Forward Deployed Engineering Jobs in USA with Visa Sponsorship
Forward Deployed Engineering roles sit at the intersection of software development and customer-facing consulting, making them a strong fit for H-1B visa and O-1 visa sponsorship. Most employers classify this as a specialty occupation requiring a bachelor's degree in computer science or a related engineering field. For detailed occupation requirements, see the O*NET profile.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
At Prologis, we don’t just lead the industry—we define it with a 1.3 billion square foot portfolio and an annual throughput of approximately $3.2 trillion. We create the intelligent infrastructure that powers global commerce, seamlessly connecting the digital and physical worlds. From agile supply chains to energy solutions, our ecosystems help your business move faster, operate smarter and grow sustainably. With unmatched scale, innovation and expertise, Prologis is a category of one—not just shaping the future of logistics but building what comes next.
Job Title:
Lead Forward Deployed Engineer
A day in the life
The Lead FDE partners with business teams to reimagine how work gets done with AI and leads the technical delivery of Prologis’ most complex business-embedded AI deployments while remaining hands-on in architecture, code, evaluation, and production implementation.
As the first FDE hire, this role will help establish the FDE capability at Prologis and shape how AI is translated into new ways of working and measurable business results.
The Lead FDE will be assigned to a primary Prologis business domain, generally for 9 to 12 months and potentially longer, to build deep operating context while leading several discrete deployments without creating permanent embedded support.
This senior individual-contributor role sets technical direction, guides Senior FDEs and partner engineers, resolves cross-functional blockers, and remains accountable through business acceptance, production stabilization, and ownership transfer.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead a portfolio of AI deployments within an anchor business domain, spanning multiple workflows, business units, or enterprise systems, with defined outcomes, sponsorship, architecture, milestones, production ownership, and handoff plans.
- Partner with business leaders, frontline users, and AI Product to identify high-value opportunities, understand current workflows, redesign processes using AI, software, and human judgment, and define value cases, success measures, operating constraints, and acceptance criteria.
- Architect, build, test, troubleshoot, and support production-grade AI applications, agents, retrieval systems, integrations, and workflow solutions through release and stabilization.
- Set technical direction across FDE deployments, guide Senior FDEs, central AI engineers, and partner teams, and resolve tradeoffs among business value, engineering quality, security, speed, maintainability, and cost.
- Design representative test sets, acceptance thresholds, regression testing, observability, security, privacy, auditability, and human controls, and facilitate business validation against agreed acceptance criteria.
- Coordinate with AI Product, Applied AI Engineering, Platform, Data and Knowledge, Security and Governance, Process and Agent Orchestration, Enablement, Architecture, and AI Operations to resolve dependencies, support adoption, and establish durable production ownership.
- Identify reusable components, evaluation assets, reference architectures, standards, and delivery playbooks; mentor Senior FDEs and partner engineers; and provide concise executive reporting on value, progress, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions.
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESS
Required:
- Eight or more years of hands-on software engineering, AI engineering, technical delivery, enterprise-solution experience, or equivalent practical experience.
- Demonstrated success leading multiple complex software or AI deployments from discovery through business acceptance, production release, stabilization, and ownership transfer.
- Proven experience partnering with business leaders and frontline teams to redesign an end-to-end business process using AI while personally contributing to engineering delivery and demonstrating sustained production use and measurable business improvement.
- Hands-on programming and architecture capability across Python, APIs, data platforms, cloud, and modern application technologies.
- Practical experience building and operating LLM applications, agentic systems, retrieval solutions, tool integrations, evaluations, guardrails, and production observability.
- Experience applying enterprise architecture, data integration, identity, security, data protection, and software operating-model requirements to production solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical delivery without formal organizational authority and translate senior business objectives into executable technical work.
- Product judgment to distinguish reusable patterns from one-off customization and make disciplined build, buy, or stop decisions.
- Demonstrated ability to create reusable engineering components, evaluation assets, standards, and playbooks.
