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** — whe…