Staff Forward Deployed Engineer, Federal/National Security
Red Cell Partners
McLean, Virginia
Full-Time
$180,000
RemoteSenior
Red Cell Partners is an incubation firm building and investing in rapidly scalable technology-led companies that are bringing revolutionary advancements to market in three distinct practice areas: healthcare, cyber, and national security. United by a shared sense of duty and deep belief in the power of innovation, Red Cell is developing powerful tools and solutions to address our Nations most pressing problems.
We are hiring Forward Deployed Engineers to join a new Stealth National Security incubation within Red Cell. You'll work directly with federal and national-security customers, and your role will sit at the intersection of software engineering, customer delivery, product development, and mission execution.
As an FDE, you will embed with customer teams, understand operational workflows, identify high-value use cases, and build production-ready systems that solve real mission problems. You will move quickly from discovery to prototype to deployment, while maintaining the engineering discipline required for secure and regulated environments.
This is a highly hands-on engineering role. You should be comfortable writing code, debugging systems, working with messy customer environments, translating vague requirements into concrete technical plans, and communicating clearly with both engineers and non-technical stakeholders.
Our stack may include TypeScript, Python, Java, React, FastAPI or similar backend frameworks, Postgres, cloud infrastructure, containerized services, workflow orchestration, observability tooling, and LLM / agentic AI frameworks. We care less about exact tool familiarity and more about strong engineering judgment, adaptability, and ability to ship in complex environments.
Because this role supports federal and national-security customers, U.S. citizenship is required with an active security clearance. Candidates without an active clearance may be considered if they are eligible and willing to obtain one.
Washington, DC / Northern Virginia preferred. This role may require regular customer-facing work, including onsite meetings, secure-facility work, or travel depending on program needs.
This is a chance to build software that directly supports national-security missions. You will work on high-impact problems where AI, automation, and modern engineering can materially improve how mission teams operate. You will not be far removed from the user or buried in a narrow implementation lane; you will be expected to understand the mission, build the system, deploy it, and make it work in the real world.
If you want to be on the cutting edge of technology, building AI solutions for the future, and are up for a challenge, lets talk!
Salary Range: $180,000-240,000. This represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience, skills, and other factors.
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Were an Equal Opportunity Employer: Youll receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or on the basis of disability.
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