At SolarWinds, we’re a people-first company. Our purpose is to enrich the lives of the people we serve—including our employees, customers, shareholders, partners, and communities. Join us in our mission to help customers accelerate business transformation with simple, powerful, and secure solutions.

The ideal candidate thrives in an innovative, fast-paced environment and is collaborative, accountable, ready, and empathetic. We’re looking for individuals who believe they can accomplish more as a team and create lasting growth for themselves and others. We hire based on attitude, competency, and commitment. Solarians are ready to advance our world-class solutions in a fast-paced environment and accept the challenge to lead with purpose. If you’re looking to build your career with an exceptional team, you’ve come to the right place. Join SolarWinds and grow with us!

Overview

The Forward Deployment Engineer is an independent, customer-centric problem solver and storyteller who owns the technical strategy for complex opportunities worldwide. As a key member of the customer success organization, you will combine deep technical expertise with consultative skills to understand customer challenges, design tailored solutions, and provide demos, deployment, and installations. The ideal candidate brings strong hands-on scripting skills, a passion for AI-driven innovation, and the ability to translate emerging technologies into production-minded solutions that create measurable customer value.

This role is intentionally forward-deployed: you will move fluidly between customer environments and internal teams, helping shape solution direction in the field while influencing product thinking, technical best practices, and repeatable approaches based on what you learn firsthand.

Responsibilities

Customer Discovery, Design, and Validation

Engage directly with customers to understand business priorities, technical requirements, operational challenges, and transformation goals.
Architect practical solutions that improve visibility, resilience, automation, and operational efficiency, while defining scope, success criteria, and evaluation plans.
Design and execute complex Proof of Concept and Proof of Value engagements, validating technical fit, business value, integrations, and adoption readiness.

AI and Automation Focus

Position SolarWinds solutions in the context of AI, automation, and modern IT operations.
Demonstrate practical use cases for AI-assisted workflows, intelligent operations, and data-driven decision support.
Use scripting and automation to create prototypes, integrations, technical validations, and lightweight production-oriented workflows that help customers understand real-world value.

Technical Execution and Customer Advocacy

Build trust through hands-on engagement, moving from whiteboarding and prototyping to troubleshooting, configuration, and solution delivery in customer environments.
Serve as a trusted technical advisor throughout the deployment cycle, helping customers and internal teams navigate complexity, remove blockers, and maintain momentum.
Capture and share customer feedback, field insights, and repeatable best practices to influence product direction, enablement, and broader organizational success.

Enablement, Presence, and Continuity

Maintain deep technical expertise across the SolarWinds portfolio, especially in observability, hybrid IT operations, automation, and AI-related capabilities, while mentoring peers, enabling partners and technical support teams.
Support a smooth transition to Customer Success and Customer Services, and stay engaged as needed to help ensure early deployment success and long-term customer outcomes.

Required Skills and Experience

Strong hands-on scripting and automation experience using one or more of Python, PowerShell, Bash, or API-based integrations
Interact with customers at all levels, with demonstrated ability to communicate with both the very basic user and the technically advanced (Network Administrators, System Administrators).