentic Engineering Experience A major requirement is experience building real production AI systems , not simply experimenting with AI or creating demonstrations. Strong candidates will have experience with:

- Production LLM applications
- Agentic workflows
- AI-powered automation
- Evaluation frameworks / evals
- Autonomy gating
- Outcome tracking
- AI developer tools and coding agents
- Integrations and workflow automation
- Production deployment and post-launch iteration

We are specifically looking for engineers who have shipped AI/agentic software to external users. Business & Operator Mindset

Technical ability alone isn't enough for this role.

You should be able to:

- Understand how a business operates.
- Read and interpret a P&L; .
- Identify operational inefficiencies.
- Translate business problems into technical opportunities.
- Determine where AI can create the highest leverage.
- Work effectively with non-technical executives.
- Navigate ambiguity without requiring highly prescriptive requirements.
- Balance technical quality with business outcomes.

Ideal Background The strongest candidates may come from backgrounds such as:

Forward Deployed Engineering

- Palantir-style FDE
- Deploy-and-operate engineering
- Customer-facing product engineering

Full-Stack / Product Engineering

- Senior full-stack engineer with direct customer exposure
- Product engineer who has shipped production AI systems
- Generalist engineer capable of owning an entire technical solution

High-Growth Startups

- Founding engineer
- Early-stage engineer
- Engineers who have operated with significant autonomy in high-growth environments

Business / Operator Exposure

- Experience working with PE-backed or portfolio companies
- Consulting environments
- Vertical SaaS
- Portco environments
- M&A; integration or similar operational transformation work

Communication & Leadership

You should demonstrate

- Strong executive presence.
- Polished communication with C-suite executives and GMs.
- Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.
- Strong stakeholder-management skills.
- Ability to build trust quickly with business operators.
- Comfort working in ambiguous, rapidly changing environments.
- Ability to independently drive projects from problem discovery through deployment and measurable outcomes.

What We're Looking For ✅ 3–6 years of relevant experience in full-stack, customer-facing software/product engineering or forward deployed engineering

✅ Production experience with LLMs / agentic software

✅ Strong TypeScript or Python





✅ React + SQL proficiency

✅ Full-stack ownership capability

✅ Experience with AI development tools and coding agents

✅ Customer-facing / embedded engineering experience

✅ Solid business and operator instincts

✅ Ability to work directly with executives and GMs

✅ Strong communication and executive presence

✅ Willingness to travel frequently to portfolio company locations

✅ Ability to work in a hybrid environment

Strong Candidate Archetypes

⭐ Founding Engineers

⭐ Early-stage startup engineers

⭐ Forward Deployed Engineers

⭐ Product Engineers with strong AI experience

⭐ Generalist Full-Stack Engineers

⭐ Engineers from high-growth technology companies

⭐ Customer-facing engineers who have owned production deployments

Tech Environment

Languages: TypeScript, Python, Go

Frontend: React

Data: SQL, Snowflake, Databricks, Apache Iceberg

AI: LLMs, Foundation Models, Agentic Workflows, Evals

Architecture: Event-driven systems

Development: AI-native development tools and coding agents

This Role Is NOT a Fit If...

❌ Your experience is limited to solutions engineering demos or prototypes without production ownership

❌ You have primarily worked as a backend-, frontend-, or mobile-only specialist and cannot own full-stack delivery

❌ You have not built or coded with modern AI development tools

❌ Your experience consists primarily of short consecutive stints

❌ You have not shipped production AI/agentic systems to real users

❌ You prefer narrowly defined requirements and do not enjoy ambiguous business problems

Compensation & Benefits

? Base Salary: $185,000+Base

? Competitive Equity

? ? Full-time employment

? Hybrid work model

✈️ Frequent exposure to portfolio companies and high-impact deployments

? Visa transfer and relocation opportunities available

Why This Opportunity?

This is an opportunity to work on high-impact AI deployments where engineering directly changes how businesses operate .

Instead of building isolated features, you will repeatedly:

Discover → Design → Build → Deploy → Operate → Measure → Scale

You’ll work closely with business operators, ship production AI systems, learn from each deployment, and help turn those learnings into reusable solutions across an entire portfolio.

? Locations

Toronto, Canada

Candidates should be comfortable with a hybrid schedule and 2–3 days per week of domestic travel to portfolio company locations.

How to Apply

If you're a Full-Stack Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, Product Engineer, Founding Engineer, or AI Engineer who has shipped production LLM/agentic systems and enjoys solving ambiguous business problems, we'd love to hear from you.

? Apply through LinkedIn or send your updated resume for consideration.

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📌 Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) — AI / Agentic Software (Toronto)
🏢 Carnaby Fox
📍 Toronto

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