Forward Deployed Software Engineer (Recent Graduate)
Posted 3 days ago
The role in short
Embed with clients to design architecture, wrangle large-scale data, and code custom web applications to solve business problems.
By joining our team as a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), you will serve as a key member of our Data and AI Solutions team and partner with our customers to understand their most complex challenges and design and implement tailored solutions. You will bring your problem-solving ability, creativity, and technical expertise to help organizations put their data to work, solve critical business challenges, and drive meaningful impact. In this role, you’ll own end-to-end execution of high-impact projects while working across industries to solve complex, real-world problems.
As an FDE, you will take ownership of projects from concept through implementation, working in small teams to deliver tailored technical solutions. Your work may span designing technical architecture, working with large-scale datasets, developing custom applications, collaborating with customer executives, and contributing to team strategy.
What You'll Do:
- Work directly with clients to understand their most pressing problems and design and implement data-driven solutions to address them.
- Work in small teams with minimal supervision, taking ownership of high-impact projects from planning through implementation.
- Discuss architecture with fellow engineers and establish strategy for your team.
- Wrangle massive-scale data and code custom web applications to deliver client solutions.
- Speak with client executives to share progress, gather input, and align on priorities.
- Collaborate internally with colleagues from a variety of backgrounds, including other FDEs, product teams, and strategy teams.
- Work externally with clients, often on site, to understand and tackle their priorities.
What You’ll Bring:
- Ability to learn continuously, work independently, and make decisions with minimal direction.
- Ability to collaborate in teams of technical and non-technical individuals, and comfort working in a constantly evolving environment with dynamic objectives and iterative work with users.
- An eagerness to creatively solve technical problems using data structures, storage systems, cloud infrastructure, front-end frameworks, and other technical tools.
- Interest in working with and using large-scale data to solve valuable business problems.
- Willingness and interest to travel as needed to client sites; travel of 25-50% is expected, though requirements vary by team and location.
Qualifications:
- Recent graduate with up to 1 year of professional experience in engineering or technical role.
- Engineering background, preferably in fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, and Data Science.
- Proficiency with one or more programming languages, such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar.
For applicants located in Virginia, CrossCountry Consulting is required to include an estimate of the compensation range for this role. The following range takes into account a wide range of factors including but not limited to, skills, experience, education, licenses, certifications, business needs, and internal equity. An estimate of the current range is $95,000 - $125,000 per year + annual bonus + additional benefits.
Prep for this interview
4 questions likely to come up at CrossCountry Consulting, each matched to a line in this posting.
- 1Coding
They wrote: “Proficiency with one or more programming languages, such as Python, Java, C++, TypeScript/JavaScript, or similar.”
Here's a CSV export from a customer. Write a script that cleans it and loads it into our API.
How to answer
Why they ask: Very close to real FDE work. They watch how you handle bad rows and failures.
- Read with a proper CSV parser; check the header first
- Validate each row and collect errors, not crash on the first one
- Send in batches with retries and a clear report at the end
- Write one or two quick tests for the parsing
Tip: Talk through edge cases out loud: encodings, missing fields, duplicates, rate limits.
- 2Discovery and scoping
They wrote: “Interest in working with and using large-scale data to solve valuable business problems.”
A customer says “we want AI in our claims process.” What do you ask in the first meeting?
How to answer
Why they ask: Most FDE work starts this vague. They want to hear you find the real problem before you pick a tool.
- Map the current process: who touches a claim, in what order, with which systems
- Find the slowest or most error-prone step and ask what it costs them
- Agree on one measurable goal (for example time per claim, or error rate)
- Ask what data you can access, and who signs off on security
Tip: Ask about the work, not the technology. Who does it today, how long it takes, what a mistake costs, and how they'd know it got better.
- 3Ownership and working with customers
They wrote: “Work in small teams with minimal supervision, taking ownership of high-impact projects from planning through implementation.”
Tell me about something you shipped that broke in production.
How to answer
Why they ask: Everyone has broken production. They want to hear you own it and change something afterwards.
- What broke and who it affected
- How you found out and what you did in the first hour
- The root cause, said plainly
- What you changed so it can't happen the same way again
Tip: Pick a real one with a cost. Spend most of the answer on what you changed.
- 4Travel
They wrote: “Willingness and interest to travel as needed to client sites; travel of 25-50% is expected, though requirements vary by team and location.”
How do you handle being on the road with customers for weeks at a time?
How to answer
Why they ask: Many FDE roles involve regular travel. They check you know what you're signing up for.
- Your past travel or on-site experience
- How you stay productive away from the team
- What travel level works for you, said plainly
Tip: Be honest about what works for you. A mismatch here hurts both sides later.
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