[Hiring] Lead - Forward Deployed Engineer @realfast.ai

Role Description

As a Lead - Forward Deployed Engineer at realfast.ai with 5–8 years of software engineering experience, you will lead the end-to-end lifecycle of high-complexity projects. A battle-tested engineer who can code like hell, understands what makes businesses tick, and can elevate an entire team while doing it.

You'll work directly with the founders, leading the design and delivery of AI-powered solutions across the services lifecycle. You'll own high-complexity projects end-to-end — driving product and technical design, navigating trade-offs, and ensuring timely delivery that upholds our standards of innovation and excellence.

What You'll Do

• Lead product development, problem-solving, and proof-of-concepts within your stream of work
• Work directly with customers and stakeholders — including users, data scientists, and cross-functional teams — to design and implement solutions
• Prioritise strategically, balancing quality, technical debt, and delivery timelines
• Champion delivery excellence by boosting predictability, quality, and throughput
• Deconstruct complex engineering problems and deliver robust solutions
• Improve code architecture with a focus on testability and maintainability
• Make smart trade-offs between beautiful code and shipping fast — we bias toward shipping
• Unblock and support team members to address challenges impacting delivery
• Set the standard for engineering best practices and first-principles thinking — be someone the team looks up to in terms of craft
• Build AI-powered solutions, including developing, fine-tuning, and integrating LLMs to enhance products, automate tasks, and drive innovation
• Help build the team by mentoring engineers and finding other smart people

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of software engineering experience
• Deep expertise with a proven track record in a similar lead role
• Experience building applications from scratch using object-oriented languages (e.g., Ruby, Python)
• Experience solving 0-to-1 problems, identifying Product-Market Fit, and iterating with users to deliver solutions
• Strong proficiency across multiple programming languages and paradigms — it doesn't matter which

Requirements

• Exceptional grasp of software engineering principles
• Comprehensive understanding of engineering systems and architecture
• Hands-on across the full stack — front-end, back-end, data pipelines, and AI models
• Appreciation for how businesses make money using technology as a lever

Leadership & Communication

• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to lead by example in technical and operational excellence
• Experience mentoring engineers and contributing to team growth
• Excellent communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences
• Leadership qualities: integrity, compassionate collaboration, and thorough preparedness

Mindset

• Comfortable working in a dynamic environment with ambiguity
• Strong grit and drive to make an impact
• Self-starter who can operate without detailed specs or extensive guidance

This role is for you if

• You're a polyglot engineer who loves to create working solutions, not just write code
• You're excited about building systems where AI owns concrete business outcomes
• You want to take state-of-the-art research into reliable production software
• You're interested in the business side of technology, not just the technical aspects
• You want to lead, mentor, and grow a team of high-calibre engineers

This role is NOT for you if

• You want a strictly defined role with clear boundaries
• You need detailed specs before you can start building anything
• You need extensive guidance and structure to be productive
• You're looking for a purely coding-focused position
• You prefer to specialise deeply in one technical area rather than being versatile