Atlassian
Atlassian5 open roles

Senior Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

Bengaluru, IndiaRemoteSeniorFull-time

Posted today

The role in short

Lead the design and deployment of AI-powered solutions and integrations for customers, writing production code and mentoring other engineers.

Working at Atlassian

Atlassians can choose where they work – whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity.

Your future team

As a Senior Principal Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Atlassian, you’ll be at the forefront of applied AI, working directly with customers and cross-functional teams to deliver innovative, AI-powered solutions. The FDE team partners with top organizations across industries, helping them leverage Atlassian’s AI capabilities to solve complex, real-world problems. You’ll collaborate with product, engineering, and design, rapidly growing your technical and domain expertise while making a tangible impact on business outcomes. This is a high-visibility, high-impact role for those who thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments and are passionate about shaping the future of AI-powered teamwork.

To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/fdeatlassian.

What you’ll do

As a Senior Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, you will:

  • Code contributes across the entire Atlassian product suite, providing exceptionally broad engineering exposure

  • Lead the design, development, and deployment of AI/ML-powered solutions using Rovo tailored to customer needs.

  • Architect and implement robust application integrations using Python, JavaScript, or similar languages, with a focus on APIs, microservices, and enterprise-scale systems.

  • Influence product direction by building with the customers, and realising the last mile papercuts they go through.

  • Champion the adoption of AI-augmented workflow automation within customer environments, maximizing business value and operational efficiency.

  • Oversee the end-to-end deployment of AI solutions into production, ensuring continuous evaluation, monitoring, and improvement.

  • Navigate risk and compliance requirements, including AI risk assessment, data privacy (GDPR), and regulatory frameworks.

  • Mentor and guide Senior FDEs and engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning.

  • Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, creating concise artifacts for peers, partners, and leadership.

  • Align technical solutions with business objectives, setting a clear vision for technological progress and measurable results.

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. We follow consistent hiring practices and account for each candidate's skills, knowledge, and experience when setting base pay within the range.

This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. We follow consistent hiring practices and account for each candidate's skills, knowledge, and experience when setting base pay within the range.

This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.

On the first day, we'll expect you to have:

  • 15+ years of experience in backend software development, with at least 5 years in a principal/staff-level role.

  • 5+ years of experience delivering impactful AI/ML solutions in production environments, including experience as a founding or forward-deployed engineer in 0-to-1 product development.

  • Deep expertise in applied AI/ML, including generative AI, LLMs, and agent-based frameworks.

  • Proficiency in Python, JavaScript, or similar languages, and experience with APIs, microservices, and enterprise integration.

  • Demonstrated ability to solve complex, ambiguous problems and thrive in rapidly changing environments.

  • Strong communication and collaboration skills, with experience influencing cross-functional teams without formal authority.

  • Experience with AI risk assessment, data privacy, and compliance (e.g., GDPR).

  • Strategic and innovative thinking, with a track record of aligning technical solutions to business goals.

It's great, but not required, if you have:

  • Experience with Atlassian Intelligence, Rovo AI, or AI-powered Atlassian features.

  • Familiarity with regulated industries (e.g., finance, healthcare).

  • Experience deploying AI solutions to complex production systems at scale.

  • Prior experience mentoring or leading engineering teams.

Benefits & Perks

Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits .

About Atlassian

At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.

We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.

To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh .

In line with local law, identity verification (which may include use of biometric data) is a condition of employment with Atlassian for employment fraud purposes.

Prep for this interview

5 questions likely to come up at Atlassian, each matched to a line in this posting.

  1. 1Integrations and APIs
    They wrote: “Architect and implement robust application integrations using Python, JavaScript, or similar languages, with a focus on APIs, microservices, and enterprise-scale systems.”

    Walk me through connecting our product to a customer's internal system that has no documentation.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: This happens weekly in the job. They want a calm, step-by-step method.

    1. Find who owns the system and get read access to a test environment
    2. Watch real traffic or logs to learn the data shapes
    3. Build a thin adapter with logging around every call
    4. Agree on how failures get reported, and who fixes what

    Tip: Talk about finding the owner of the system first. The code is the easy part.

  2. 2Discovery and scoping
    They wrote: “Navigate risk and compliance requirements, including AI risk assessment, data privacy (GDPR), and regulatory frameworks.”

    Tell me about a time the customer asked for one thing but needed another.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Good FDEs spot when a request is a guess at a solution. They want proof you can redirect a customer without losing their trust.

    1. What they asked for, and the detail that made you doubt it
    2. How you tested the doubt (shadowed users, looked at logs, ran a quick prototype)
    3. How you made the case to the customer
    4. What shipped and what changed for them

    Tip: Pick a story where you checked your hunch with data or users before pushing back.

  3. 3LLMs, RAG and agents
    They wrote: “Deep expertise in applied AI/ML, including generative AI, LLMs, and agent-based frameworks.”

    When would you use an agent that takes actions, and how do you keep it safe?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Agent work is growing fast in FDE postings. Senior candidates are expected to know where agents fail.

    1. Use agents for multi-step tasks with clear success checks; avoid them where one wrong action is costly
    2. Give the agent narrow tools and permissions, not broad access
    3. Require human approval for risky actions
    4. Log every step so the customer can audit it

    Tip: Start from the cost of a wrong action. Limit what the agent can do, and log everything.

  4. 4Cloud, deployment and security
    They wrote: “Experience with AI risk assessment, data privacy, and compliance (e.g., GDPR).”

    The customer's security team sends a 200-question review. How do you handle it?

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Security reviews often block deals. FDEs help get through them.

    1. Start from your company's standard answers (SOC 2 report, past reviews)
    2. Answer clearly; don't oversell
    3. Bring in your security team for anything you're unsure of
    4. Keep the new answers for the next customer

    Tip: Reuse past answers, flag honest gaps, and offer a call for the hard questions.

  5. 5Coding
    They wrote: “To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/fdeatlassian.”

    Build a small in-memory cache. Then add expiry. Then a size limit.

    How to answer

    Why they ask: Staged exercises show how your code holds up when requirements change mid-interview, like at a customer.

    1. Start with get and set on a dictionary, plus tests
    2. Store an expiry time with each value and check it on read
    3. Track use order and evict the least recently used entry when full
    4. Say what you'd change for many threads or many machines

    Tip: Keep the first version simple and well tested so the next stage is a small change.

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