About the role:

The Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) is DA's most forward-leaning technical role: part of CX Engineering, but operating ahead of signed deals — in the room with a prospective client's engineering and risk teams, building the prototype that proves the Canton Network can solve their problem before anyone signs anything.  The FDE moves between two modes: heads-down building — prototyping smart contracts and registry apps on Canton and Daml, wiring up DA Registry and DA Utilities components, standing up a demo environment overnight — and heads-up presenting — walking a bank's Head of Digital Assets or a stablecoin issuer's CTO through the architecture you just built and defending it under real technical scrutiny.  The FDE works directly with Sales, Solutions Design, and Network Strategy to deliver working code.

Responsibilities:

• Owns the technical narrative for strategic prospective and early-stage clients — translates a prospect's problem statement into a working Canton Network prototype, registry model, or demo application in days to weeks, not quarters
• Designs and builds prototype and demo code on Canton and Daml — smart contracts, registry apps, DA Registry and DA Utilities components, integration adapters — that hold up to technical scrutiny from engineers at the world's largest banks, financial market infrastructures, and crypto-native and stablecoin companies
• Partners directly with prospective clients' engineering, risk, and product teams to scope proof-of-concept and pilot architectures across asset tokenization, collateral mobility, on-chain payments, and stablecoin use cases
• Serves as DA's technical face in front of senior engineering and business audiences at financial market infrastructures (clearinghouses, custodians, exchanges, CSDs) and the largest crypto-native and stablecoin companies — translating Canton Network and Global Synchronizer concepts so they land with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Builds reusable prototyping accelerators, registry templates, and demo assets that shorten the path from first conversation to signed pilot for the rest of CX Engineering and Solutions Design
• Feeds field learnings back into DA Product and Engineering — the gaps you hit building a demo for a tier-one bank or a stablecoin issuer are exactly the signal Product needs to prioritize the roadmap
• Partners with Sales, Solutions Design, and Network Strategy to shape deal scope, sequence delivery, and pull in the right specialists at the right time
• Acts as a senior technical resource for New York-based and headquarters-facing engagements with financial market infrastructures and global banks headquartered in or near New York
• Assumes additional duties and responsibilities from time to time, as needed

What We're Looking For:

• Able to leverage previous experience in software engineering to deliver production-grade systems fast and credible prototypes under deal-cycle time pressure
• Knowledge and experience with Daml, Canton Network and ability to ramp up quickly
• Comfortable owning a client-facing technical relationship at the CTO / Head of Engineering / Head of Digital Assets level without support — able to design an architecture live in a room and defend it under questioning
• Full-stack builder: equally comfortable in smart contract/registry logic, backend integration, and enough front-end to make a demo land
• Strong financial services or capital markets domain knowledge — fluency in how a clearinghouse, custodian, bank, or stablecoin issuer actually operates
• Experience scoping and building proofs of concept or pilots in ambiguous, fast-moving environments where requirements are still being discovered
• Consistent ability translating complex technical concepts for both senior technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Curious, pragmatic, low-ego, and energized by being dropped into a new problem every few weeks
• Able to travel to client sites domestically and internationally as needed (estimated 30–40%)