Forward Deployed Engineer, Team Lead
At a glance
Senior Software Engineering role at Luminai. San Francisco or New York · full-time · $190,000–$270,000 base.
techroles summary, based on the employer's posting.
What you'll do
- Work directly with customers to map their workflows, constraints and measures of success
- Build and launch AI solutions for operational problems, then own their deployment through later improvements
- Create and support production APIs, integrations, monitoring and feedback loops
- Turn customer needs into technical designs, and bring deployment patterns to product and engineering teams
- Set engineering standards for the FDE team, guiding code, architecture and deployment decisions while mentoring peers
What you bring
- At least five years in software engineering, preferably in forward-deployed, backend or systems work
- Strong Python skills and experience delivering production systems from unclear requirements
- Hands-on work with cloud infrastructure such as AWS, GCP or Azure
- You can work independently and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Who this fits
This suits a senior, hands-on engineer comfortable working with customers, navigating ambiguity and guiding other FDEs. The role is hybrid, with four in-office days each week in San Francisco or New York; Wednesday is an optional work-from-home day.
From the employer
About Luminai
Healthcare operations have always depended on people to bridge the gaps that technology couldn't. It relies on complex manual work to carry out critical internal processes, yet most health systems don’t have enough resources to properly automate these tasks, leaving them stuck in outdated, labor-intensive SOPs.
Luminai structures the chaos, automates the manual handoffs, and deploys end-to-end workflows across every system, providing the integrated intelligence layer to improve processes over time. By delegating to autonomous AI systems those mission-critical workflows that previously expended valuable human time, Luminai allows doctors and administrators to do what they do best: Focus on Patients.
We've raised $60M in funding, including our recent Series B led by Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India), with participation from healthcare-focused Define Ventures and continued support from General Catalyst and Y Combinator. We're backed by some of the best investors in Silicon Valley, including Kevin Weil (Chief Product Officer at OpenAI), Arash Ferdowsi (co-founder of Dropbox), Katie Stanton (former VP Global Media, Twitter), and CEOs of companies such as Flexport, Notion, Front, Ramp, and Twitch.
Our team is in-office 4 days a week (Monday - Friday, Wednesday optional WFH) in either San Francisco, California or New York, New York.
About the role
As a Forward Deployed Engineering Lead, you will sit at the intersection of engineering, product, and customer delivery, while also raising the bar for how the FDE team operates. You'll embed directly with customers, deeply understand their workflows, and design and deploy AI-powered solutions that deliver immediate, real-world impact, while also setting the technical standard for the team around you.
This is a highly autonomous, hands-on role for someone who thrives in ambiguous environments, enjoys working directly with customers, and wants to shape product direction through what they see in the field. You'll partner closely with Product and Engineering to turn customer needs into scalable systems that improve how healthcare organizations operate, and you'll bring the judgment of a more senior builder to a team that's still growing into that muscle.
What You'll Do
Embed directly with customers to understand their workflows, constraints, and success criteria
Design, build, and deploy AI-driven solutions tailored to real operational problems
Build and maintain production systems including APIs, integrations, monitoring, and feedback loops
Translate business requirements and customer needs into technical architectures and implementations
Operate in high-stakes environments where reliability, speed, and judgment matter
Identify patterns across customer deployments and feed insights back into core product and platform development
Partner closely with Product and Engineering to influence roadmap, abstractions, and long-term system design
Own deployments end-to-end, from initial scoping through launch and iteration
Set technical direction and best practices for the FDE team, raising the bar on code quality, architecture decisions, and deployment rigor
Mentor and unblock other FDEs, acting as a senior voice in the room on ambiguous technical and customer tradeoffs
What We're Looking For
5+ years of software engineering experience, ideally as an FDE or in backend / systems-focused work
A track record of being the senior, steady hand on a team, comfortable operating with less oversight and setting the bar for others
Strong proficiency in Python (TypeScript / JavaScript experience is a plus)
Experience working with cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure)
Ability to translate ambiguous requirements into working, production-ready systems
Strong communication skills and comfort working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
High ownership mindset with the ability to operate independently in fast-changing environments
Experience with AI systems (LLMs, vector databases, prompt engineering, or agent frameworks) is a strong plus
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