Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

Gen Digital
New York, NY
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Geared toward seasoned engineers comfortable with AI-assisted development and partner-embedded integration work, with a focus on building scalable solutions and leading cross-functional teams in a customer-driven environment.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with experience in partner-embedded engineering and AI-native workflows
    — “Use AI-native workflows and tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Copilot as first-class accelerants”
  • Individuals who have led complex integrations and scaled team output without proportional headcount growth
    — “Have a track record of building reusable architecture, tooling, or playbooks that scaled a team’s output without proportional headcount growth”
  • Engineers with strong cross-functional leadership and collaboration skills
    — “Lead technical working sessions with partner engineering teams, bringing experienced hands-on guidance to critical integrations”

Things to consider

  • The position likely requires deep familiarity with REST/JSON APIs and their nuances
    — “Deep REST/JSON API expertise, including authentication, idempotency, schema evolution, versioning, monitoring, and incident response”

How to stand out

  • Highlight your ability to turn bespoke solutions into repeatable practices
    — “Turn bespoke builds into repeatable solutions, including shared modules, templates, and runbooks”
  • Demonstrate leadership in AI-assisted engineering with concrete examples of governance and safety practices
    — “Architect and govern AI-native engineering practices, including code-generation pipelines, mapping automation, test-scaffolding agents, and human-review gates”
  • Showcase your experience in leading complex, ambiguous integrations end to end
    — “Personally lead the most complex, ambiguous, or new-vertical integrations end to end”
  • Emphasize your mentorship experience and how it has raised team standards
    — “Mentor FDEs through design and code reviews, creating a feedback loop that raises the team’s engineering standard”
  • Demonstrate your ability to build trust and credibility across multiple internal and external teams
    — “Build trust and credibility across partner, Product, Engineering, Solutions Engineering, and commercial teams”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Established repeatable delivery standards
  • Led complex integrations
Typical background
Experience in software engineeringTechnical leadership

Skills & requirements

Required

Forward Deployed EngineeringAi-native Engineering PracticesTechnical Leadership

Preferred

Product ManagementEngineering Best Practices

Stack & domain

AIEngineeringPartner IntegrationsCustom DevelopmentLeadershipCommunicationProblem-solving

About the role

Original posting from Gen Digital via Ashby

ABOUT GEN

Gen is a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom through its trusted consumer brands including Norton, Avast, LifeLock, MoneyLion and more. Our combined heritage is rooted in financial empowerment and cyber safety for the first digital generations, and today we deliver award-winning cybersecurity, online privacy, identity protection and financial wellness solutions to nearly 500 million users in more than 150 countries.

Together, we share a collective passion and vision to protect consumers and help them grow, manage and secure their digital and financial lives. We’re always looking for smart, fearless and high-impact talent who see AI as a teammate – leveraging it to move faster and deliver meaningful results.

When you’re part of Gen, you’ll have the flexibility, tools and support to do your best work and grow your career – from flexible working options and time off to competitive pay, benefits and well-being programs.

At Gen, we are scrappy and relentlessly customer driven. We create room for healthy debate, experimentation and continuous learning, and we seek out people with different experiences, identities and ideas to join our team. You’ll work with people who back each other, respect each other and understand that our differences are a competitive advantage.

If this sounds like you, we’d love you to be part of Gen.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Engine’s Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) function is its partner-embedded Engineering team, responsible for demand partner integrations and custom development across Engine’s marketplace. Its north star is delivering high-quality code that accelerates marketplace revenue.

We’re looking for a player-coach to help lead the team through its next phase: establishing repeatable delivery standards, governing AI-native engineering practices, owning the highest-stakes partner engagements, and building strong partnerships with internal Product and Engineering teams. This role combines team leadership with hands-on engineering. You’ll help shape the FDE team’s strategy and best practices, lead the integrations that matter most—including new verticals, non-standard partner APIs, and hosted experiences—and work closely with partner engineering teams, Backend and Frontend Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Product, and commercial stakeholders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Own technical strategy for demand-side delivery across the partner portfolio, setting standards adopted across FDE and Solutions Engineering.
  • Partner with your manager and cross-functional leaders to develop and implement standard operating procedures and delivery practices that help accelerate the team.
  • Personally lead the most complex, ambiguous, or new-vertical integrations end to end.
  • Turn bespoke builds into repeatable solutions, including shared modules, templates, and runbooks.
  • Architect and govern AI-native engineering practices, including code-generation pipelines, mapping automation, test-scaffolding agents, and human-review gates that keep AI-assisted builds safe and production-ready.
  • Mentor FDEs through design and code reviews, creating a feedback loop that raises the team’s engineering standard.
  • Drive structured Product and Engineering feedback loops that reduce future bespoke work and free team capacity for new workstreams.
  • Lead technical working sessions with partner engineering teams, bringing experienced hands-on guidance to critical integrations and hosted experiences.

ABOUT YOU

Experience: 8+ years of experience, including time in a senior or staff-level integration, platform, or forward-deployed engineering role. People leadership or strong informal team leadership experience is preferred.

Skills:

  • Write production-quality code in Scala and/or Python, with working comfort in Node.js/TypeScript for SDKs and tooling.
  • Bring deep REST/JSON API expertise, including authentication, idempotency, schema evolution, versioning, monitoring, and incident response.
  • Have a track record of building reusable architecture, tooling, or playbooks that scaled a team’s output without proportional headcount growth.
  • Use AI-native workflows and tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Copilot as first-class accelerants, while knowing when deterministic approaches are the right choice.
  • Facilitate technical working sessions directly with partner engineering teams.

Personal Attributes:

  • Recognize patterns and turn novel solutions into repeatable practices.
  • Take ownership of complex, ambiguous work and balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution.
  • Build trust and credibility across partner, Product, Engineering, Solutions Engineering, and commercial teams.
  • Invest in colleagues’ growth through thoughtful mentoring, design feedback, and code review.

WHAT’S NEXT

After you submit your application, you can expect the following steps in the recruitment process:

  • Online Technical Test
  • TA Call
  • Live Coding (Virtual)
  • FinalInterview – Hiring Manager (Virtual or face-to-face)

Source: Gen Digital careers (Ashby)

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