At a Glance
- Tasks: Transform cutting-edge AI models into real-world solutions for customers.
- Company: Join Luma, a leading multimodal AI research lab with groundbreaking technology.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, dynamic work environment, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Work directly with clients, own projects end-to-end, and shape the future of AI.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of AI innovation and make a tangible impact on creative industries.
- Qualifications: Bachelor's in Computer Science or equivalent, plus 2+ years of software engineering experience.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
About Luma
A new class of intelligence is emerging, systems that understand and generate the world across video, images, audio, and language. Building multimodal AGI is not just a research problem. It’s a full-stack engineering problem, spanning training systems, inference, product architecture, and the tight feedback loops between them.
When a new technological wave begins, the highest leverage place to be is at the foundation. Not at a startup wrapping someone else’s API. At the company building the models themselves. The frontier is not incremental improvement. These models are replacing entire categories of software and enabling entirely new ones.
At Luma, we are:
- A leading multimodal AI research lab, having built one of the world’s strongest video generation models (Ray-3.14).
- Pushing beyond video toward the next generation of multimodal general intelligence models.
- Operating at a scale few companies can match, with the compute and resources to support frontier research ($900M Series C).
- Focused on the creative domain, where multimodal systems can have immediate real-world impact.
- Shipping tightly integrated products that turn research breakthroughs into tools creators actually use.
We’re still early. The playbook is not written. A single exceptional engineer can reshape how the company operates.
Where You Come In
Forward Deployed Engineers turn what our models can do into things customers actually rely on. You embed with a customer, learn their workflow, define the problem with them, and build the system that solves it — in production, with their data, with their constraints. You own the relationship and the code. When something is missing in our platform, you build around it. When the same gap shows up across customers, you work with R&D to turn that pattern into product. This is engineering at the edge, where ambiguity is the default and 'what should we build?' is yours to answer.
This role is built for people who have already operated as the single point of ownership for a hard problem — and want to keep doing that, with much better tools.
You may have been:
- A technical founder — you built the product, talked to the first customers, made the calls, and shipped. You miss the pace and the autonomy more than you miss running a company.
- An engineer who became the customer's engineer — the one who flew out, sat in their office, and rebuilt their workflow because the standard product didn't fit.
- A consultant or architect who codes for real — you didn't just diagram the system, you wrote it.
- A builder with a customer instinct — strong technical foundation, a track record of personal projects with real users, and a pattern of identifying problems and moving on them without waiting.
What ties these together: you've made the call yourself, you've shipped against ambiguity, and you know the difference between 'delivered' and 'actually used.'
What You’ll Do
- Work directly with customers to understand their workflows, constraints, and goals.
- Define the problem — there is no PRD waiting for you.
- Build production systems on Luma's APIs, models, and internal tools.
- Prototype, ship, iterate, and maintain systems that customers depend on inside of real environments with real data.
- Own projects end-to-end, from first conversation to deployed system.
- Identify the patterns worth productizing and feed them back to platform and R&D.
Raise the Bar
FDEs leverage AI to accelerate implementation, but the core of the role is engineering judgment — knowing what to build, how to structure it, and how to make it work reliably in messy real-world environments. Breadth, product intuition, and customer empathy matter more here than narrow specialization. We're not looking for unicorns; we're looking for builders who can hold all three.
Who You Are:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent practical experience
- 2+ years of professional software engineering experience
- Strong proficiency in at least one general-purpose language (Python, TypeScript, Go, or similar)
- Experience building and shipping software end-to-end
- Ability to work across the stack and learn unfamiliar systems quickly
- Ability and interest to travel as needed to client sites
What Sets You Apart
- A track record of shipping real systems with real users, not just completing assigned tasks.
- High agency and strong prioritization skills — you can figure out the core problem and move.
- Comfort defining your own path when there isn't one.
- Evidence of working directly with customers or users, and translating what you heard into what you built.
- Clear communication, including explaining a technical decision to a non-technical stakeholder.
About Luma
Luma’s mission is to build unified general intelligence that can generate, understand, and operate in the physical world. We believe that multimodality is critical for intelligence. To go beyond language models and build more aware, capable and useful systems, the next step function change will come from vision. So, we are working on training and scaling up multimodal foundation models for systems that can see and understand, show and explain, and eventually interact with our world to effect change.
Forward Deployed Engineer (EU) in London employer: LUMA
Luma is an exceptional employer that thrives on innovation and creativity, offering Forward Deployed Engineers the unique opportunity to work at the forefront of multimodal AI technology. With a strong emphasis on employee autonomy and ownership, our collaborative work culture fosters personal growth and encourages engineers to tackle complex problems directly with customers, ensuring their contributions have a tangible impact. Located in a dynamic environment, Luma provides access to cutting-edge resources and a supportive team, making it an ideal place for those seeking meaningful and rewarding employment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Forward Deployed Engineer (EU) in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at LUMA or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to LUMA.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like LUMA.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like LUMA that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Forward Deployed Engineer (EU) in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at LUMA.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at LUMA and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at LUMA
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If LUMA uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.