--- title: 'Principal Forward Deployed Engineer at Spruce Systems, Inc.' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-spruce-systems-inc-united-states-twy17vsdfq1p' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-10' --- # Principal Forward Deployed Engineer at Spruce Systems, Inc. - **Company:** Spruce Systems, Inc. - **Location:** United States - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** remote - **Posted:** 2025-11-18 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/spruceid/ef6a9686-0985-431d-81e7-1445e0622a26 ## Job description SpruceID builds privacy-preserving, standards-based digital identity and credentialing solutions that give individuals control of their information while enabling governments and enterprises to deliver secure, interoperable services. We partner with public-sector organizations to modernize how identity is issued, verified, and used. As a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of technical leadership and strategic delivery. You will lead high-impact engagements with state governments and public sector partners, guiding both the architecture and the adoption strategy for digital identity solutions. You’ll work closely with engineering teams, delivery managers, and executives, both within SpruceID and on the customer side, to ensure that deployments not only succeed technically, but also achieve lasting policy and operational outcomes. This role is hands-on and customer-facing. You’ll write and review code, architect systems, and set engineering best practices, while also shaping roadmaps, influencing standards, and representing SpruceID in strategic conversations. This job is fully remote within the US. ## What You'll Do - Define technical strategy and architecture for public sector deployments, ensuring both technical excellence and alignment with policy and operational needs - Act as the senior technical representative in executive-level customer meetings, bridging the gap between technical details and business or policy outcomes - Lead multiple end-to-end multi-year projects from rapid prototyping to development to operations and maintenance - Architect and build backend systems, full-stack web applications, and mobile solutions with a focus on security, privacy, and accessibility - Translate government requirements into robust, standards-based solutions that integrate with both modern and legacy systems - Mentor and guide forward deployed engineers and delivery teams, setting standards for high-quality engineering and customer collaboration - Identify and drive efficiencies across projects, ensuring knowledge and tooling are shared across teams - Collaborate with platform teams to feed customer insights into SpruceID’s roadmap and contributions to global identity standards ## Qualifications - 8+ years of experience designing, building, and delivering production-grade software in statically typed languages (Rust, Go, Java, C#) - Proven ability to lead large-scale engineering efforts that span multiple teams and organizations - Strong expertise across the software development stack, including infrastructure, devops, architecture, frontend, and mobile - Demonstrated experience working with public sector or highly regulated industries, including direct customer engagement at both executive and technical levels - Excellent leadership, communication, and consulting skills with the ability to influence strategy as well as execution - Based in the US and willing to travel as needed to support state government partners Bonus Qualifications - Experience leading digital transformation or modernization efforts in the public sector - Familiarity with procurement, compliance, and governance considerations in state government projects - Deep knowledge of digital identity, computer security, cryptography, and user data privacy practices - Experience as a Field CTO or similar At SpruceID, we value diversity of perspectives and backgrounds. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, or veteran status. ## About Spruce Systems, Inc. ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: SpruceID builds open-source, standards-based digital identity infrastructure that gives users control over their data and enables governments and enterprises to deliver secure, privacy-preserving digital services. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series A, $34M raised in April 2022) - **Headquarters**: New York, New York, United States - **Founded**: 2020 - **Founders**: Wayne Chang (CEO), Gregory Rocco ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Digital identity, verifiable credentials, digital trust infrastructure - **Target customers**: Government agencies (federal, state, local) and enterprises; B2B and B2G - **Mission/purpose**: Enable a world where users control their own data across all digital interactions, building architecture that respects individual autonomy and supports free societies and dynamic economies. ## Products & Services - **Identity Wallets**: Privacy-preserving digital wallets that let residents store and present verified credentials (e.g., driver’s licenses, benefits cards) without oversharing data. - **Credential Platforms**: Standards-based issuing and verification solutions that enable agencies to digitize forms, automate workflows, and connect legacy systems. - **SSO & Trust & Risk Solutions**: Single sign-on and fraud prevention tools that reduce duplicative identity verification costs and increase trust in government services. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total funding of **$41.6M** across 3 rounds (Series A: $34M in April 2022 with 30 investors; Seed: $7.5M in Nov 2021; Pre-seed: $125K in Mar 2021 and $20K in Jun 2016 via Techstars) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Y Combinator (W2021 batch), Techstars, and other institutional investors. Partners include AAMVA (American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators) for mobile driver’s license interoperability. - **Growth Signals**: 25 employees (+28% YoY), trusted by millions of users in U.S. government programs, active job postings for engineers, expanding into 6 countries (Brazil, India, Portugal, UK, Germany). ## Competitive Advantages - **Open standards & vendor lock-in avoidance**: All infrastructure is standards-compliant (e.g., W3C Verifiable Credentials, OpenID Connect) and designed to integrate with existing government IT without proprietary dependencies. - **Privacy-by-default architecture**: Gives users control over their data, eliminating centralized data silos and reducing fraud risk. - **Deep domain expertise**: Team brings deep experience in identity, security, cryptography, and large-scale infrastructure, with alumni from Consensys, Microsoft, and ISO. ## Strategic Focus - **Government digital transformation**: Prioritizing modernization of resident identity, benefit delivery, licensing, and fraud prevention for U.S. and international government clients. - **Interoperability**: Leading industry efforts for mDL (mobile driver’s license) interoperability and cross-agency data sharing. - **Scalable secure infrastructure**: Building systems that work online, offline, and across agencies, adapting to evolving policies and threats. ## Why Work Here - **Culture & impact**: Engineers work on essential public services; the company values “exceptional builders” with a user-first mindset and ownership of outcomes. - **Remote/hybrid**: Fully remote positions available within the U.S. (some roles specify “Remote (US)”). Headquarters in New York but distributed team. - **Notable perks**: YC-backed with strong funding; opportunity to work on open-source, standards-shaping projects; direct impact on government service delivery and digital trust. - **Engineering excellence**: Tech stack includes Kotlin, Dart, TypeScript, React, Flutter, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL, and more. Emphasis on cryptography and identity protocols. ## Sources 1. [spruceid.com](https://spruceid.com/) – Company homepage 2. [spruceid.com/company/about-us](https://spruceid.com/company/about-us) – About page 3. [linkedin.com/company/sprucesystemsinc](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sprucesystemsinc) – LinkedIn company page 4. [ycombinator.com/companies/spruceid](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/spruceid) – Y Combinator profile 5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/SpruceID](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/SpruceID) – Careers page ## Other roles at Spruce Systems, Inc. - [Sr. GTM Marketing](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-gtm-marketing-spruce-systems-inc-united-states-zd4fxq8c890g) — United States - [Technical Program Manager (TPM)](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-program-manager-tpm-spruce-systems-inc-united-states-ep2b3mfwrv23) — United States - [Full-Stack Software Engineer – Remote](https://feeny.ai/job/full-stack-software-engineer-remote-spruce-systems-inc-united-states-y78edahqhkwf) — United States - [Senior Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-forward-deployed-engineer-spruce-systems-inc-united-states-radn5knfnt9r) — United States - [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-pragmatike-san-francisco-fzrh57cagqkj) — San Francisco, CA - [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-okta-singapore-bsj1jqxswg79) — Singapore - [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-maybern-new-york-prjj9y52yn4a) — New York, NY - [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-okta-london-0wn7tbvtr7nx) — London, United Kingdom - [Principal Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-forward-deployed-engineer-liatrio-remote-7a4twjm3ktcf)