Modal

Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems

Modal6 months ago
Location

New York

Type

Full Time

Salary

USD 180,000 – 240,000

Level

Senior

Role

Forward Deployed Engineer

Posted

Sep 23, 2025

Full TimeSenior

The role

Summary

Modal is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work directly with leading AI companies, architecting and deploying large-scale production infrastructure on their serverless platform. The ideal candidate will be a technical expert who can bridge customer needs with Modal's cutting-edge cloud infrastructure solutions, working closely with technical leaders to design and implement sophisticated cloud architectures.

What you'll do

Customer Engagement: Work directly with leading AI companies to architect and deploy production-scale workloads
Technical Architecture: Lead technical discovery sessions and design migration strategies from existing cloud infrastructures
Platform Development: Collaborate with product and sales teams to enhance Modal's infrastructure platform
Relationship Building: Develop trusted relationships with technical leaders in frontier AI companies
Technical Demonstration: Conduct technical demos, experiments, and proof-of-concepts to showcase infrastructure capabilities

What we look for

Technical

Cloud InfrastructureComprehensive knowledge of cloud compute, storage, networking, and container orchestration
Systems ArchitectureDeep understanding of distributed systems design and infrastructure scalability

Education

Computer ScienceBachelor's or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related technical field

Experience

Professional ExperienceMinimum 3 years of professional software engineering experience
Customer InteractionProven ability to work directly with technical leadership and understand complex infrastructure challenges

Skills

Required skills

Cloud PlatformsHands-on experience with AWS, GCP, or Azure cloud infrastructure
Container OrchestrationExpertise in Docker and Kubernetes
Infrastructure as CodeProficiency in tools like Terraform, Pulumi, or CloudFormation
Distributed SystemsUnderstanding of distributed systems architecture and data pipelines

Nice to have

Migration ExperienceLeading large-scale infrastructure migration efforts
Open SourceContributions to open-source projects
Customer EngagementStrong track record of working directly with technical customers

Compensation & benefits

Salary

USD 180,000 – 240,000 (annual)

Stock options

Available

Benefits

Startup Equity

Stock options in a high-growth AI infrastructure company

Cutting-Edge Technology

Work with innovative AI and cloud infrastructure technologies

Professional Growth

Opportunities to work with leading AI companies and technical leaders

Interview process

  1. 1
    Initial Screening — Phone or video call with recruiting team to assess background and fit
  2. 2
    Technical Interview — In-depth discussion of cloud infrastructure, systems architecture, and technical experience
  3. 3
    Customer Engagement Assessment — Case study or scenario demonstrating ability to work with technical customers
  4. 4
    Final Interview — Meeting with engineering leadership to discuss role alignment and company fit
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Modal

Modal

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Modal is a cloud computing platform that enables developers to build, deploy, and scale applications without managing underlying infrastructure. The company provides serverless computing solutions that allow developers to run code on demand, handle background jobs, and deploy machine learning models with minimal operational overhead. Modal serves software developers and organizations looking to streamline their application development and deployment processes in the cloud.

San Francisco, USAFounded 2021modal.com

Tech Stack

Languages
Python
Frameworks
Serverless
Tools
DockerKubernetesTerraform
Other
Cloud Platforms
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