Senior Forward Deployed Engineer, Stacklok
Kubernetes
$189-231k
+ Equity
More information about location
Enterprise MCP platform for secure AI workflows
Open for applications
Enterprise MCP platform for secure AI workflows
21-100 employees
Open for applications
$189-231k
+ Equity
More information about location
21-100 employees
Company mission
To ensure all knowledge workers can simply and safely lean into AI agents to increase their productivity.
Role
Who you are
- We do not expect every candidate to meet every point below. If this role excites you and you bring most of it, we encourage you to apply
- Strong software engineering fundamentals: writes well-structured production code with sound design and testing judgment
- Deep Kubernetes expertise across cluster architecture, workload types, networking, storage, RBAC, and resource management, with Helm authoring and GitOps via Flux or ArgoCD across managed Kubernetes
- Strong operator and CRD literacy: reasons about control loops, CRD versioning, status, and finalizers, and writes controllers in Go using Kubebuilder or the Operator SDK
- Solid grasp of observability across metrics, logs, and traces, and when each applies. Familiarity with Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, and platforms like Datadog or Grafana is a plus
- Comfortable working directly with customers, including over-the-shoulder debugging across varied enterprise permission models, and clearly communicating root causes and remediation steps
- A track record of delivering production-grade systems, mentoring engineers, and contributing fixes upstream to the underlying platforms and tools. Hands-on experience with MCP servers or AI agent tooling is a strong plus
- AI-first mindset: an active user of AI coding assistants who brings agentic workflows (skills, agents, rules, hooks) into daily work and experiments with AI to automate and accelerate delivery
- Communication: excellent written and verbal communication, able to explain complex technical ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
- Startup mentality and intrinsic motivation: self-directed and hands-on, thrives in fast-moving, ambiguous environments, and drives clarity through action
What the job involves
- As a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer at Stacklok, you sit where platform engineering meets AI, bringing deep Kubernetes expertise to help enterprises adopt Stacklok Enterprise and run AI agents securely on the infrastructure they already trust
- Every environment is different, so the role builds the custom operators that fit the platform to each customer's stack and reach production fast
- This is hands-on, high-ownership work, and it is not only technical
- Forward-deployed engagements run end to end through the role: standing up custom proof-of-concepts for Design Partners and customers, extending the platform, coordinating the technical work, and keeping customer and team aligned as things move toward production
- When unlocking value means changing how the product deploys to Kubernetes, that work comes back to the platform itself
- Kubernetes expertise is what unlocks value fast, and demand for this work is outpacing our capacity
- The role offers a front-row seat to how leading enterprises put AI into production, and real influence over what gets built next
- For a platform engineer who wants that expertise to land directly with customers, this is the chance to do it at the frontier of enterprise AI
- What Success Looks Like: First 6-12 Months
- Ramped quickly on the platform and Stacklok Enterprise architecture, becoming the technical SME the AppliedAI team relies on for enterprise engagements
- Built trusted relationships across the team and with customers, and resolved a real customer blocker or shipped a first meaningful change
- Took one or more Design Partners from proof-of-concept to a working production deployment of Stacklok's Enterprise platform
- Unblocked enterprise adoption by improving how the product deploys to Kubernetes, measurably cutting time-to-value for customers
- Turned field learnings into a reusable engagement playbook and tooling, using AI-assisted workflows to make the next deployment faster for the whole team
- Drive forward-deployed engagements end to end, from scoping each customer's technical goals and designing the deployment approach to taking POCs to a working state and toward production
- Design and deliver changes to the platform and to how it deploys to Kubernetes, unblocking enterprise adoption and contributing those changes back to Stacklok Enterprise
- Act as the technical SME for enterprise adoption, answering deep platform and Kubernetes questions and giving hands-on support to customers and Design Partners
- Own the technical calls within your domain, moving quickly on reversible decisions and pulling in the team anchor as scope and risk grow
- Partner with senior peers and bring field insight back through standup, planning, and design reviews to influence priorities and how engagements run
- Coach teammates in your areas of deep expertise, especially Kubernetes, and contribute to hiring when needed
- Apply AI-assisted workflows and strengthen reusable tooling and playbooks so each engagement moves faster for the team
Our take
Developers looking to actively work with open-source software face several barriers to entry in terms of accessing, integrating, and ultimately utilizing open-source technologies. In a bid to lower such barriers, Stacklok harnesses the power of open-source projects - like sigstore - to deliver enterprise-grade solutions to developers.
Software supply chain security is an absolute priority across software ecosystems, thus the necessity for a supply chain ledger with observability and transparency is paramount to building trust within the vast open-source ecosystem.
The experience of Stacklok’s Co-Founders – who have founded projects such as Kubernetes, sigstore, and Heptio (acquired by VMware) – and its impressive backing have the recently launched project well set to see accelerated growth and adoption.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Company
Funding (1 round)
May 2023
$17.5m
SERIES A
Total funding: $17.5m
Company benefits
- Flexible workplace: Do your best work in a setup designed for impact and flexibility. Roles are hybrid or fully remote, depending on team and location.
- Healthcare: Stay healthy and supported with comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans for you and your family.
- Paid time off: Take the time you need to recharge. Our policy includes flexible vacation days and paid holidays to support your well-being and focus.
- Paid parental leave: Recover and bond with your growing family. Paid leave is available with options for how and when you take your time.
- Equity ownership: Share in what you help build, and know that you’re joining a team with a track record of strong outcomes.
- Team offsites: Build deeper relationships across the company. We host in-person offsites in unique destinations to collaborate, align and have fun!
Company HQ
Central Business District, Seattle, WA
Leadership
Craig McLuckie
(Co-Founder & CEO)Founder & former CEO of Heptio. Previously worked as VP of R&D at VMware, Group/Lead Product Manager at Google, Lead Program Manager at Microsoft, and Entrepreneur in Residence at Accel.
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