---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineer - Washington, D.C at Realm'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-washington-d-c-realm-washington-96gnns9qfzz8'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineer - Washington, D.C at Realm

- **Company:** Realm
- **Location:** Washington, DC
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-08-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/realmalliance/445de3e5-d42d-43aa-8595-69afa50fd17b

## Job description

## COMPANY OVERVIEW

Realm http://realmalliance.com builds AI for the mining industry. We integrate with existing mine infrastructure — cameras, SCADA systems, drones, and data repositories — to predict equipment failures, detect unsafe behaviors, and optimize operations. Our platform deploys intelligence in various ways to improve productivity and safety — monitoring PPE compliance via computer vision, optimizing froth flotation processes, analyzing longwall shearer performance, tracking MSHA citation patterns, and more.

Our founders started their careers at Palantir before going on to build Blend Labs (publicly traded fintech, founded as CTO) and Even (acquired by Walmart). Our leadership team brings experience from Uber, Metropolis, and other high-bar organizations. We're a small, senior team that ships daily to production mines.

AI isn't just our product — it's how we build. We're an AI-first engineering team that uses the latest models and tooling throughout our development process, moving faster and at higher quality than traditional teams our size.

Our culture values high agency, deep ownership, collaboration, and autonomy across a fully remote workforce. Teams here move quickly and make meaningful contributions to a product that shapes global industrial outcomes.

## THE ROLE

As our first Forward Deployed Engineer, you will be the technical point of contact for customers in the field—owning integrations, onsite deployment work, and the translation of real-world operational needs into robust, scalable technical solutions. You’ll work hands-on with customer systems, troubleshoot complex environments, and rapidly prototype tools and integrations needed to make Realm successful in mission-critical settings.

This role is deeply technical and field-oriented—focused on making the product work seamlessly in demanding industrial and government environments. You’ll embed with users, uncover operational realities, validate technical assumptions, and ensure our technology performs reliably under real-world constraints. This is an ideal role for someone who enjoys building in messy environments, thrives on customer interaction, and takes pride in shipping solutions that matter.

## WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Spend ~25% of your time onsite with customers across the US
- 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
- Play a key role in pre-sales by traveling onsite with prospects to demonstrate and prove out the product's value before a deal closes
- Contribute to the foundation, process, and culture that will scale Realm’s forward deployed engineering function

## WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

## MUST-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS

- 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-HAVE QUALIFICATIONS

- 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.

WHY REALM?

- Work on mission-critical problems at the intersection of AI, security, and global infrastructure
- Shape the brand and product of a category-defining company from the ground up
- High-ownership, high-impact role with direct influence on company growth
- Competitive compensation with significant equity upside
- Dynamic, remote work environment with global reach

## BENEFITS/PERKS

🏥 Full medical, dental, and vision benefits

🌴 Unlimited PTO

💰401(k) with 4% safe-harbor match

📈 Equity in an early-stage, fast-growing company

💻 Home office allowance

## About Realm

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Realm provides a precision AI platform that connects existing mining infrastructure—cameras, sensors, and SCADA systems—into one predictive system to improve safety, compliance, and operational efficiency.
- **Entity Type**: Private (early-stage, no disclosed funding rounds)
- **Headquarters**: Austin, Texas, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Eugene Marinelli (CEO & Cofounder) and Myles Recny (Cofounder)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Mining technology, industrial safety, and operational AI
- **Target Customers**: Mining operators (coal, gemstones, oil & gas), heavy industrial sites, critical infrastructure managers
- **Mission/Purpose**: Build artificial intelligence for one of the world’s most essential and most underserved industries—mining—to make mines safer and more productive.

