Forward Deployed Engineer in Ottawa

At Render, we’re building the modern cloud platform for developers creating AI-native, full-stack, multi-service applications. Our mission is to eliminate the tradeoff between the power of hyperscalers and the simplicity of developer-friendly platforms so teams can ship fast, scale reliably, and focus on their product, not infrastructure.

We’re a diverse and talented team that values craft, velocity, and user experience. If you’re excited to help shape the future of the intelligent cloud and empower developers everywhere, we’d love to hear from you.

We're seeking candidates who possess high integrity, humility, and an insatiable drive to learn. We foster an environment of mutual trust and respect, empowering effective debate to achieve the best outcomes for our customers and team. We especially encourage members of underrepresented groups in the tech community to apply.

About the Role

We are looking for Render's first Forward Deployed Engineer to work hands-on with our most strategic customers. You will balance two motions: white-glove engagement with our top accounts and scoped onboarding intensives that get high-growth startups confidently building on the platform.

What You'll Do:

• Work closely with Render's top accounts as their dedicated technical partner, providing concierge service across architecture reviews, migration planning, and hands-on delivery.
• Run scoped onboarding intensives for high-growth startups, from intake and success criteria through hands-on-keyboard execution.
• Lead the database side of customer engagements, including Postgres architecture, performance tuning, and complex data migrations from Heroku, AWS, and other cloud providers.
• Drive activation and expansion in strategic accounts.
• Own the ongoing technical relationship for your accounts.
• Build the FDE playbook.
• Act as a high-signal feedback channel to product and engineering.
• Partner with Account Managers and Customer Engineers to ensure smooth handoffs after each engagement.

What We're Looking For:

• 8+ years in a hands-on, customer-facing engineering role.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals.
• Deep experience with cloud infrastructure.
• Deep Postgres and database expertise.
• AI fluency.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Self-directed and comfortable with ambiguity.
• Commercial instincts.

Nice-to-Haves:

• Migration experience from Heroku, AWS, or other clouds onto modern platforms.
• Hands-on experience shipping AI and LLM applications.
• Prior experience as the first hire in a role or a founding member of a new program.

If this role excites you but you don’t meet every single requirement, we’d still love to hear from you—your unique experience might be just what we need.

Benefits:

• 4 weeks of paid vacation.
• 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave for all parents.
• Long-term disability, life insurance, and 401K plans.
• 100% employer-paid medical coverage and 99% employer-paid dental and vision coverage.
• Monthly lifestyle stipend for wellness, mental health and therapy, hobbies, etc.
• Monthly cell phone and internet subsidy.
• Commuter benefits for Renders in the Bay Area.
• Continuous learning benefits & related support.

This position is generally not eligible for new visa sponsorship. Render is an equal-opportunity employer.