Senior Forward Deployed Engineer at Tagup – Salt Lake City, Utah
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About This Position
We're hiring a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the technical delivery of our platform to defense customers. This isn't a support role. You'll be the person in the room when a combatant command needs a capability deployed in weeks, not quarters. You'll shape how our technology meets the battlefield, and you'll have the autonomy and ownership to make it happen.
If you want to build things that matter — and see them used immediately — this is the role.
Lead from the front. You'll be the senior technical face of Tagup with our most important defense customers. You'll build trust with operators, program managers, and military leaders — and you'll be the person they call when the mission depends on it.
Architect deployments end-to-end. From contract kick-off through production operations, you'll own the full delivery lifecycle. You'll design deployment architectures, define integration strategies, set milestones, and ensure we deliver on time in environments where "on time" isn't negotiable.
Bridge the gap between product and mission. You'll translate operational needs into product requirements, working directly with our engineering team to prioritize features that unlock real capability for warfighters. Your field experience will directly shape our roadmap.
Manage complexity. You'll run multiple concurrent engagements across different customers, classification levels, and operational contexts — keeping every one of them on track.
8+ years of experience in software delivery, technical consulting, solutions engineering, or forward-deployed roles — bonus points for defense, intelligence, or other high-security environments
Strong engineering fundamentals. You can write production-quality Python or JavaScript, reason about distributed systems, and debug a deployment at 2 AM if the mission calls for it
Exceptional communication skills. You're equally comfortable whiteboarding an architecture with engineers and briefing a general officer on delivery timelines
A bias for action and ownership. You don't wait for permission. You see what needs to happen and you make it happen
Willingness to travel to customer sites as needed — sometimes on short notice
Base salary: $160,000 – $200,000, depending on experience and location.
This isn't a company where engineers are three layers removed from the mission. At Tagup, the code you write on Monday can be running in an operational environment by Friday. You'll work alongside a small, intensely talented team where your judgment matters, your initiative is rewarded, and the work has consequences beyond quarterly metrics.
We're at an inflection point — growing quickly, winning major contracts, and building the team that will define how AI is used in defense logistics for the next decade. If you want in on the ground floor of something consequential, we'd love to talk.