Northwood Space
Forward Deployed Engineer
$170K–$225K
Washington D.C. · On-site · Full-time · Posted Jul 23, 2026
- Experience
- 7+ years in customer-facing technical roles.
- Education
- Bachelor's in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or related field — or equivalent experience with mission systems, ground systems, networking, cloud, or satellite operations.
- Visa sponsorship
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
About the job
Help satellite operators adopt Northwood’s ground station network by translating mission needs into requirements, guiding technical engagements, and supporting implementation through deployment and ongoing operations.
What you'll do
- Serve as the primary technical contact throughout customer evaluation, onboarding, deployment, and post-deployment; lead discovery, demos, and readiness reviews.
- Implement and integrate customer operations, including shipping code, debugging integrations, and validating systems alongside customers and Engineering.
- Translate customer needs into internal priorities, support Business Development, and identify adoption blockers and recurring product needs.
What they ask for
- 7+ years in customer-facing technical roles, such as solutions or systems engineering, mission operations, technical business development, capture engineering, solutions architecture, or TAM.
- Bachelor's in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or a related field — or equivalent experience with mission systems, ground systems, networking, cloud, or satellite operations.
- Track record taking complex customer engagements from discovery through deployment or expansion.
- Must obtain and maintain a Top Secret Security Clearance; willing to travel up to 30%, work extended hours and weekends as needed, and work on-site 5 days per week.
Nice to have
- Background in satellite communications, RF, space operations, ground stations, or telecom infrastructure.
- Experience with proposals, technical evaluations, demos, pilots, proof-of-concept work, or mission-critical technical relationships; familiarity with APIs, networking protocols, telemetry, scheduling systems, cloud infrastructure, or mission assurance.
Pay
$170K – $225K USD base salary
Tools
APIs, networking protocols, telemetry, scheduling systems, cloud infrastructure
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative