Forward Deployed Engineer

About Us We’re Helios—a venture-backed AI startup building Proxi, the first AI-native platform purpose-built for public-private sector engagement. From Fortune 500 policy teams to high-impact lobbying firms, we’re redefining how organizations interact with the government. Our founding team includes alumni from the White House, State Department, Microsoft, and Datadog. We’re backed by top institutional investors and are closing deals before most startups even launch. The Role We’re hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to serve as the connective tissue between our technical stack and our highest-stakes customers. You’ll act as a founding member of our delivery function—equal parts enterprise engineer, product strategist, and GTM operator. You’ll help us win and retain high-value contracts by deeply understanding customer pain, shaping solutions in real time, and translating those needs directly to the engineering team. You must be comfortable sitting across the table from C-suite buyers and state or federal decision-makers—and then jumping into a Figma file, Linear board, or codebase to ensure execution. This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of enterprise AI, government relationships, and rapid product iteration. Location: New York City or Washington, D.C. Key Responsibilities - Partner with sales, founders, and policy leaders to drive customer discovery and close six-to-seven figure single-source government contracts - Rapidly deploy and configure early-stage product implementations for strategic customers - Translate real-world regulatory and government affairs workflows into scalable technical requirements - Act as the internal voice of high-value customers in product and engineering meetings - Manage the technical execution of forward-deployed PoCs and paid pilots, often with highly bespoke needs - Hunt for signals of product-market fit through customer interactions, usage analytics, and structured feedback - Lead…