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Forward Deployed Engineer – AI

Harnham

Washington, DC · Posted November 6, 2026

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This listing does not state pay. Across 151 open forward deployed engineer listings that state pay, the middle half runs $155,000 to $233,000 and the median is $197,500.

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Among software developers, AI is already used for some of the tasks. Measured exposure for software developers: 29% (some).

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About the job

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Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, U.S. Government | Greater Washington, DC (onsite 3 to 4 days a week) | c.$325,000 total compensation

Join a government AI team at the ground floor as it scales from 3 to 10+ engineers, building and deploying AI systems for high-visibility defence customers in months, not years.

The Company A fast-growing AI company that supplies post-training data to leading frontier AI labs and reliability work to enterprises. Government work is core to its strategy, and the forward deployed team leads its national security work.

The Role

Embed with government customers to find high-value problems, then build and deploy agents or AI applications that solve them.

Take pilots from prototype to production within a few months.

Architect multi-agent systems, tool-using agents, RAG workflows and human-in-the-loop autonomy.

Build data curation and evaluation pipelines for model training and improvement.

Spot expansion opportunities, and recognise when to move on from a dead end.

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other engineers.

What We’re Looking For

US citizenship and eligibility for a security clearance. TS/SCI is preferred and Secret is considered.

Based in, or willing to relocate to, the DC area and work onsite 3 to 4 days a week.

Hands-on experience building agents and deep learning models, fine-tuning LLMs and deploying applications to production.

Customer-facing engineering experience, ideally as a forward deployed engineer.

Experience delivering into government environments, including ATO, accreditation and classified networks.

Nice to have: defence technology or intelligence community background, polygraph, and RL or simulation experience.

What’s On Offer

c.$325,000 total compensation: typically $200,000 base, a $50,000 annual bonus paid quarterly and options worth $300,000 over four years. The base band is $150,000 to $250,000.

Clearance sponsorship through an existing facility clearance.

High-visibility national security projects with exposure to frontier lab work.

A fast hiring process.

How to Apply Apply via the link or contact Tom Brammer at Harnham.

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