- Written and verbal communication skills for executive communication and technical design documentation.
- Ability to acquire deep domain context quickly and use it to make enterprise delivery tradeoffs.
Preferred:
- Experience extending successful AI workflow transformations across business units or geographies within a large global enterprise.
- Deep knowledge of one or more Prologis business domains or adjacent industries.
- Experience leading several parallel deployments or a portfolio of related AI use cases.
- Experience building shared AI components, governed retrieval, knowledge architectures, reference architectures, or enterprise developer tooling.
- Experience with AWS, Dataiku, SQL, automated testing, containers, CI/CD, and cloud or hybrid enterprise deployment patterns.
- Demonstrates willingness and capability to leverage emerging technology, automation, and AI tools to improve efficiency, quality, and speed. Exercises sound judgment, creative thinking, and accountability for outcomes.
Hiring Salary Range of:
$200,000 - $285,000. Salary and whole compensation package (bonus target) to be determined by the candidate’s location, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
People First
Each of us working at Prologis plays an essential role in the enduring success of our company. We value people who are decisive, courageous and adaptable. While we are one company, locations and departments operate with autonomy and accountability. Individuals take the initiative here.
When you join Prologis, you work shoulder to shoulder with some of the top talent in the industry to do the best work of your career. Every employee belongs. Every employee contributes. Employees advance their careers here.
As a successful global enterprise, Prologis has never lost sight of what matters most, our strong belief that our people are the most important part of our business. And because of that, we provide a generous total rewards package and take a lot of time to focus on quality management and leadership development. People come first here.
All full-time roles in the US come with a robust benefits package which includes healthcare, dental, and vision insurance for employees and eligible dependents. Prologis also offers several other wellness, financial, and work/lifestyle-specific benefits. Our 401(k) retirement plan has a company match of 50% up to 12% of eligible compensation. We also offer generous PTO with a starting accrual of 22 days a year in addition to paid holidays and volunteer time.
All job offers are contingent upon successful completion of background verification. Prologis is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religions, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Employment Type:
Full time
LOCATION
Location: Denver, Colorado
Additional Locations:
Atlanta, Georgia, Cerritos, California, Chicago, Illinois, Dallas, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, New York, New York, Phoenix, Arizona, San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington
INTRODUCTION
At Prologis, we don’t just lead the industry—we define it with a 1.3 billion square foot portfolio and an annual throughput of approximately $3.2 trillion. We create the intelligent infrastructure that powers global commerce, seamlessly connecting the digital and physical worlds. From agile supply chains to energy solutions, our ecosystems help your business move faster, operate smarter and grow sustainably. With unmatched scale, innovation and expertise, Prologis is a category of one—not just shaping the future of logistics but building what comes next.
Job Title:
Lead Forward Deployed Engineer
A day in the life
The Lead FDE partners with business teams to reimagine how work gets done with AI and leads the technical delivery of Prologis’ most complex business-embedded AI deployments while remaining hands-on in architecture, code, evaluation, and production implementation.
As the first FDE hire, this role will help establish the FDE capability at Prologis and shape how AI is translated into new ways of working and measurable business results.
The Lead FDE will be assigned to a primary Prologis business domain, generally for 9 to 12 months and potentially longer, to build deep operating context while leading several discrete deployments without creating permanent embedded support.
This senior individual-contributor role sets technical direction, guides Senior FDEs and partner engineers, resolves cross-functional blockers, and remains accountable through business acceptance, production stabilization, and ownership transfer.
Key responsibilities include:
- Lead a portfolio of AI deployments within an anchor business domain, spanning multiple workflows, business units, or enterprise systems, with defined outcomes, sponsorship, architecture, milestones, production ownership, and handoff plans.
- Partner with business leaders, frontline users, and AI Product to identify high-value opportunities, understand current workflows, redesign processes using AI, software, and human judgment, and define value cases, success measures, operating constraints, and acceptance criteria.
