Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), led by deep-tech investors Plural (whose portfolio spans fusion energy and space exploration), Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen Relay’s Mission is to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone. THE TEAM • ~110 people, more than half in engineering, product and data • 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research • Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle • An intellectually vibrant culture of first‑principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation Work Alongside Industry Leaders Diego Protas – Director of Engineering Diego, an expert in distributed systems and hardware architecture, merging physical computing with enterprise-scale infrastructure. Previously directing teams of 170+ engineers at Mercado Libre and orchestrating large-scale ML-based inference at Meta. At Relay, Diego’s infectious enthusiasm and hands-on leadership are redefining the boundaries of speed and reliability. Tech Stack Highlights - Python, Rust and TypeScript - we keep things simple but use the right tool for the job - Cross-platform Flutter apps with a deep focus on user experience - Cloud-native on GCP with extensive use of BigQuery and Cloud Run - Extensive use of ML modelling and LLM inference - no gimmicks here, this is our daily routine - Emerging tech integrations, including robotics and IoT-powered operations What you’ll do - Embed with enterprise clients during onboarding to deliver end-to-end technical success: integration, data quality, metrics alignment, and operational readiness. - Partner closely with AMs, and external clients to define and implement a delivery performance metrics spec, and build client-specific dashboards that track these metrics in real time for both the client & Relay - Improve and extend Relay’s client integrations (APIs/webhooks/data feeds), increasing reliability, reducing exceptions, and lowering cost per shipment. - Build tooling for integration observability (dashboards, alerting, reconciliation, replay) and drive measurable reductions in integration-related incidents. - Stand up forecast ingestion and validation workflows to improve network planning accuracy and service levels. - Feed repeatable learnings back into Relay’s platform (templates, SDK patterns, metric contracts, connector blueprints) to scale onboarding and reduce bespoke work. What success looks like - Client metric alignment achieved with signed-off definitions and automated reconciliation. - Material reduction in AM/Ops time spent on reporting disputes and manual data work. - Improved integration uptime, lower error rates, faster issue resolution (clear SLOs). - Forecast accuracy and timeliness improves; operational planning volatility decreases. - New client onboarding time and marginal integration cost goes down quarter over quarter. Ideal background - Strong software fundamentals (APIs, distributed systems basics, data pipelines). - Customer-facing maturity: you can run a room with technical + business stakeholders. - Bias to shipping: you turn ambiguity into production outcomes quickly. - Comfort in chaotic reality: inconsistent data, changing requirements, operational pressure. Fast and Focused Hiring Process 1. Talent Acquisition Interview - 30 min 2. API Integration Interview - 1 hour 3. Technical Interview - 2 hours 4. Operating Principles & Impact - 1 hour 5. ... (truncated, view full listing at source)