---
title: 'Forward Deployed Engineering Leader at First Resonance'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineering-leader-first-resonance-los-angeles-hed1a4rbh8m4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Forward Deployed Engineering Leader at First Resonance

- **Company:** First Resonance
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-01
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/first-resonance/9f9199c7-6109-4403-82c8-405e0448602a

## Job description

## Why this role matters

First Resonance builds the ION Factory OS — the operating system powering next-generation manufacturing for companies building rockets, satellites, eVTOLs, clean energy systems, robotics, and autonomous vehicles. Forward Deployed Engineering is where our product, customers, and commercial outcomes meet. The team works inside complex manufacturing environments to turn ambiguous operational problems into deployed software, successful go-lives, and lasting customer value. We are hiring a Forward Deployed Engineering Leader to lead and scale that function. This is not a delivery-coordination role. You will be a technical and people leader accountable for the quality of the team, the health of the deployment portfolio, and the business outcomes created by FDE work. You will coach engineers, shape architecture and delivery decisions, step into critical customer situations, and build the operating system that lets the team grow without losing speed or ownership.

## What you’ll own

- Build and lead an exceptional FDE team: Hire, onboard, coach, and retain engineers across levels; set clear expectations; give direct feedback; and create meaningful paths for technical and leadership growth.
- Own the deployment portfolio: Set priorities, staffing, capacity, milestones, and risk management across concurrent customer engagements, ensuring high-quality delivery and measurable customer outcomes.
- Raise the technical and delivery bar: Establish standards for discovery, architecture, implementation, testing, go-live, documentation, production support, and deployment reviews.
- Lead critical customer moments: Serve as an executive and technical escalation point for strategic deployments, complex integrations, production incidents, and high-stakes tradeoffs.
- Connect delivery to growth: Partner with Sales and Customer Success on technical discovery, scoping, expansion strategy, and account planning so FDE capacity produces durable adoption and revenue.
- Turn field learning into leverage: Create a tight feedback loop with Product and Engineering, productize repeatable customer solutions, improve FDE tooling and automation, and evolve the team’s operating model as the company scales.

You will lead through managers and senior individual contributors over time, but you must remain close enough to the work to recognize strong architecture, challenge assumptions, and help the team make sound decisions in unfamiliar customer environments.

## What we’re looking for

- 8+ years of relevant experience in software engineering, forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, technical consulting, or enterprise implementation, including 3+ years managing engineers.
- A track record of building and developing high-performing technical teams while improving both delivery predictability and engineering quality.
- Strong technical judgment across modern software systems, APIs, integrations, data pipelines, cloud infrastructure, security, and production operations.
- Experience owning a portfolio of complex, customer-facing technical programs from discovery through go-live and ongoing operation.
- Executive-level communication and commercial judgment: you can align customers and internal leaders, manage scope and risk, and connect technical choices to adoption, expansion, and revenue.

## Nice to have

- Experience leading forward deployed, solutions architecture, professional services, implementation engineering, or technical account teams.
- Experience with manufacturing, aerospace, defense, energy, industrial software, ERP, PLM, MES, or other operationally complex domains.
- Evidence of scaling a technical services or deployment function while increasing repeatability, margins, or revenue contribution.
- Experience partnering with Product and Engineering to turn customer-specific work into reusable platform capabilities.
- Familiarity with enterprise security, regulated environments, air-gapped networks, and high-availability production systems.

## Benefits & Perks

- Health Insurance; medical, vision, dental, & life insurance.
- Paid Parental Leave.
- Employee Stock Option Plan.
- Team outings, group lunches, open office, happy hours.
- Paid holidays, sick days.
- Flexible Friday and PTO.
- 401K.

First Resonance is an equal opportunity employer dedicated to building an inclusive and diverse workforce. First Resonance participates in E-Verify. As part of our onboarding process, a new hire's Form I-9 information will be shared with the federal government to confirm they are authorized to work in the U.S. Pay is based on factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience and skillset, and location. First Resonance accelerates the speed and reliability of hardware development for companies manufacturing the next generation of hardware products. This includes space exploration, electric airplanes, autonomous vehicles, nuclear reactors, robotics, and more. We are a group of software, hardware, and manufacturing engineers that are bringing the best of modern UX and data science to an industry that has been overly rigid in its innovation. We are removing the barriers preventing radical advancement by providing tools to manufacturing engineers and operators to move information more freely, collaborate with their teams more easily, and use the power of data to predict problems and provide insights that result in better hardware quality and delivery.

