---
title: 'Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Deployment Team at Istari Digital'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/sr-forward-deployed-engineer-deployment-team-istari-digital-united-states-38qa68a77678'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Sr. Forward Deployed Engineer - Deployment Team at Istari Digital

- **Company:** Istari Digital
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-08-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/istaridigital.ai/bc2312df-3be6-4904-a068-d95f1050ca66

## Job description

We are seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Deployment Services team within Customer Success.  This role focuses on application-layer platform work: Python automation, database operations, API integration, data migration tooling, and backend service configuration for customer environments. This engineer will work alongside Senior Solutions Engineers to deliver platform services to defense, aerospace, and commercial customers.  Where the Solutions Engineer leads agent/module integration and Dgraph operations, this role owns the data and API layer: writing migration scripts, managing database operations, configuring backend services, building automation tooling, and integrating platform APIs.  Our customers operate in regulated, security-sensitive environments across AWS, Azure, GovCloud, on-premises Kubernetes, and air-gapped networks. The ideal candidate is a strong Python developer with database and API experience, comfortable working directly with customers, and capable of building reliable automation tooling under time pressure.

Core Responsibilities

- Write and maintain data migration scripts for customer identity transitions (Zitadel to Keycloak), multi-tenancy data migrations, and schema changes

- Manage database operations across customer environments, including PostgreSQL administration, Dgraph query optimization, schema migrations, data integrity verification, and performance tuning

- Configure and validate backend platform services per customer requirements: Identity Service, Keycloak, AI Chat, and service integrations

- Build and maintain Python automation tooling for repeatable deployment and configuration tasks

- Integrate platform APIs for customer-specific workflows, including authentication flows, data exchange endpoints, and service configuration

- Configure identity provider integrations per customer requirements (Keycloak, SAML, OIDC, SSO with PingFederate, Okta, Azure AD)

- Troubleshoot application-layer issues in customer environments, including service configuration, database performance, API connectivity, and authentication failures

- Support agent and module deployment alongside the Solutions Engineer, including configuration validation, backend connectivity, and module integration testing

- Coordinate with customer engineering teams on service configuration requirements, data migration schedules, and validation

- Maintain migration runbooks, service configuration documentation, and customer environment notes based on field experience

## Qualifications

- Minimum of 3 years of experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or a technical customer-facing delivery role

- Strong Python development skills, including production scripts, automation tools, and data processing pipelines

- Hands-on experience with relational databases in production (PostgreSQL preferred), including queries, schema migrations, performance tuning, and backup/restore

- Working knowledge of REST APIs, including building integrations, debugging connectivity, and reading API documentation

- Experience with Kubernetes at an operational level (deploying and troubleshooting workloads, reading logs, understanding pod lifecycle)

- Familiarity with identity and authentication systems (OAuth, OIDC, SAML, LDAP) at a configuration level

- Experience working directly with external customers in a technical capacity

- Strong troubleshooting skills, able to trace issues across application logs, database queries, and service configurations

- Clear written and verbal communication skills for customer-facing interactions

- U.S. Citizen

## Preferred Qualifications

- Experience with graph databases (Dgraph, Neo4j, or similar), including queries, schema design, and performance optimization

- Experience with Keycloak or other open-source identity providers (administration, realm configuration, user federation)

- Experience with AWS services (S3, IAM, KMS, RDS) or equivalent Azure experience

- Familiarity with Helm charts and Kubernetes application deployment

- Experience writing data migration tooling for production systems with rollback capabilities

-

## Experience with TypeScript/Node.js in addition to Python

- Familiarity with compliance or security frameworks such as FedRAMP, NIST, CMMC, or similar

- Experience supporting defense, aerospace, or government customers

- Experience with monitoring and observability tools (CloudWatch, Grafana, Prometheus)

- Industry certifications such as AWS Solutions Architect Associate, CompTIA (Security+), or similar

- Active security clearance (Secret or Top Secret)

Why This Role?

The engineers who do this job well become some of the most technically well-rounded people in the industry. You'll see how large, complex organizations actually work -- not just the happy path. You'll build things that get used immediately. And because you're reporting into Istari's Customer Success org (not a sales or account team), your career trajectory stays technical.  You'll also have the Istari team behind you: regular syncs, access to internal engineering resources, and a clear path to influence the product you're deploying.

