Senior Forward Deployed Engineer

About the role

This role owns the design and delivery of bespoke blockchain solutions for regulated financial institutions on the Avalanche stack. You will operate as the primary technical partner translating executive requirements into production-grade implementations without relying on handoff chains. The position demands fluency across the full Avalanche protocol suite and the ability to architect solutions for on-prem and regulated environments. You will leverage AI-native tooling to accelerate development cycles and ensure robust technical execution. Success in this role means owning the complete lifecycle of partner engagements from initial scoping through long-term operational support. You will also own the abstraction of repeated solutions into reusable tooling and documentation for the broader ecosystem. This is a senior individual contributor position that directly shapes the technical direction of key institutional partnerships. You will represent Ava Labs with credibility in high-stakes environments where technical precision is non-negotiable.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Own technical delivery for designated institutional partners, architecting solutions that span the entire Avalanche stack including node configuration, validator failover, interoperability, and cross-chain messaging.
• Collaborate with Enterprise Go-to-Market teams on active proof-of-concept initiatives to align commercial objectives with production-ready technical constraints.
• Represent Avalanche in high-level technical forums, translating complex directives from Directors of Engineering at financial institutions into scoped and executable requirements.
• Engage in deep, focused implementation work where weeks of hands-on engineering between syncs are the standard rather than the exception.
• Work directly with AvalancheGo, the EVM layer, Interchain Messaging protocols, and validator infrastructure to deliver resilient and compliant solutions.
• Design systems that adhere to institutional mandates such as KMS/HSM remote signing, comprehensive audit trails, restricted-peer networking, and documented backup/restore procedures.
• Respond to detailed security assessments and technical diligence requests from institutional partners with precision and thoroughness.
• Maintain and evolve the developer tooling and SDK surface owned by the Forward-Deployed Engineering function to support both partner needs and ecosystem growth.
• Harden and extend core tooling based on recurring institutional requirements so that each successive partner inherits a more capable and resilient platform.
• Close the loop between partner delivery and tooling development by feeding lessons learned from engagements back into shared infrastructure and documentation.
• Identify opportunities to convert one-off partner solutions into reusable FDE artifacts, reducing future implementation timelines and complexity.
• Build and maintain playbooks, runbooks, and a technical request database to codify knowledge and accelerate the onboarding of regulated partners.
• Take ownership of named partners as ramp periods conclude, reducing concentration risk and ensuring continuity of service delivery.
• Operate as a future technical lead within the function, demonstrating mentorship, end-to-end scope ownership, and the ability to represent the function externally to stakeholders.

Requirements

• Hands-on depth across the Avalanche stack or a comparable Layer 1/2 blockchain, including client implementation, virtual machine execution, cross-chain communication, and validator lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated experience in enterprise and on-premises environments, including the operation of infrastructure under strict regulatory and security constraints.
• Proven ability to leverage AI-native tooling and modern coding assistants to enhance productivity and solve complex engineering problems.
• Comfort working with security and compliance frameworks relevant to financial institutions, including audit readiness and evidence generation.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to translate ambiguous requirements into technical specifications with clear boundaries and trade-offs.
• Experience designing systems that operate reliably in air-gapped or restricted-network environments with robust backup and recovery strategies.
• Familiarity with key management systems and hardware security modules for signing operations in regulated contexts.
• Self-directed work ethic capable of owning technical outcomes end-to-end with minimal supervision on complex engagements.

Nice to have

• Contributions to open-source projects related to blockchain infrastructure or developer tooling.
• Prior experience engaging with institutional or regulated clients in financial services or similar highly regulated industries.

Practical notes

This role requires availability during core business hours for collaboration with global partners, with flexibility to accommodate regional time zones as needed. Travel may be required to engage with partners or attend industry events at various locations. Employment is contingent on successful completion of standard onboarding and security clearance processes.