Forward Deployed Engineer - Birmingham, AL

Summary

Realm Alliance builds AI for the mining industry, integrating with existing mine infrastructure to optimize operations and enhance safety. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical point of contact for customers, responsible for onsite deployment, integrations, and translating operational needs into scalable technical solutions.

Responsibilities

• Spend >50% of your time onsite with customers in Birmingham, AL
• Build a ground-truth understanding of customer operations—shadowing operators, analysts, and frontline teams to understand workflows, constraints, and integration requirements
• Rapidly prototype tools and integrations in the field (“vibe-coding”) to validate ideas, solve urgent problems, and prove feasibility before handing off to engineering
• Troubleshoot and diagnose complex operational or systems issues across varied and sometimes degraded environments
• Translate field insights into clear technical requirements and integration specs for the engineering team
• Lead all technical integration work, including APIs, data pipelines, hardware/software interfaces, and security/compliance-sensitive deployment setups
• Work closely with engineering to ensure features, interfaces, and infrastructure align with real-world operational needs
• Represent customer technical realities internally—ensuring feasibility, reliability, and operational constraints are deeply understood
• Decompose ambiguous, real-world problems into well-scoped technical workstreams
• Ensure customers succeed in mission-critical contexts by enabling smooth deployment, data flow, connectivity, and operational reliability
• Inform the product and engineering teams with data, field observations, and frontline feedback—advocating for changes that reflect true customer needs
• Contribute to the foundation, process, and culture that will scale Realm’s forward deployed engineering function

Skills

• 2+ years of software engineering or forward deployed / mission operations experience, with a record of shipping impactful work
• Strong technical fluency and the ability to work closely with engineers—comfortable reading, writing, and debugging code enough to build prototypes
• Low ego, high EQ, and exceptional collaborative instincts—able to build trust inside Realm and with external partners
• Experience working directly with enterprise, industrial, government, defense, or security-critical products
• Strong coding skills, problem-solving ability, and grasp of computer science fundamentals
• Mastery of core development/infrastructure/DevOps tools (Git, Linux)
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional problem solving, influence technical teams, and drive projects from inception to delivery
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments—strong prioritization, structured thinking, and comfort balancing long-term vision with immediate needs
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to simplify complexity for a wide range of stakeholders
• Strong data instincts—comfortable analyzing data, forming hypotheses, and making data-informed decisions
• Hands-on prototyping and AI-assisted coding skills; comfortable hacking together real solutions quickly to test ideas
• Move fast, can tackle ambiguous problems, and sweat the details
• Based in US - citizen (preferred) or permanent resident
• Experience working on-site with customers in field or operational environments
• Background deploying software to industrial or government settings, with an understanding of constraints like safety, latency, offline ops, or compliance
• Familiarity with mobile or web applications, cloud infrastructure, IoT/industrial systems, or real-time data pipelines
• Experience navigating sensitive or mission-critical customer environments
• Expertise around mining, industrial safety regulations, etc

Qualifications

Must Haves

• 2+ years of software engineering or forward deployed / mission operations experience, with a record of shipping impactful work
• Strong technical fluency and the ability to work closely with engineers—comfortable reading, writing, and debugging code enough to build prototypes
• Low ego, high EQ, and exceptional collaborative instincts—able to build trust inside Realm and with external partners
• Experience working directly with enterprise, industrial, government, defense, or security-critical products
• Strong coding skills, problem-solving ability, and grasp of computer science fundamentals
• Mastery of core development/infrastructure/DevOps tools (Git, Linux)
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional problem solving, influence technical teams, and drive projects from inception to delivery
• Ability to thrive in ambiguous environments—strong prioritization, structured thinking, and comfort balancing long-term vision with immediate needs
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to simplify complexity for a wide range of stakeholders
• Strong data instincts—comfortable analyzing data, forming hypotheses, and making data-informed decisions
• Hands-on prototyping and AI-assisted coding skills; comfortable hacking together real solutions quickly to test ideas
• Move fast, can tackle ambiguous problems, and sweat the details
• Based in US - citizen (preferred) or permanent resident

Nice to Haves

• Experience working on-site with customers in field or operational environments
• Background deploying software to industrial or government settings, with an understanding of constraints like safety, latency, offline ops, or compliance
• Familiarity with mobile or web applications, cloud infrastructure, IoT/industrial systems, or real-time data pipelines
• Experience navigating sensitive or mission-critical customer environments
• Expertise around mining, industrial safety regulations, etc

Benefits

• Competitive compensation with significant equity upside
• Dynamic, remote work environment with global reach