Join the team teaching AI to do real science, with formal proofs instead of hallucinations
Forward Deployed Engineer
Forward-Deployed Engineer to build AI workflows for photonics/electronics, bridging customer needs and product capabilities, focusing on modeling, design, and simulation automation.
What we're looking for
- MSc or PhD in a science or engineering field (e.g., electrical engineering, photonics, applied physics, applied math)
- 4+ years of experience in software engineering, applied AI, forward deployed engineering, or solution engineering roles
- Strong programming experience, primarily in Python
- Hands-on experience with modern AI tools (LLMs, APIs, agentic systems, orchestration frameworks)
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
About the role
You'll work directly with engineers, researchers, and engineering leadership at customer organisations - translating complex photonic device and circuit challenges into structured, deployable AI systems. Technical bridge between customer requirements and product capabilities. Fast-moving, high-impact, contract engagement.
What you'll do
Engage deeply with customer teams to understand device, circuit, and packaging design workflows
Build high-impact prototypes demonstrating AI-assisted photonic modelling, circuit optimisation, and simulation automation
Design and deploy agentic AI workflows orchestrating LLMs, physics-based models, simulations, and customer data
Convert field learnings into structured feedback that shapes product roadmap and architecture
Serve as a credible, trusted technical partner across pilots, evaluations, and early production deployments
You
MSc or PhD in electrical engineering, photonics, applied physics, applied math, or equivalent
4+ years in software engineering, applied AI, forward deployed, or solutions engineering
Strong Python - scientific computing, workflow orchestration, API integration
Hands-on with modern AI tools: LLMs, APIs, agentic systems, orchestration frameworks
Excellent communicator - comfortable with engineers, engineering managers, and enterprise stakeholders
Nice to have
Experience with LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pydantic, Ray, or similar · EDA-style environments or hardware-software co-design · Cloud/HPC deployment · R&D or applied science collaboration
Hiring process
Screening (TechTree)
NDA singing
Live prototyping task with technical lead
Technical meeting with hiring manager and potentially 2 other team members
45 min meeting with CEO & Co-founder + HR Partner
In parallel with last meeting is reference check
Offer
Setup: Contract position · Hybrid, Boston office 2-3 days/week
Benefits
Equity details
About Proof-Backed Reasoning Startup
An innovative company is building a new class of AI systems designed to reason with the rigor of the scientific method. By combining deep learning with formal logic and physics-based modeling, we create verifiable, interpretable AI systems that collaborate with and support human researchers in high-stakes scientific and engineering workflows. Our mission, 30×30, is to deliver a 30× improvement in the speed, accessibility, and cost of semiconductor and photonic hardware development by 2030. We aim to revolutionize hardware design and simulation in these industries and are building a team of highly motivated professionals to bring these innovations from research into commercial products.