Forward Deployed Engineer, FDE US Government

Application deadline: Oct 1 2026

A Forward Deployed Engineer II (FDE II) embeds directly inside a strategic enterprise customer to independently design build deploy and run AI-powered production systems alongside the customers engineering team. FDE IIs write production-grade software and own delivery of complete AI workstreams end-to-end from requirements gathering through production deployment combining the technical rigor of an AWS SDE with the urgency and ownership required to deliver measurable customer business outcomes.

FDE IIs are autonomous contributors. They deliver working features spanning the full software lifecycle. They design cohesive implementations for ambiguous problems making design trade-offs with appropriate guidance. They take on projects where the business problem is understood but implementations are not fully fleshed out balancing constraints and limiting short-term workarounds. They coach others on producing high-quality code and train new team members.

This position requires that the candidate selected be a US Citizen and currently possess and maintain an active TS/SCI clearance with Polygraph.

Key job responsibilities
Embed within customer engineering teams.
- Work with customers stakeholders and peers to understand the business and customer value of the systems you build. Understand the customers business processes technical architecture and operational constraints. Translate customer requirements into technical designs for AI-enabled production systems within your workstream. Requires 3050% travel.

Build production AI applications.
- Design and develop production-grade software powering AI and agentic workflows retrieval pipelines workflow automation API orchestration layers data integration. Solve difficult problems with visible risks or roadblocks bringing clarity and identifying simple designs for solutions. Integrate foundation models customer data sources and existing applications into cohesive AI experiences. Optimize for latency reliability and cost.

Own production for your workstream.
- Be a significant contributor to the full software development lifecycle including scoping design code testing deployment operations and maintenance. Troubleshoot production incidents across AI models distributed systems and application services. Ensure root causes of operational issues are identified and resolved. Implement monitoring evaluations guardrails and CI/CD that keep AI systems healthy. Dont settle for the status quo routinely identify and execute on opportunities to improve operations.

Mentor and uplift.
- Actively mentors and trains new team members on how systems are constructed operated and fit into the bigger picture. Coach others on producing high-quality code through mechanisms such as code review. Be active in the code review process providing meaningful feedback to others.

Accelerate customer adoption.
- Identify opportunities to expand AI adoption within your customer engagement. Codify reusable patterns and accelerators that benefit future customer deployments and feed back into AWS services. Make enhancements that improve your teams software and processes.

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About the team
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- 3 years of non-internship professional software development experience
- Bachelors degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science Engineering Mathematics or a related field
- 2 years of experience working in an Agile startup or rapidly scaling environment
- Experience communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Experience with agentic and spec-driven development (developing AI agents a plus)
- Experience with AI tools: eval frameworks agent tooling RAG pipelines and prompt engineering
- Current active US Government Security Clearance of TS/SCI with Polygraph

- Experience working with AWS Services
- Experience working in customer production environments
- Experience building or deploying AI/ML applications in production environments
- Background as a founder engineering lead or startup builder with high ownership and urgency
- Prior experience with React TypeScript Python and/or Go
- Experience interfacing with customers or leading technical projects with external stakeholders
- Experience working with teams that build and scale end-to-end production systems

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status disability or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process including support for the interview or onboarding process please visit for more information. If the country/region youre applying in isnt listed please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience qualifications and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical dental vision prescription Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans EAP Mental Health Support Medical Advice Line Flexible Spending Accounts Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage) 401(k) matching paid time off and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at CO Denver - 143700.00 - 194400.00 USD annually
USA NY New York - 158100.00 - 213800.00 USD annually
USA VA Arlington - 143700.00 - 194400.00 USD annually
USA WA Seattle - 143700.00 - 194400.00 USD annually