---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Vision Systems - Quebec, Canada at Syndesus'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-ai-vision-systems-quebec-canada-syndesus-quebec-f3v5wj1pe50h'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer - AI Vision Systems - Quebec, Canada at Syndesus

- **Company:** Syndesus
- **Location:** Quebec, Canada
- **Compensation:** $120k–$180k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-05-19
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://jobs.gem.com/syndesus/am9icG9zdDpzyNJczoGPrAMyEViECQzG

## Job description

Forward Deployed Engineer — AI Vision Systems Remote | Montreal, QC (preferred) | Full-time

## About the role

This is a post-sales, customer-facing deployment role at a fast-growing AI startup building computer vision and predictive systems for manufacturers. The company has grown from 35 to 70 people this year on the back of strong sales momentum, and is now scaling its deployment team to bring those signed customers live. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you own the end-to-end technical deployment of AI vision systems into customer manufacturing environments. You will be the primary technical presence on-site, working closely with sales, account management, and a technical project manager to scope, integrate, and deliver working systems — and you won't leave until the product does what was promised. This is not a role for someone who wants to write code in isolation. You'll be on factory floors, troubleshooting live production environments, training operators, and building trust with customers who are conservative about their technology and their IP.

## What you'll do

- Own the full deployment lifecycle for manufacturing customers — from scoping and integration through to production hardening and handover
- Embed with customer operations and IT teams as the primary technical contact on-site
- Install and configure edge AI hardware (NVIDIA Jetson or equivalent) within customer facilities
- Integrate AI vision systems with customer OT/IT stacks including OPC-UA, Modbus, and PLC systems
- Build and iterate data pipelines from edge capture through to cloud — model deployment, monitoring, and feedback loops
- Troubleshoot software, networking, and integration issues in live production environments
- Document architectures and configurations, producing formal handover artifacts for long-term support
- Train customer operators and engineers in both French and English on deployed systems
- Work as a secondary deployment engineer for your first 30–60 days alongside an experienced FDE before taking on your own accounts
- Participate in pre-sales scoping calls and feed field learnings back to the product and engineering team
- Support on-site data collection and annotation as needed

What the work actually looks like Customers span food manufacturing, building materials, and other industrial sectors. Use cases include defect detection on packaging lines, monitoring for discoloured or malformed products, ergonomic compliance monitoring on factory floors, and employee safety verification. Once deployed, systems feed insights into a customer-facing app that allows plant managers to query production data by shift, line, and time period. When you're not on-site, you're working remotely. On-site time is estimated at 25–50% depending on active deployments. You'll typically manage one to three accounts at a time depending on complexity.

## What you bring

Required

- Production Python development experience with hands-on use of Linux, Docker, and Git in real production environments
- Cloud deployment and operations experience on at least one major platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
- Hands-on experience with at least one of: OPC-UA/Modbus/PLC integration, NVIDIA Jetson or equivalent edge AI platforms, or GenICam/industrial vision systems — edge device experience is the strongest preference
- Networking fundamentals for industrial deployments: TCP/IP, VLANs, firewalls
- Experience in a customer-facing engineering role as the primary technical contact for external stakeholders
- Professional working proficiency in both French and English — this means running scoping meetings, customer training sessions, and on-site troubleshooting in French, not just reading docs

## Nice to have

- Professional experience in industrial automation or manufacturing environments involving OT/IT integration
- OIQ membership (ing.) or P.Eng. — a genuine nice-to-have, not a hard requirement; the right candidate without it will still be considered

## Experience level

No hard floor. The role targets candidates with enough breadth and depth to operate independently on a customer site. That might be four years, it might be more. What matters is that you've shipped and supported real systems in production environments and can handle being the only technical person in the room.

## Compensation and benefits

- Base salary: Competitive and commensurate with experience - $120-180k CAD+ (could be more for the right candidate with depth of experience) depending on experience and location within Quebec
- No bonus currently in place; structure under review
- Equity: under development; six-month review process for all new hires
- Benefits kick in at three months
- Three weeks vacation
- Fully remote when not on-site; travel within Quebec expected 25–50% of the time

Interview process Three stages

- 15-minute check-in with the Talent lead
- Technical interview with the Technical Project Manager (conducted in French)
- 30-minute conversation with the CTO

Location Montreal, QC strongly preferred. Candidates based elsewhere in Quebec or in Ontario (e.g. Ottawa or Toronto) who are willing to travel to Montreal regularly will also be considered. Must be legally authorized to work in Canada.

