Clients in the Netherlands face complex, often ambiguous technical challenges that demand hands-on engineering and direct engagement. Distributed teams need clear direction and leverage to deliver effectively, especially when requirements are incomplete or evolving. As a Forward Deployed Engineer based in Amsterdam and working in a hybrid mode, you will work close to clients and their users, turning business needs into technical solutions and leading them through implementation and production. You will regularly operate from client locations, collaborating across multi-cultural teams and bridging the gap between business and technology. The work matters because it enables organizations to solve real problems and achieve measurable outcomes in demanding environments.
Responsibilities
Work directly with clients and users to understand business and system challenges, identify problems, and define technical approaches
Design architectures, write and review production code, and integrate with existing systems
Build data-intensive systems, APIs, services, pipelines or distributed applications
Lead technical discussions, explain trade-offs to senior stakeholders and make credible engineering decisions
Direct coding agents through spec-driven development in data engineering contexts
Apply modern engineering practices including automated testing, CI/CD, observability, security, identity and access management, and production operations
Reason about end-to-end systems, not just individual components
Create leverage by providing technical direction, splitting work between onsite and remote teams, and removing ambiguity and blockers
Enable distributed, multi-cultural engineering teams to deliver effectively
Work regularly from client locations in the Netherlands and communicate clearly with technical and non-technical audiences
Requirements
Data software engineering experience and expertise, with knowledge of the current technology landscape
Experience designing and building data-intensive systems, APIs, services, pipelines or distributed applications
Practical experience with at least one major cloud platform, preferably GCP, Azure or AWS
Understanding of modern engineering practices including automated testing, CI/CD, observability, security, identity and access management, and production operations
Experience directing coding agents through spec-driven development in data engineering
Working knowledge of the full data lifecycle: ingestion, modeling, transformation, quality, governance and consumption
Experience using modern AI coding tools or agents as part of professional software development, with the judgment to validate their output and use them safely
Demonstrated experience working directly with clients and business stakeholders
Ability to take an incompletely defined problem and independently drive it toward a working solution
Nice to have
Dutch language proficiency, particularly for engagements with Dutch public-sector organizations or locally oriented enterprises
Experience designing or deploying LLM/GenAI applications, including retrieval-augmented generation, agents, tool use, structured outputs and evaluation
Familiarity with modern data platforms such as Databricks or comparable technologies
Experience with containerization, Kubernetes and infrastructure-as-code
Experience in regulated environments such as financial services, government, healthcare or critical infrastructure
Experience leading workshops, discovery sessions or technical client engagements
Experience mentoring engineers or acting as technical lead for multidisciplinary or distributed teams
Explore gross pay after typical payroll taxes for a work location.
Illustrative estimate only; assumes a standard employee profile and may omit benefits, pensions, credits and local rules. Regional and city-specific tax applies only where the selected calculator supports it; other results are country-level. Salary and location are sent only when you calculate: Paysums for supported regions, or WorthOf for wider country coverage. Confirm with an official payroll or tax source before making decisions.
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