## Products & Services
- **Realm Platform (Core AI Platform)**: A single platform spanning safety monitoring, asset health, plant optimization, and regulatory compliance. Integrates with existing CCTV, SCADA, drones, data lakes, ERP, and document stores via read-only connections.
- **Unsafe Behavior Detection**: Computer vision monitors video feeds continuously to detect unsafe environments, PPE non-compliance, and identify individuals via facial recognition.
- **Citation Analytics (MSHA Compliance)**: Ingests and analyzes MSHA citation documents to spot recurring patterns, identify root causes, streamline citation termination, and benchmark enforcement metrics against district and national averages.
- **SCADA Alerts**: Monitors SCADA systems for fan health, atmospheric safety, conveyor conditions, and electrical stability—delivering early warning notifications.
- **Longwall Shearer Assistant**: Analyzes shearer data to uncover per-shift performance trends, recurring downtime patterns, and early indicators of wear.
- **Froth Flotation Optimization**: Monitors froth flotation with computer vision to understand tank flow and bubble characteristics, recommending reagent composition improvements in real time.
- **Pre-Shift Briefings**: Automated daily reports delivered before shift change with full situational awareness—covering inspector activity, citation status, enforcement trends, and compliance metrics.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Company employs approximately 6 people (+14.3% YoY headcount growth); operational in active U.S. and U.K. mining sites
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Founders previously built software for Palantir Technologies, Blend (publicly traded fintech), and Walmart (via Even). Jack Mann is listed as an Investor & Advisor.
- **Growth Signals**: Active job postings up 400% year-over-year; LinkedIn followers +170% yearly; first use case goes live with clients in under 30 days; proven deployment at large, active underground coal operations.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep domain specificity**: AI trained on real underground mining footage—dust, water, low light, belt spray—not generic computer vision models.
- **Read-only OT integration**: Never writes to controls or modifies OT networks, meeting strict critical infrastructure security requirements.
- **One platform, many use cases**: Safety, compliance, asset health, and plant optimization share the same infrastructure—sites start with one use case and expand.
- **Founding team pedigree**: Founders come from Palantir (government-scale systems), Blend (billion-dollar public fintech), and Walmart (acquired Even).
- **30-year enforcement lookback**: Citation analytics use 30 years of MSHA enforcement and FMSHRC decisions for pattern detection.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale from safety to production**: Most sites start with safety (at-risk behaviors, PPE) and expand into asset monitoring, prep plant yield optimization, and automation.
- **Expand beyond coal**: Product proven at coal operations, with clients in gemstones and oil & gas—indicating broader industrial application.
- **Continuous AI learning**: System adapts to each site’s conditions over time and incorporates operator feedback to reduce false positives.
- **Data privacy commitment**: All data stays within client environments or dedicated encrypted cloud instances—never shared across sites or with third parties.

## Why Work Here
- **Impact you can measure**: Injuries prevented, violations caught early, recovery improved—concrete outcomes rather than abstract metrics.
- **Full ownership, no handoffs**: Engineers build it, deploy it, and see it work on the next shift. Code goes live in minutes.
- **Work directly with operators**: The people running the mine shape what gets built—high context, high relevance.
- **Solve real constraints**: Dust, low light, legacy protocols, limited bandwidth—the environment is the engineering challenge itself.
- **Remote-friendly**: Positions are listed as remote, with teams in the U.S. and U.K.
- **Small team, big leverage**: 6 people, deep expertise from Palantir/Blend/Walmart backgrounds—new hires have outsized influence.
- **Open roles (as of 2025–2026)**: Software Engineer (Backend & New Grad), Forward Deployed Engineer, Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Technical Recruiter.

## Sources
1. [realmalliance.com](https://realmalliance.com/)
2. [realmalliance.com/careers](https://realmalliance.com/careers)
3. [linkedin.com/company/realmalliance](https://www.linkedin.com/company/realmalliance)
4. [builtin.com/company/realm-alliance](https://builtin.com/company/realm-alliance)
5. [cbinsights.com/company/realm-alliance](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/realm-alliance)

## Other roles at Realm

- [Software Engineer - Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-intern-realm-remote-fvv7tev3jxwv)
- [Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-realm-remote-mmd4mmyycd7e)
- [Strategic Partnerships](https://feeny.ai/job/strategic-partnerships-realm-remote-w5x4q35n5d5t)
- [Forward Deployed Engineer - Chicago](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-chicago-realm-chicago-7q9eqa15h78f) — Chicago, IL
- [Forward Deployed Engineer - NYC](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-nyc-realm-new-york-hchhwd2h7x4j) — New York, NY
- [Business Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-representative-realm-remote-mkv4y3mm1wje)
- [Software Engineer - New Grad](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-new-grad-realm-remote-wpn67qxwz20v)
- [Forward Deployed Engineer - Birmingham, AL](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-birmingham-al-realm-birmingham-atkbm3vp73wr) — Birmingham, AL
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-realm-remote-pnv5pcmvtznz)
- [Software Engineer - Backend](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-backend-realm-remote-y21nwjh0cqsh)