Senior/Lead Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), Public Sector

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Job Category

Software Engineering

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

Must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) living on U.S. soil who does not hold dual citizenship with the ability to meet customer and government screening standards applicable to this role. ​

PLEASE NOTE: Qualification for this job is contingent upon acceptable results from a background investigation as well as your having and maintaining the specific level of U.S. government background investigation and clearance required for this role.

About the Role

At Salesforce, we believe technology should serve the greater good—powering mission outcomes, stewarding taxpayer resources, and enabling innovation at speed and scale. We are seeking a highly accomplished and senior-level Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our elite Public Sector team at Salesforce. This is a unique and high-impact position, blending the roles of a technologist and strategic partner. In this role, you will be the primary driver for bringing cutting-edge AI and other transformative solutions to life for mission-critical work across the U.S. Department of Defense, Intelligence Community (IC), and Aerospace & Allied Nations.
This role demands a seasoned technologist and strategic partner who can not only design and develop bespoke solutions leveraging our Agentforce platform and other cutting-edge technologies but also lead technical engagements and mentor junior peers. You will work directly with mission owners and internal teams to design, develop, and implement bespoke solutions—from AI and enterprise business systems to analytics, field operations, and logistics. You'll use our Agentforce platform and other technologies to tackle our customers' most complex problems, driving tangible value from initial concept to successful deployment and ongoing optimization. This role is a fusion of mission, product, and innovation, where your technical mastery and problem-solving skills will help shape and deliver Salesforce’s most strategic national security and allied defense programs while influencing our platform's roadmap.
 

Mission Impact

• Deploy Cutting-Edge Commercial Innovation—from Slack-based AI agents to Data Cloud analytics to field service automation—into defense, intelligence, and aerospace environments, accelerating transformation and outcomes.

• Become a Trusted Partner and Collaborate Directly with End-Users in classified and unclassified environments to deeply understand mission needs, operational challenges, and strategic goals and translate them into technical implementations using Salesforce’s multi-cloud portfolio.

• Drive Innovation by serving as a connective bridge between customer missions and Salesforce engineering. You’ll gather frontline feedback and help co-design features and capabilities that strengthen national security outcomes.

• Improve Efficiency, Mission-Readiness, and Trust by helping the U.S. and allied governments deploy technology that delivers faster response times, better personnel utilization, and more effective logistics and asset management.

• Drive Tangible Outcomes through Hands-On Implementation and take responsibility for the end-to-end technical delivery of complex AI solutions; personally writing critical code, configuring systems, and troubleshooting issues, while also guiding and reviewing the work of junior team members to ensure successful deployment and measurable business impact.

• Build Transformative AI Solutions by taking primary ownership of designing, developing, and personally implementing high-quality, scalable production systems. A significant part of this will involve architecting and deploying complex AI and Large Language Model (LLM) based intelligent agents and automated workflows, all built on top of the Salesforce platform.

• Engineer Bespoke Agentic AI Solutions, working directly with customers to design and build custom intelligent agents using the Agentforce platform, ensuring they precisely meet unique business requirements and integrate seamlessly with existing customer ecosystems.

• Own the Entire Data Lifecycle, from strategic design of data models to hands-on building of efficient processing pipelines and establishing seamless integration strategies. You'll ensure data is always ready, optimized, and secure for our advanced AI applications, often navigating complex enterprise data environments.

• Drive Agentforce Innovation by becoming an expert in our innovative Agentforce platform, pushing its capabilities to the limit. You'll lead the development of bespoke intelligent agents, automate intricate business processes, and craft intuitive user experiences.

• Conduct Deep-Dive Technical Debugging and Root Cause Analysis through detailed analysis, debugging, and root cause identification for complex system interactions, data flows, and AI model behaviors to optimize performance, ensure reliability, and prevent recurrence of issues.

• Lead Rapid Prototyping and Iteration to develop proofs-of-concept and minimum viable products, often coding alongside client teams to demonstrate capabilities and gather feedback for iterative refinement, setting the pace for rapid delivery.

• Implement and Enforce Best Practices by directly applying and evangelizing engineering best practices for code quality, scalability, security, and maintainability across all deployed solutions, serving as a technical role model.

Mission Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead on high-profile customer engagements—designing, building, and deploying tailored Salesforce solutions for defense, intelligence, and aerospace missions.

• Partner with internal product and engineering teams to co-develop new platform features that address real-world public sector and IL5/IL6 operational requirements.

• Lead integration of AI/ML models, custom data pipelines, and automation flows that enable predictive maintenance, personnel planning, and mission-critical logistics decisions.

• Enable customers to adopt Salesforce for field operations, asset visibility, command center operations, and secure collaboration through Slack and Government Cloud Plus.

• Work with customer IT/security teams to accelerate Authority to Operate (ATO) and production go-lives per DoD IL5/IL6 and other regulatory frameworks.

• Share lessons learned with the broader Salesforce community to shape playbooks, prototypes, and reusable assets for government innovation.

• Partner with mission stakeholders to translate operational priorities into actionable technical roadmaps and Salesforce solutions aligned with agency strategy.

What We're Looking For

We’re looking for a builder, a problem solver, and a mission-first Leader with a passion for public service. The ideal candidate brings:

• Active U.S. Secret through Top Secret/SCI (with Polygraph) clearance.

• 8+ years of experience in a hands-on, end-to-end delivery role for high-quality, scalable production solutions in a professional environment.

• Strong background in Computer Science or a related engineering discipline.

• Expert-level proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., JavaScript, Java, Python, Apex).

• Extensive hands-on experience building and deploying solutions with AI/LLM technologies, including integrating LLMs, applying advanced AI orchestration frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex), prompt engineering techniques, and experience with agentic frameworks.

• Deep expertise in data modeling, processing, integration, and analytics, with demonstrable proficiency in enterprise data platforms (e.g., Salesforce Data Cloud, Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery).

• Demonstrated entrepreneurship, a "get-things-done" attitude, and a focus on fast, impactful delivery, with a proven ability to lead technical initiatives.

• Exceptional collaboration, communication, and presentation skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Proven ability to lead technical engagements, mentor junior team members, and oversee technical aspects of projects.

• Experience working in or adjacent to secure environments.

• Ability to travel 25-50% of the time, as needed to customer sites.

• Must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) living on U.S. soil who does not hold dual citizenship with the ability to meet customer and government screening standards applicable to this role.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), or Federal Civilian agencies.

• Background in defense/aerospace industries or operational military/logistics experience.

• Familiarity with IL5/IL6/CNSS #1253 requirements or deployment to classified environments.

• Significant direct experience with the Salesforce platform, including advanced configuration, customization, and complex development.

• Extensive experience with Salesforce Data Cloud and/or Agentforce platform.

• Experience developing and deploying conversational AI solutions within highly regulated industries.

• Expert-level experience with Apex and/or Python coding languages in a professional setting.

• Prior experience in a customer-facing, hands-on technical lead or architect role.

• Advanced Salesforce platform certifications (e.g., Platform Developer II, Application Architect, System Architect, Agentforce Specialist).

• Extensive experience with Salesforce Flows and Lightning Web Components (LWC), including complex custom development.

#LI-Y

This candidate must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) who does not hold dual citizenship and agrees to complete a U.S. federal government Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) for a Moderate Public Trust position.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

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In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.