Forward Deployment Engineer

Etched is hiring a Forward Deployment Engineer in San Jose, United States. It pays $208k-$300k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Etched.

Level's read on this job

On Level's scale, this forward deployed engineer role is Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
The listed pay starts 14% above the typical forward deployed engineer posting on Level.
Tools and skills the posting cites include Python, C and Linux.
Level lists 114 other open roles at Etched.
The role was posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

Lead end-to-end deployment, validation, and debugging of accelerator-based datacenter systems and high-speed networking stacks.

pythonclinuxtcp-iprdma

hardware-validationdatacenter-deploymentsystems-debuggingfirmwarenetworking

Etched, Inc. seeks a Forward Deployment Engineer in San Jose, CA. Job Duties: Lead end-to-end deployment of accelerator-based systems in large-scale datacenter environments, including installation, bring-up, validation, and customer acceptance; Diagnose and resolve complex system-level issues across hardware, firmware, Linux OS, drivers, and high-speed networking stacks, including TCP/IP, RDMA, and 100GbE/400GbE infrastructure; Perform root-cause analysis of field failures, reproduce issues in partnership with internal engineering teams, and drive corrective actions, patches, or design improvements; Develop and maintain deployment tooling, diagnostics, telemetry, dashboards, and structured runbooks to improve system reliability, observability, and repeatability at scale; and Coordinate firmware updates, configuration changes, and hotfix rollouts with minimal downtime, while collaborating cross-functionally with hardware, software, deployment, RMA, and sustaining engineering teams. Position requires up to 30% domestic and international travel.

Position requires a Bachelor's degree or foreign equivalent in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Information Technology, Network Engineering, and other closely related degrees, and 3 years of experience in the job offered or related occupations. Must have 3 years of experience in the following skills: Proficiency in schematic review, PCB layout validation, and debugging of high-speed digital interfaces, including PCIe, SerDes, and memory subsystems; Working with Linux-based systems for bring-up, validation, and debugging, and documenting findings through validation reports and technical documentation; Programming experience in C/C++ and Python for hardware validation, and debugging workflows; and Strong knowledge of power architecture design and troubleshooting, and power distribution networks. Must have 1.25 years of experience with system bring-up, validation, and debug of datacenter-class and HPC server platforms (e.g, NVIDIA HGX / GB systems).

Salary Range: $208,000.00 - $300,000.00 / year. To apply online at https://www.etched.com/join with Ref#QC0926

How we rate this

Forward Deployment Engineer at Etched rates 20 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Forward Deployment Engineer is an open job at Etched.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $208k-$300k a year.
The role is based in San Jose.
The job was posted on October 23, 2026.
Seniority: mid.
Applications are handled by Etched. Apply on Etched

Prepare for this job

Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.

Skills and AI tools this role asks for

Hardware ValidationDatacenter DeploymentSystems DebuggingFirmwareNetworkingPythonCLinux

Also common in forward deployed engineer jobs at this level

AWS Azure Kubernetes LLM Google Cloud TypeScript

Pay

This job starts at: $208k
Typical forward deployed engineer job: $182k

This posting starts 14% above the typical forward deployed engineer job. See forward deployed engineer jobs

Questions you could be asked

Tell me about a project where hardware validation was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where datacenter deployment was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where systems debugging was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where firmware was part of your work. What did you do?
Tell me about a project where networking was part of your work. What did you do?

Adapt your resume

List these exact terms on your resume: Hardware Validation, Datacenter Deployment, Systems Debugging, Firmware, and Networking. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.

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