Forward Deployed Software Engineer (UK Defence)

About Northslope

The generational companies of the next century will run on mission‑specific AI software that compounds their competitive advantage, not commoditized SaaS. We purpose‑build production AI applications that enable our customers to operate at the speed, scale, and margins of an enterprise software company, in any industry. We’re building something fundamentally different: software that’s as adaptable as the businesses it serves, created by engineers who understand both code and customer.

The Role

As a Forward Deployed Software Engineer at Northslope, you will be responsible for helping our customers solve their most valuable problems, working closely with stakeholders to conceive, architect, build, and maintain applications that make a measurable impact on their business. Day to day, you’ll understand a customer’s most critical objectives and build operationalized workflows on their enterprise data that end users actually use to make change within the business. You’ll iterate quickly, build from scratch, and help organizations transform their operations at uncommon speed. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you won’t just ship code – you’ll help reshape how entire organizations work by putting powerful tools in the hands of executives and real operators.

What We’re Looking For

• An obsession with helping your customer win, even when it goes beyond the original scope. You eat hard customer problems for breakfast and take pride in delivering solutions that actually drive value.
• Strong analytical abilities and problem‑solving aptitude. You love breaking down complex problems and building end‑to‑end solutions that actually work.
• Proficiency in Python and/or Typescript. We build in these languages every day.
• Ability to work independently and own outcomes autonomously. You’ll always have support, but we’re looking for teammates who want to be in the driver’s seat and fully own their work.
• Demonstrated ability to build applications that use large structured and unstructured datasets in a production environment. We take a customer’s data and make it valuable to them – this is our bread and butter.
• A track record of delivering real‑world outcomes with code. As a software engineer, data scientist, or deeply technical analytics lead, you’ve helped an organization up its game through the software you’ve written and/or the analytical products you’ve built.
• Strong ability to collaborate with internal and external teammates with varying levels of technical proficiency. We embed with our customers and join their teams; you’ll need both technical and people skills to succeed.
• Willingness to travel as needed for client implementation work. Every project is different, but typically projects involve travel 10‑33% of the time.
• Candidates with current UK security clearance, previously held clearance, or eligibility to obtain a clearance are strongly preferred.

Preferred but Not Required to be Successful

• A bachelor’s or master’s degree in Computer Science
• Experience with Palantir Foundry and/or AIP
• Experience delivering production ML and/or LLM‑based solutions
• Experience delivering production frontend applications in React
• Experience with Spark and distributed compute.

What We Offer

• Competitive base salary + equity in the form of stock options
• Comprehensive benefits package including health insurance (inclusive of dental, vision, mental health), pension matching, and commuting via Cycle2Work benefits.
• Flexible hybrid work environment
• The opportunity to build solutions, systems, and software from the ground up as we scale
• A small, tight‑knit team where your contributions directly impact our ability to execute on our mission
• Occasional travel (less than 10% of your time) for company off‑sites where you’ll connect with teams across our New York and London hubs

Our Principles

• Only Valuable Problems: Not every problem is worth solving. We work on the projects that will significantly improve our customers’ bottom lines.
• Outcomes, Not Activity: We create value, not extract it. We focus on our business impact, not racking up billable hours.
• Forward Deployed Engineering: We never build in a vacuum. We go to the heart of the problem and build alongside our users.
• One size fits none. Generic software fails the most important customers. We build for the specific – the exact industry, workflow, data, and competitive context of the company we’re serving.

Why Northslope

At Northslope, we’re built different. We take pride in being more like a product startup than a traditional services firm. We value velocity, ingenuity, and grit, and we relentlessly focus on delivering tangible outcomes for our customers. We also have fun. We get to work on big, hard problems, in a fast‑paced environment, alongside sharp yet kind teammates who help us continuously grow and delight in one another’s successes. We offer full benefits and all the perks you’d expect of a modern tech startup, and are a distributed global team with hubs in London, New York, and UAE.

We hope you’re excited to join us and look forward to speaking with you soon.

Northslope is committed to building a strong, diverse team. We believe teams with a diversity of lived experience, background, and perspectives create better outcomes for our customers and are just more enjoyable to be part of. We are committed to creating and living a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout our work. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, national origin, religion, disability, pregnancy, age, military status, marital status, genetic characteristics or information, gender, gender identity, gender variance, or sexual orientation.