Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) / FDE Lead

About the Role

Magna AI is seeking Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) and FDE Leads to join their team in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This full-time role requires individuals who can manage the entire technical journey from understanding customer problems to delivering a working production product. The FDE is a customer-facing builder, responsible for designing solutions, personally building demos and Proofs of Concept (POCs), and driving opportunities alongside the sales team. For FDE Leads, the role extends to leading other FDEs, establishing engineering direction, and managing multiple customer engagements while remaining hands-on with architecture and code.

Core Responsibilities

• Conduct customer discovery and technical presales, working with various customer teams to understand problems and translate ambiguous needs into concrete technical solutions.
• Personally build demos and POCs by designing solutions, writing production-quality code, developing prototypes, and integrating systems, models, and APIs.
• Technically drive deals to closure, defining solutions, establishing technical credibility, resolving objections, and supporting proposals.
• Transition successful POCs into full products by designing production architecture, building initial end-to-end products, and establishing engineering standards.
• Own customer deployment, navigating complex environments and solving problems without perfectly defined specifications.
• Productize learned capabilities by identifying reusable components and working with Product and Engineering to integrate them into the platform.

FDE Lead Additional Responsibilities

In addition to the FDE responsibilities, FDE Leads are expected to:

• Lead and mentor a team of FDEs.
• Remain personally hands-on with code and critical implementations.
• Take technical ownership of major strategic customer engagements.
• Allocate FDE resources across opportunities and review architecture and code.
• Establish development and deployment standards and manage technical priorities across multiple projects.
• Coach FDEs on customer discovery, technical selling, and product development.
• Work with Product and Engineering leadership to integrate customer innovations into the core product roadmap.

Required Profile and Experience

Candidates should possess a blend of capabilities typically found across roles such as Software Engineer, Solution Architect, Presales Engineer, Product Builder, and Technical Lead. The role requires 5-10 years of relevant experience. The ideal candidate is comfortable engaging with customers, designing architectures, coding solutions, demonstrating working versions, and leading product development from concept to production.

Key Success Measures

• Speed from customer problem identification to working demonstration.
• Quality and relevance of demos and POCs.
• POC-to-commercial conversion rate and technical contribution to deal closure.
• Speed from commercial agreement to production deployment.
• Quality and reliability of delivered products, customer adoption, and measurable business outcomes.
• Reusability of solutions across customers and ability to scale delivery teams.

Application Information

This full-time position is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Salary information will be disclosed during the application process.