## About Istari Digital

Istari is a digital engineering software company building open, scalable infrastructure for engineering data. Our platform lets customers simply and securely integrate engineering models across disciplines, organizations, and security levels -- whether they're designing prototypes, performing virtual testing, or training AI and autonomy for complex systems.

Focus is rewarded.  Finish is remembered.

Facts are friendly.  Even when they are not fun.

Fellowship is fundamental.  Make others successful.

## About Istari Digital

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Istari Digital provides a digital engineering infrastructure platform that connects and validates engineering data across fragmented environments for mission-critical industries like aerospace, defense, and energy.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A‑II; venture-backed)
- **Headquarters**: Arlington, Virginia, United States
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Dr. Will Roper (CEO) and Christopher Benson (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Aerospace, defense, space, energy, transportation, critical infrastructure
- **Target customers**: Enterprise and government organizations in “no‑fail” sectors (e.g., Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin)
- **Mission**: “Level the digital playing field in no‑fail industries” – enabling secure, auditable, and AI‑native engineering workflows without centralizing sensitive data

## Products & Services
- **[Istari Digital Platform](https://www.istaridigital.com/product)**: A digital infrastructure that securely routes engineering data across tools, teams, and classification boundaries. It connects models, simulations, and workflows to enable real‑time collaboration, system validation, and compliance certification – all while keeping data under the owner’s control. (Type: SaaS / Platform)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – $55.05M (per CBInsights) or $40.1M (per LinkedIn); conflicting reports may reflect different round definitions
- **Notable Investors**: Icon Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Eric Schmidt, AeroX Ventures, Radius Capital
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount of 64 employees (+61.5% year‑over-year)
  - LinkedIn followers grew 48.1% in the past year
  - Acquired Istari Federal LLC and Dgraph (2025)
  - Customers include Lockheed Martin and Blue Origin
  - 27 patents filed (as of early 2025)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Built for no‑fail industries**: The platform is designed for environments where failure is not an option (fighter jets, satellites, critical infrastructure), giving it a deep credibility moat.
- **Secure collaboration without compromise**: Enables cross‑organization, cross‑classification collaboration while allowing each party to retain control of their own data – a key differentiator in defense and regulated sectors.
- **Agentic engineering & AI‑native workflows**: Integrates AI into engineering validation and certification, reducing cycles from months to minutes.
- **Founders with domain expertise**: CEO Will Roper was the former Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics; CTO Christopher Benson brings deep technical experience from hyperscalers and defense programs.

## Strategic Focus
- Scaling the platform to serve more mission‑critical industries (air, sea, space, energy, transportation)
- Deepening AI capabilities for automated validation, compliance, and certification
- Expanding through acquisitions (Istari Federal, Dgraph) to strengthen federal presence and graph‑based data capabilities
- Building a distributed workforce with offices in Arlington (HQ), Cambridge (MA), and remote roles across the US

## Why Work Here
- **Mission‑driven culture**: Employees work on genuinely hard, unsolved problems in decentralized data sovereignty, AI engineering, and cross‑domain security – with direct impact on national security and critical infrastructure.
- **Remote‑friendly**: Many roles are listed as remote (anywhere US) or hybrid (DMV area); on‑site options exist in Huntsville, AL and Seattle, WA.
- **Diverse team background**: The team comes from defense, industry, academia, government, and startups – “everyone’s background is a feature, not a footnote.”
- **Growth trajectory**: Rapid headcount growth, recent acquisitions, and strong investor backing suggest a high‑growth environment with ample career development opportunities.
- **Engineering culture**: Emphasis on deep curiosity, craft, and solving problems that matter; the platform is built by people who have lived the pain of manual, siloed engineering workflows.

## Sources
1. [Istari Digital – Company & Product Overview](https://www.istaridigital.com/)
2. [Istari Digital – About (Founders, Mission, Culture)](https://www.istaridigital.com/about)
3. [Istari Digital – Product Page](https://www.istaridigital.com/product)
4. [Istari Digital – Careers (Lever)](https://jobs.lever.co/istaridigital.ai/)
5. [CBInsights – Company Profile & Financials](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/istari-1)
6. [LinkedIn – Istari Digital Company Page](https://linkedin.com/company/istaridigital)

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