- Architect, build, test, troubleshoot, and support production-grade AI applications, agents, retrieval systems, integrations, and workflow solutions through release and stabilization.
- Set technical direction across FDE deployments, guide Senior FDEs, central AI engineers, and partner teams, and resolve tradeoffs among business value, engineering quality, security, speed, maintainability, and cost.
- Design representative test sets, acceptance thresholds, regression testing, observability, security, privacy, auditability, and human controls, and facilitate business validation against agreed acceptance criteria.
- Coordinate with AI Product, Applied AI Engineering, Platform, Data and Knowledge, Security and Governance, Process and Agent Orchestration, Enablement, Architecture, and AI Operations to resolve dependencies, support adoption, and establish durable production ownership.
- Identify reusable components, evaluation assets, reference architectures, standards, and delivery playbooks; mentor Senior FDEs and partner engineers; and provide concise executive reporting on value, progress, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions.
BUILDING BLOCKS FOR SUCCESS
Required:
- Eight or more years of hands-on software engineering, AI engineering, technical delivery, enterprise-solution experience, or equivalent practical experience.
- Demonstrated success leading multiple complex software or AI deployments from discovery through business acceptance, production release, stabilization, and ownership transfer.
- Proven experience partnering with business leaders and frontline teams to redesign an end-to-end business process using AI while personally contributing to engineering delivery and demonstrating sustained production use and measurable business improvement.
- Hands-on programming and architecture capability across Python, APIs, data platforms, cloud, and modern application technologies.
- Practical experience building and operating LLM applications, agentic systems, retrieval solutions, tool integrations, evaluations, guardrails, and production observability.
- Experience applying enterprise architecture, data integration, identity, security, data protection, and software operating-model requirements to production solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical delivery without formal organizational authority and translate senior business objectives into executable technical work.
- Product judgment to distinguish reusable patterns from one-off customization and make disciplined build, buy, or stop decisions.
- Demonstrated ability to create reusable engineering components, evaluation assets, standards, and playbooks.
- Written and verbal communication skills for executive communication and technical design documentation.
- Ability to acquire deep domain context quickly and use it to make enterprise delivery tradeoffs.
Preferred:
- Experience extending successful AI workflow transformations across business units or geographies within a large global enterprise.
- Deep knowledge of one or more Prologis business domains or adjacent industries.
- Experience leading several parallel deployments or a portfolio of related AI use cases.
- Experience building shared AI components, governed retrieval, knowledge architectures, reference architectures, or enterprise developer tooling.
- Experience with AWS, Dataiku, SQL, automated testing, containers, CI/CD, and cloud or hybrid enterprise deployment patterns.
- Demonstrates willingness and capability to leverage emerging technology, automation, and AI tools to improve efficiency, quality, and speed. Exercises sound judgment, creative thinking, and accountability for outcomes.
Hiring Salary Range of:
$200,000 - $285,000. Salary and whole compensation package (bonus target) to be determined by the candidate’s location, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity and alignment with market data.
People First
Each of us working at Prologis plays an essential role in the enduring success of our company. We value people who are decisive, courageous and adaptable. While we are one company, locations and departments operate with autonomy and accountability. Individuals take the initiative here.
When you join Prologis, you work shoulder to shoulder with some of the top talent in the industry to do the best work of your career. Every employee belongs. Every employee contributes. Employees advance their careers here.
As a successful global enterprise, Prologis has never lost sight of what matters most, our strong belief that our people are the most important part of our business. And because of that, we provide a generous total rewards package and take a lot of time to focus on quality management and leadership development. People come first here.
All full-time roles in the US come with a robust benefits package which includes healthcare, dental, and vision insurance for employees and eligible dependents. Prologis also offers several other wellness, financial, and work/lifestyle-specific benefits. Our 401(k) retirement plan has a company match of 50% up to 12% of eligible compensation. We also offer generous PTO with a starting accrual of 22 days a year in addition to paid holidays and volunteer time.