## About First Resonance

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: First Resonance develops the ION Factory Operating System (a modern Manufacturing Execution System) to help complex hardware and advanced manufacturing companies move from prototype to production with speed, traceability, and compliance.
- **Entity Type**: Private (funding stage not publicly disclosed)
- **Headquarters**: El Segundo, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: Karan Talati (CEO) — the company was founded by former engineers from SpaceX and NASA-related companies who needed a better platform for rapid engineering and manufacturing iteration.

## Core Business
- Primary industry/industries: Advanced Manufacturing Software, Industrial IoT, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Aerospace & Defense, Medical Devices, Climate Tech
- Target customers: B2B, Enterprise — hard-tech manufacturers including spacecraft builders, nuclear innovators, robotics leaders, and other quality-critical discrete manufacturers
- Mission or purpose statement: "Enable the next generation of hardware companies to bring their inventions to market sooner, many of which have the potential to fix some of the massive challenges that threaten our existence."

## Products & Services
- **[ION Factory OS]**: The core platform — a modern MES (Manufacturing Execution System) that provides digital work instructions, production planning, and as-built BOMs (a digital replica of every product). It is highly configurable, has an open API, and deploys quickly without costly implementations. It is AI-powered and ensures compliance and traceability.
- **[ION Analytics]**: A module delivering end-to-end visibility across the factory and supply chain, root cause analysis for slow output and quality issues, and true cost tracking per assembly (labor, components, sub-assemblies).
- **[ION AutoPlan]**: A forecasting and planning module that uses real-time inventory and capacity data to calculate accurate start dates and set reliable delivery expectations.
- **[ION Enhances]**: A module focused on process and quality management, including non-conformance tracking and resolution workflows.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Not publicly disclosed (private company)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly listed; the company is recognized by Built In as a top workplace and is a member of the "Black Flag 100." They highlight deployments in GovCloud and FedRAMP environments, and maintain SOC 2 certification and ITAR compliance.
- **Growth Signals**: Actively hiring across multiple US cities (Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Denver, Austin) for roles like Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Senior Technical Product Manager, and Product Marketing Manager. The company has a "Hybrid" workplace model with flexible on-site expectations. The company is expanding its presence in the AI and developer community space.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Deep domain expertise**: Founded by former SpaceX and NASA engineers who directly experienced the pain points of legacy MES systems.
- **Security & compliance moat**: Deploys in GovCloud and FedRAMP environments, holds SOC 2 certification, and complies with ITAR regulations — making it the trusted choice for defense, aerospace, and other highly regulated industries.
- **Modern architecture**: Open API, highly configurable, and fast to deploy — a direct alternative to slow, rigid legacy MES systems.
- **Traceability**: The as-built BOM (aBOM) model provides unparalleled, real-time traceability across every part, upgrade, and servicing workflow.
- **AI-powered**: The platform leverages AI to optimize production, compliance, and quality.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scaling the platform**: Expanding the ION Factory OS to serve more advanced manufacturing sectors, including aerospace, defense, medical devices, and climate tech.
- **Security & compliance leadership**: Doubling down on GovCloud, FedRAMP, SOC 2, and ITAR certifications to serve the most demanding government and industry clients.
- **Building the developer community**: Hiring a Product Marketing Manager focused on AI-native and developer community growth, signaling a push to make the platform more accessible and developer-friendly.
- **Geographic expansion**: Opening offices and hiring in multiple US tech hubs (San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Austin) in addition to the El Segundo HQ and Los Angeles base.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as "driven, collaborative, and kind." The team values "All Owners, Data Driven, Technical, Customer-Driven, One Team, Secure, Transparent, Ambitious." They emphasize inclusion and equity, with diverse perspectives creating real value.
- **Work model**: Hybrid — employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work, with flexible time on-site.
- **Perks**: Free snacks and drinks, 401(K), disability and life insurance, company equity, employee stock purchase plan, performance bonuses, generous parental leave, family medical leave, dental, health, and vision insurance, Flexible Spending Account (FSA).
- **Engineering culture**: Uses modern tech stack including Kubernetes, IoT, Amplitude, Google Analytics. The work is deeply technical and impactful — building software that powers rockets, satellites, and medical devices.
- **Growth**: As a 2019 startup with 41 employees, the company is in a high-growth phase with active hiring across multiple roles, offering significant ownership and impact.
- **Location**: HQ in El Segundo, CA (Los Angeles area), with hybrid offices in San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Denver, and Austin.

## Sources
1. [firstresonance.io](https://www.firstresonance.io/)
2. [firstresonance.io/about](https://www.firstresonance.io/about)
3. [firstresonance.io/careers](https://www.firstresonance.io/careers)
4. [builtin.com/company/first-resonance](https://builtin.com/company/first-resonance)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/first-resonance](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/first-resonance)

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