Forward Deployed Engineer in London

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe's largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), led by deep-tech investors Plural, Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen. Relay's mission is to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

Team: ~110 people, more than half in engineering, product and data. 45+ advanced degrees across computer science, mathematics and operations research. Thousands of data points captured, calculated, analysed and predicted for every single parcel we handle. An intellectually vibrant culture of first-principles thinking, tight feedback loops and relentless experimentation.

Work alongside industry leaders:

• Diego Protas – Director of Engineering: An expert in distributed systems and hardware architecture, merging physical computing with enterprise-scale infrastructure. Previously directing teams of 170+ engineers at Mercado Libre and orchestrating large-scale ML-based inference at Meta. At Relay, Diego's infectious enthusiasm and hands-on leadership are redefining the boundaries of speed and reliability.

Tech Stack Highlights:

• Python, Rust and TypeScript – we keep things simple but use the right tool for the job.
• Cross-platform Flutter apps with a deep focus on user experience.
• Cloud-native on GCP with extensive use of BigQuery and Cloud Run.
• Extensive use of ML modelling and LLM inference – no gimmicks here, this is our daily routine.
• Emerging tech integrations, including robotics and IoT-powered operations.

What you'll do:

• Embed with enterprise clients during onboarding to deliver end-to-end technical success: integration, data quality, metrics alignment, and operational readiness.
• Partner closely with AMs and external clients to define and implement a delivery performance metrics spec, and build client-specific dashboards that track these metrics in real time for both the client & Relay.
• Improve and extend Relay's client integrations (APIs/webhooks/data feeds), increasing reliability, reducing exceptions, and lowering cost per shipment.
• Build tooling for integration observability (dashboards, alerting, reconciliation, replay) and drive measurable reductions in integration-related incidents.
• Stand up forecast ingestion and validation workflows to improve network planning accuracy and service levels.
• Feed repeatable learnings back into Relay's platform (templates, SDK patterns, metric contracts, connector blueprints) to scale onboarding and reduce bespoke work.

What success looks like:

• Client metric alignment achieved with signed-off definitions and automated reconciliation.
• Material reduction in AM/Ops time spent on reporting disputes and manual data work.
• Improved integration uptime, lower error rates, faster issue resolution (clear SLOs).
• Forecast accuracy and timeliness improves; operational planning volatility decreases.
• New client onboarding time and marginal integration cost goes down quarter over quarter.

Ideal background:

• Strong software fundamentals (APIs, distributed systems basics, data pipelines).
• Customer-facing maturity: you can run a room with technical + business stakeholders.
• Bias to shipping: you turn ambiguity into production outcomes quickly.
• Comfort in chaotic reality: inconsistent data, changing requirements, operational pressure.

Fast and focused hiring process:

• Talent Acquisition Interview – 30 min.
• API Integration Interview – 1 hour.
• Technical Interview – 2 hours.
• Operating Principles & Impact – 1 hour.
• Decision and offer within 48 hours; our process mirrors our pace of work, typically completed in a week.

Compensation, benefits & workplace:

• Generous equity, richer than 99% of European startups, with annual top-ups to share Relay's success.
• Private health & dental coverage, so comprehensive you'd need to be a partner at a Magic Circle law firm to match it.
• 25 days of holidays.
• Enhanced parental leave.
• Located in Shoreditch, our office set-up enables the kind of in-person interactions that drive impact. We work 4 days on-site, with 1 day remote.
• Hardware of your choice.
• Extensive perks (gym subsidies, cycle-to-work, Friday office lunch, covered Uber home and dinner for late nights, and more).

Who thrives at Relay?

• Aim with precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.
• Play to win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.
• 1% better every day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.
• All in, all the time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.
• People-powered greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candour. You build trust through high standards and shared success.
• Grow the whole pie: You seek out win-win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.

If these resonate, and you combine strong technical fundamentals with entrepreneurial drive, let's connect. Relay is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.