Senior Forward-Deployed Engineer, Federal

Company Overview Deepgram is bringing the world’s most natural interface, voice, to the technology we use every day. Our speech models and real-time infrastructure power AI systems that keep up with the way people actually speak. More than 5,000 organizations run conversational voice AI on Deepgram in production, including Twilio, Cloudflare, Sierra, Decagon, Vapi, Cresta, Granola, and Jack in the Box. The Deepgram Voice Agent Platform brings together speech-to-text, text-to-speech and speech-to-speech, with voice-native foundation models available through cloud APIs or self-hosted and on-premises deployments. Built for accuracy, low latency and cost efficiency, Deepgram makes high-quality voice experiences practical to build and run at scale. More than 650,000 developers have used Deepgram to process more than 200,000 years of audio. Every day, more of the world’s conversations with AI run on our models. Operating Principles: Deepgram is a research company that productizes as fast as possible. Four Operating Principles shape how we think, decide, and work together: • Compress before you communicate. You think it through first, then lead with the bottom line. • Resist entropy. You question what already exists before adding more process or tools. • Solve the category. You fix recurring problems at the source, not one case at a time. • Work at the frontier. You go after problems no one has solved yet. We look for people who already work this way, and these principles shape how we grow and evaluate our team. AI-First by Default We build AI that millions of people talk to, and we run the company the same way. AI is how we centralize work here, and is core to how we operate. That means more than using the tools. We expect you to: • Build, not just use. Design your own workflows and agents, and use AI to remove whole categories of work instead of doing the same work faster. • Own the output. AI can speed up the work. It doesn’t make anyone less accountable for it. You understand, verify, and stand behind everything you share, including what an agent produces for you. • Spend the time you get back at the frontier. The capacity AI creates goes toward problems no one has solved yet. • Keep pace. Models and tools change every month, and so will your work. You adopt what’s new quickly and drop what no longer earns its place. We judge AI by what it helps you deliver and whether you stand behind the result, not by how often you use it. In interviews, expect to walk us through a workflow you built and where you drew the line between AI and your own judgment. Opportunity Deepgram is seeking a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer to join our Applied Engineering team, with a focus on federal customers. In this role, you will embed directly with our most strategic federal accounts to lead complex deployments of Deepgram's Voice AI platform in production environments where mission performance matters, delivery is urgent, and ambiguity is the default. Many of these deployments are on-prem, air-gapped, or on constrained hardware where cloud APIs aren’t an option. You’ll be one of the first engineers on Deepgram’s federal Applied Engineering team, helping define how Voice AI gets deployed across government. You will own the full technical lifecycle of federal engagements, from initial discovery and proof-of-concept through production deployment and ongoing optimization. You'll map customer problems, structure delivery, and ship solutions fast. This includes scoping, sequencing, and building full-stack integrations that create measurable mission impact while driving clarity across internal and external teams. Along the way, you'll identify reusable patterns, codify best practices, and share field signals that influence Deepgram's product roadmap. As a member of the Applied Engineering team, you'll serve as the trusted technical thought partner for federal stakeholders, guiding adoption, maximizing operational value, and ensuring successful deployments at scale. While your engagements will primarily involve federal customers, you'll remain a core part of the broader Applied Engineering team and may contribute to commercial engagements where your expertise is valuable. Note: this role is based remotely out of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan area. About Applied Engineering at Deepgram The Applied Engineering (AppEng) team at Deepgram combines the functions that other companies might separate into Sales Engineering, Solutions Architecture, Implementation, Forward-Deployed Engineering, and Technical Support. We serve as the technical interface between Deepgram and our customers throughout their entire journey, from initial discovery and proof-of-concept, through implementation and onboarding, to ongoing technical support. We work closely with our Customer Success and Developer Relations (DevRel) teams to ensure a positive, growth-focused experience for our customers, as well as with Product and Engineering teams to deliver solutions that meet customer needs. This unified approach allows us to provide comprehensive technical guidance and build deeper relationships with our customers. As a Senior Applied Engineer operating in the FDE role for federal engagements, you'll work with a high degree of autonomy in customer environments that are often on-prem, air-gapped, or hardware-constrained, with strict compliance and security requirements. Your work will directly shape how federal agencies leverage Voice AI to achieve their missions. What You'll Do • Own technical delivery across federal deployments, from first prototype to stable production • Embed deeply with federal customers to design and build mission-critical applications powered by Deepgram's Voice AI models • Deploy and operate Deepgram’s models in self-hosted, air-gapped, and edge environments, working within the hardware, network, and accreditation constraints of each customer • Lead technical discovery and solution design for fed