All job offers are contingent upon successful completion of background verification. Prologis is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religions, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Employment Type:
Full time
LOCATION
Location: Denver, Colorado
Additional Locations:
Atlanta, Georgia, Cerritos, California, Chicago, Illinois, Dallas, Texas, Nashville, Tennessee, New York, New York, Phoenix, Arizona, San Francisco, California, Seattle, Washington
See all 409+ Forward Deployed Engineering Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new Forward Deployed Engineering roles.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding Forward Deployed Engineering Jobs
Confirm the specialty occupation classification upfront
Forward Deployed Engineer roles must qualify as specialty occupations for H-1B sponsorship. Ask recruiters whether the position requires a specific technical degree, not just any bachelor's, before investing time in the interview process.
Target companies with established visa programs
Larger enterprise software companies and defense contractors are far more likely to have in-house immigration counsel and a repeatable H-1B process. Startups may be willing but lack the infrastructure, which slows sponsorship significantly.
Prepare to demonstrate both technical and client-facing credentials
USCIS scrutinizes hybrid roles more closely. Build a portfolio that clearly shows engineering output, not just project management or consulting work, to strengthen your specialty occupation case during the petition review.
Time your job search around the H-1B cap registration window
Cap-subject H-1B registrations open in March for an October 1 start date. Securing an offer by February gives your employer time to prepare and register before the window closes, avoiding a full year's delay.
Explore cap-exempt employers in defense and government contracting
Forward Deployed Engineers at companies primarily contracting with federal agencies may qualify for cap-exempt H-1B petitions, allowing year-round filing without lottery risk. Ask recruiters explicitly about the employer's cap-exempt status.
Australian citizens should specifically pursue the E-3 visa
The E-3 visa has no lottery, no annual cap pressure, and processes in weeks rather than months. Forward Deployed Engineering easily meets the specialty occupation standard, making E-3 one of the most efficient paths for Australian applicants.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Forward Deployed Engineering qualify as a specialty occupation for H-1B purposes?
Yes, in most cases. USCIS evaluates whether the role normally requires a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific technical field. Forward Deployed Engineering roles at enterprise software companies typically require a degree in computer science, software engineering, or a closely related discipline, which satisfies the specialty occupation standard. Roles where any degree field is acceptable are harder to sponsor.
Which visa types do employers typically use to sponsor Forward Deployed Engineers?
H-1B visa is the most common path for cap-subject employers. Australian citizens can pursue the E-3 visa, which bypasses the lottery entirely. Candidates with an established internal transfer track may qualify for the L-1B if moving from an overseas office. O-1A is an option for engineers with demonstrated recognition, such as patents, published research, or significant industry awards. Browse current openings on Migrate Mate to see which employers are actively sponsoring.
Is a computer science degree required, or do other degrees qualify?
A computer science or software engineering degree is the clearest path to approval, but related fields like electrical engineering, mathematics, or information systems can qualify if the degree is directly applicable to the technical work. Some employers also accept three years of relevant work experience per year of missing education. USCIS focuses on whether the degree field logically connects to the specific role duties, not just the title.
Do Forward Deployed Engineering roles at defense contractors offer any H-1B advantages?
Yes. Companies that primarily perform work under federal grants or contracts with a government research or education mission may qualify as cap-exempt H-1B employers, allowing petitions to be filed year-round without lottery exposure. This is particularly common at defense contractors and federally funded research centers. Confirm the employer's cap-exempt status directly with their immigration team before assuming this benefit applies.
How does the hybrid consulting-and-engineering nature of this role affect sponsorship approval?
USCIS pays closer attention to roles that blend technical and client-facing responsibilities, particularly if the job description emphasizes communication or project management over engineering output. Employers and immigration attorneys typically address this by documenting that the core duties require theoretical and practical application of computer science knowledge. Strong degree alignment and detailed offer letters describing technical deliverables significantly reduce the risk of a Request for Evidence.
What is the prevailing wage requirement for sponsored Forward Deployed Engineering jobs?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.