Forward Deployed Engineer

Responsibilities

• Make customer missions succeed on Northwood's network.
• Serve as the primary technical contact for customers during capture, evaluation, onboarding, and post-deployment.
• Get hands-on with implementation and integration — working directly alongside customers and Engineering to bring up, troubleshoot, and validate their operations on the network.
• Ship code, debug integrations, and validate operations alongside customers and Engineering.
• Support Business Development on qualification, proposals, and expansion.
• Lead technical discovery, exchanges, demos, and readiness reviews alongside Program Management.
• Learn each customer's mission, workflows, constraints, decision criteria, and success metrics in depth.
• Translate customer needs into clear priorities for Engineering, Product, and BD.
• Surface friction points, adoption blockers, and recurring needs that should shape the product and network.
• Coordinate onboarding and deployment readiness — clarifying requirements, flagging risks, and aligning internal teams around customer objectives.
• Build reusable discovery frameworks and customer-facing materials that help Northwood scale capture and customer success.

Basic Qualifications

• 7+ years in customer-facing technical roles: solutions or systems engineering, mission operations, technical business development, capture engineering, solutions architecture, or TAM.
• Bachelor's in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or related field — or equivalent experience with mission systems, ground systems, networking, cloud, or satellite operations.
• Track record taking complex customer engagements from discovery through deployment or expansion.
• Proven ability to build trust with technical customers and turn ambiguous mission needs into concrete priorities.
• Comfortable working in ambiguous environments spanning hardware, software, networking, and business objectives.
• Strong communicator — able to lead technical conversations, write clear customer materials, and brief internal stakeholders.
• Effective across BD, Engineering, Product, Program Management, and customer teams.
• Willing to travel up to 30%.

Preferred Qualifications

• Background in satellite communications, RF, space operations, ground stations, or telecom infrastructure.
• Experience with proposals, technical evaluations, demos, pilots, or proof-of-concept work.
• Experience managing technical relationships in mission-critical environments.
• Familiarity with APIs, networking protocols, telemetry, scheduling systems, cloud infrastructure, or mission assurance.
• Ability to obtain or hold TS/SCI clearance.

Additional Requirements

• This position requires successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment.
• Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
• This role requires being on-site 5 days per week.

Compensation

• Base salary determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary depending on job-related skills, education, experience, and technical expertise.
• In addition to base salary, Northwood Space offers long-term incentives such as company stock options and discretionary performance bonuses.
• Benefits include equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, flexible spending accounts, flexible time off, 10 or more paid holidays per year, retirement savings plans, and opportunities for professional development.