Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems
Application analysis
Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems at Modal is a forward deployed enterprise software role for engineers who want customer-facing technical work with real deployment ownership.
Reading this role
This Forward Deployed Engineer role centers on embedded customer delivery — discovery, prototyping, integration, and production rollout. Key signals from the listing: Kubernetes / containers, Terraform / IaC, AWS, Azure.
About Modal
Enterprise software forward deployed engineers drive adoption, integration, and measurable customer outcomes. The role is anchored in Stockholm, so expect on-site customer work in that region.
Signals in the listing
Stand out for Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems
- Lead your application with one paragraph tying Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems to a specific customer or deployment you owned — Modal hires for shipped outcomes, not tool lists.
- Prepare a 5-minute “week one on site” plan: who you would meet, what you would inspect in their stack, and what artifact you would deliver by day five.
- Show you can go from discovery notes → working integration → production checklist without needing a large internal team.
- For Kubernetes-heavy roles, describe a cluster you operated: upgrades, networking, secrets, observability, and how you debugged a production outage.
- Link to or describe Terraform modules you wrote with environment promotion strategy (dev → staging → prod) and how you handled state and drift.
- This role is tied to Stockholm — mention willingness to work on-site with customers and any existing ties to that market (clients, partners, or domain knowledge).
Stand out at Modal
- Demonstrate stakeholder management with a concrete example — Modal will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Demonstrate integration skill with a concrete example — Modal will probe for specifics, not buzzwords.
- Prepare stories that move from discovery → pilot → production with named outcomes.
- Read recent engineering blog posts, product launches, and customer stories on modal.com — reference one explicitly in your outreach to show genuine interest.
Tailored from this listing’s title, company, and description. Always verify requirements on the company careers page before applying.
Role description
About Us:
AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal. Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now. Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable https://modal.com/blog/lovable-case-study, Ramp https://modal.com/blog/how-ramp-built-a-full-context-background-coding-agent-on-modal, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale. We recently raised a $355M Series C https://modal.com/blog/modal-series-c at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September. Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn https://github.com/mwaskom/seaborn,Luigi https://github.com/spotify/luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.
The Role:
Modal is seeking an experienced Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to partner with our sales team and drive technical sales success. As an FDE, you will be the technical voice in our sales process, working directly with Account Executives to help enterprise customers understand how Modal can transform their AI/ML infrastructure. You will:
- Partner with Account Executives to identify, qualify, and close strategic enterprise opportunities
- Lead technical discovery sessions with prospective customers to understand their current infrastructure, pain points, and
requirements
- Design and present compelling technical solutions that demonstrate how Modal addresses customer needs
- Architect migration paths from existing cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) to Modal's serverless platform
- Conduct technical demos, experiments, and proof-of-concepts that showcase Modal's capabilities
- Navigate complex technical evaluations and address security, compliance, and integration concerns
- Build trusted advisor relationships with technical decision-makers including CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and ML Engineering leads
- Collaborate with product and engineering teams to communicate customer feedback and influence product roadmap
- Support contract negotiations by providing technical expertise on implementation timelines, resource requirements, and success metrics
Requirements:
- 5+ years of experience in solutions engineering, sales engineering, or customer-facing technical roles
- Deep hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) including compute, storage, networking, and managed services
- Strong knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes, container orchestration)
- Experience with databases (SQL/NoSQL), data pipelines, and distributed systems architecture
- Understanding of ML/AI infrastructure challenges including model training, inference, and MLOps workflows
- Familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation) and CI/CD pipelines
- Proven track record of supporting enterprise software sales cycles ($100K+ ACV)
- Exceptional presentation and communication skills with ability to explain complex technical concepts to both technical and business audiences
- Strong business acumen with understanding of enterprise buying processes and procurement
- Experience building migration strategies and implementation roadmaps for large-scale infrastructure changes
- Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams including sales, product, and engineering
- Experience selling or implementing serverless computing, container platforms, or ML infrastructure solutions preferred
- Willingness to travel up to 30% for customer meetings and industry events
- Ability to work in-person in our Stockholm office