Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

About SpruceID

SpruceID builds privacy-preserving, standards-based digital identity and credentialing solutions that give individuals control of their information while enabling governments and enterprises to deliver secure, interoperable services. We partner with public-sector organizations to modernize how identity is issued, verified, and used.

The Role

As a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer, you will operate at the intersection of technical leadership and strategic delivery. This is a hands-on, customer-facing position where you'll lead high-impact engagements with state governments and public sector partners, guiding both the architecture and adoption strategy for digital identity solutions.

You'll work closely with engineering teams, delivery managers, and executives—both within SpruceID and on the customer side—to ensure that deployments succeed not only technically but also achieve lasting policy and operational outcomes. You'll write and review code, architect systems, set engineering best practices, shape roadmaps, influence standards, and represent SpruceID in strategic conversations.

What You'll Do

• Define technical strategy and architecture for public sector deployments, ensuring both technical excellence and alignment with policy and operational needs
• Act as the senior technical representative in executive-level customer meetings, bridging technical details with business or policy outcomes
• Lead multiple end-to-end, multi-year projects from rapid prototyping through development to operations and maintenance
• Architect and build backend systems, full-stack web applications, and mobile solutions with focus on security, privacy, and accessibility
• Translate government requirements into robust, standards-based solutions that integrate with modern and legacy systems
• Mentor and guide forward deployed engineers and delivery teams, setting standards for high-quality engineering and customer collaboration
• Identify and drive efficiencies across projects, ensuring knowledge and tooling are shared across teams
• Collaborate with platform teams to feed customer insights into SpruceID's roadmap and contributions to global identity standards

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience designing, building, and delivering production-grade software in statically typed languages (Rust, Go, Java, C#)
• Proven ability to lead large-scale engineering efforts spanning multiple teams and organizations
• Strong expertise across the full software development stack, including infrastructure, DevOps, architecture, and frontend development
• Deep understanding of digital identity, standards (OIDC, SAML, W3C Verifiable Credentials), and security best practices
• Experience working with government or highly regulated customers
• Excellent communication skills and ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders
• Demonstrated track record of delivering customer-centric solutions in complex, multi-stakeholder environments

Work Environment

This position is fully remote within the US, offering flexibility to work from anywhere while collaborating with a distributed team on mission-critical identity infrastructure.

💰 Compensation not publicly listed. Market estimate for similar roles: from $80K, varying by experience and location.