## About Syndesus

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Syndesus builds elite engineering and AI teams in Canada for US-based VC-backed startups, offering a fully-managed Employer of Record (EOR) solution to eliminate cross-border hiring friction.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Bootstrapped)
- **Headquarters**: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- **Founded**: 2014
- **Founders**: Marc Pavlopoulos

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Talent-as-a-Service / Professional Employer Organization (PEO) / Technical Recruiting
- **Target customers**: US-based VC-backed technology startups and enterprises needing senior AI, ML, and software engineering talent from Canada
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To accelerate innovation by replacing the slow, transactional hiring model with a seamless, strategic solution that delivers seniority and speed.

## Products & Services
- **[AI Talent Sourcing]**: Access to a curated pool of pre-vetted, enterprise-proven senior engineers (AI, ML, data science, full-stack) from Canada. Candidates have track records at major tech companies.
- **[Employer of Record (EOR)]**: Syndesus acts as the legal employer for Canadian talent hired by US companies, handling all payroll, benefits, compliance, and provincial labor law requirements.
- **[Canada Co-pilot]**: An outsourced HR team service for US companies that need deeper support managing the administrative and compliance details of their Canadian workforce.
- **[Relocation & Immigration Support]**: Assistance for foreign-born tech workers (and their US employers) who need options for working remotely in Canada due to visa or immigration issues, including H1-B visa alternatives and Canadian immigration pathways.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private, bootstrapped company)
- **Key Metric**: 63 total employees (as of latest data); 16,000+ LinkedIn followers; 25 open positions listed on careers page
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly disclosed (appears to be self-funded)
- **Growth Signals**: Rapid headcount growth with 25 active job openings across Canada and the US (New York, San Francisco, Austin, Frisco, Dallas, San Jose, Quebec, Toronto) in both hybrid and remote roles; expanding into major US tech hubs; strong employer brand on LinkedIn.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Speed**: Ability to move from initial consultation to a compliant new hire in as little as three weeks by leveraging a pre-vetted talent pool.
- **Curated Talent Focus**: Specializes exclusively in senior, production-ready AI and engineering talent with enterprise experience, not general staffing.
- **Full-Stack Friction Removal**: Combines elite talent sourcing with a fully-managed EOR solution, eliminating the legal, payroll, and compliance risks of cross-border hiring in a single partnership.
- **Deep Canadian Network**: Canada has one of the deepest AI talent pools in the world, and Syndesus has built a specific pipeline to access it for US companies.

## Strategic Focus
- Aggressively scaling its own team across North America to meet demand, with a heavy emphasis on senior engineering roles (AI, ML, data, backend, full-stack) and product management.
- Deepening its specialization in AI talent as the primary growth driver for its clients.
- Expanding its physical footprint into key US tech markets (New York, San Francisco, Austin) while maintaining a strong Canadian HQ presence.

## Why Work Here
- **High-Impact Work**: Employees help solve the single biggest blocker to innovation for top US tech companies: accessing elite AI and engineering talent.
- **Growth Trajectory**: The company is in a rapid growth phase with 25 open roles, offering significant career advancement opportunities for early joiners.
- **Flexible Work Environment**: Offers a mix of remote (Canada, US West Coast), hybrid (Toronto, Frisco, Quebec, New York), and in-office (New York, San Francisco) roles, catering to different working preferences.
- **Founder-Led & Experienced**: Led by Marc Pavlopoulos, a 20+ year veteran of scaling VC-backed tech companies in Silicon Valley, providing strong leadership and operational insight.
- **Culture**: Positioned as a strategic partner, not a transactional recruiter, with a focus on speed, quality, and solving hard problems for clients.

## Sources
1. [syndesus.com/about-us](https://syndesus.com/about-us/)
2. [syndesus.com/home](https://syndesus.com/home/)
3. [LinkedIn - Syndesus, Inc.](https://ca.linkedin.com/company/syndesus)
4. [Built In - Syndesus Careers](https://builtin.com/company/syndesus)
5. [Jobs.gem.com - Syndesus Careers](https://jobs.gem.com/syndesus)

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