Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems
Modal
Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems at Modal is a full time role based in new york, new york, United States. The listing states pay of $180k–$240k. It was published on 23 September 2025 and was open at last check.
| Role | Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems |
|---|---|
| Company | Modal |
| Location | new york, new york, United States |
| Employment type | Full Time |
| Pay (as listed) | $180k–$240k |
| Published | 23 September 2025 |
| Status | Open at last check |
About Us:
AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal.
Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now.
Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable, Ramp, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale.
We recently raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September.
Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn,Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.
The Role:
We're looking for Forward Deployed Engineers on our engineering team who want to work at the intersection of deep infrastructure work and direct customer impact. As an FDE, you'll partner with leading AI companies and foundation labs on cloud architecture, networking, storage, containerization, sandboxing, and more — helping them design and ship production infrastructure on Modal's platform.
The FDE team today includes world-class software engineers, computational scientists, ML engineers, and former founders. We're looking for people with strong engineering fundamentals, deep curiosity across the infrastructure stack, and energy for working directly with customers on hard problems. You will:
- Work hands-on with companies like Suno, Lovable, Cognition, and Meta to architect and deploy massive-scale production workloads on Modal
- Lead technical discovery and architecture sessions with prospective and existing customers
- Architect migration paths from existing cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) to Modal's serverless platform
- Collaborate with Modal's product and sales teams, contributing to the platform as both an engineer and a product stakeholder
- Build trusted relationships with technical leaders (CTOs, VPs of Engineering, ML leads) at companies doing frontier AI work
- Conduct technical demos, experiments, and proof-of-concepts that make Modal's infrastructure advantages tangible
Requirements:
- 3+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) — compute, storage, networking, and container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
- Familiarity with distributed systems architecture, data pipelines, and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, CloudFormation)
- Strong communicator who can go deep on systems architecture with an infrastructure team and clearly articulate tradeoffs to technical leadership
- Genuine interest in working directly with customers — you find it energizing to understand someone else's problem and help them solve it
- Bonus: experience leading large-scale migration efforts, open-source contributions, or side projects you're proud of
- Willing to work in-person in New York City, San Francisco, or Stockholm
Create your free OnJob profile to apply — we'll take you to Modal's application after sign-up. · Posted 23 Sept 2025.
Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems at Modal — questions answered
What does the Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems role at Modal pay?
The Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems at Modal listing states pay of $180k–$240k for the new york, new york, United States position. That figure is taken directly from the employer's own posting as published, not estimated or averaged from other roles.
Where is the Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems role at Modal based?
Modal lists this Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems role in new york, new york, United States, advertised as full time work at that location. Larger employers sometimes cover several sites under one city name, so confirm the exact office with Modal before you apply.
Is the Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems role at Modal still open?
The Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems posting at Modal was open at OnJob's last check of the employer's careers page, having been published on 23 September 2025. OnJob re-checks source listings on each build and marks a role closed once it disappears, but listings can close without notice, so the employer's own page is the final word.
How do you apply for the Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems role at Modal?
Apply to the Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems at Modal role through OnJob with a free profile: OnJob scores your fit against the listing, shows the skills lowering that score, and submits an ATS-ready profile to Modal's own application page. Creating a profile is free and needs no card.
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