Forward Deploying Engineer

Aeolus Data Solutions is a boutique, founder-led data engineering practice for startups andscale-ups across North America. We design, build, and audit the production data pipelines andAI-ready data foundations that analytics and AI initiatives actually run on. Our thesis is simple:AI projects don’t fail on the model — they fail on the data pipeline underneath it.

We bring Big Tech engineering discipline (CI/CD, automated testing, infrastructure-as-code, andversioned pipelines) to companies too lean to hire it in-house, and a senior practitioner worksdirectly with every client. No account managers. No junior delivery bench. No handoffs.

The role

As a Forward Deploying Engineer at Aeolus, you sit directly at the intersection of productionsoftware engineering, data systems, and client delivery. You embed with client engineering, data,and product teams to design, integrate, and deploy custom data and AI solutions straight intotheir production environments.

You won’t be working from rigid specs or waiting on ticket queues. You’ll dive into unfamiliararchitectures in week one, diagnose pipeline bottlenecks and integration friction, prototypepractical solutions rapidly, and harden them into maintainable, production-grade systems withautomated tests and CI/CD. You own technical delivery and the client relationship end to end.

What you’ll do

• Embed directly with client teams. Partner with client CTOs, engineering leads, and productteams to solve their most critical data integration, platform, and AI-readiness challenges.
• Deploy and productionize custom data & AI pipelines. Build high-throughput ingestionpipelines, streaming/batch workflows, reverse-ETL syncs, and API integrations that connectclient application stacks to modern warehouses, lakehouses, and LLM endpoints.
• Bridge software engineering and data platforms. Write clean, production-grade Python,TypeScript, and SQL; build robust data contracts; and ensure end-to-end reliability frombackend services to analytical and AI layers.
• Prototype fast, harden rigorously. Move quickly from scoping and architecture discoveryto functional proof-of-concept, then apply Big Tech engineering rigor (CI/CD, comprehensivetesting, Terraform, Docker) to turn prototypes into reliable production infrastructure.
• Own the technical client relationship. Lead technical kickoffs, architect solutions liveon calls, solve edge cases across diverse client clouds (AWS/GCP/Azure), and guide client teamsthrough production handoff.

What we’re looking for

• 4+ years building and shipping production software and data systems. You’ve owned systemsin production where reliability, latency, and correctness mattered.
• Polyglot engineering skills: Strong Python and SQL fundamentals, paired with experience inmodern application languages (e.g., TypeScript or Go) and database systems (PostgreSQL,Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery).
• Experience with modern data tooling & infrastructure: Orchestration (Airflow, Dagster, orPrefect), transformation (dbt), cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), Docker, andinfrastructure-as-code (Terraform).
• Fast ramp-up on unfamiliar codebases. You find your footing quickly in messy, legacy, orpartially documented systems and deliver working solutions with minimal ramp-up time.
• Client-facing communication & technical empathy. You can explain complex tradeoffs toengineers and founders alike, write crisp technical documentation, and operate as a trustedtechnical partner.
• High ownership and self-direction. Flat organization, high trust, no micromanagement — youtake problems from vague requirements to deployed solutions.

Nice to have

• Prior experience as a Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Architect, Technical Lead, or intechnical consulting / agency environments.
• Experience with real-time or event-driven streaming architectures (Kafka, Redpanda, Kinesis).
• Experience with data observability, data contracts, or FinOps / warehouse cost optimization.
• Active contributions to open-source data or developer tooling projects.

How we work

• Variety by design — multiple stacks, industries, and real-world architectures; greenfieldbuilds and complex rescue missions.
• Senior-only shop — your name is on the work, and the quality bar is the whole product.

Compensation & logistics

• Employment type: Full-time, or contract if that suits you better.
• Location / work authorization: Remote within Canada or the United States; you must beauthorized to work where you’re based. We’re incorporated in both British Columbia and California.
• Compensation:
  • United States: US$135,000–US$175,000 / year
  • Canada: CA$95,000–CA$125,000 / year
• Start: Flexible — we move at the pace of finding the right person.