Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer

We’re building a universal API that lets brokers, TMSs, fintechs, and fleets connect to truck and trailer data through a single integration.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) at Catena, you’ll work at the intersection of customers, product, and engineering. You'll own the technical side of the sales process end-to-end, helping customers plan and execute on pilots, ensuring that their integrations are running and receiving accurate data, and working with our Engineering team to prioritize fast follows and incorporate customer feedback into our product strategy.

This is not a back-office tech role. Externally, you’ll be embedded with customers, shaping the product in the field and feeding real-world insights directly back into the platform. Internally, you'll work with our GTM team to make sure deals are moving fast and delighting customers and with our CTO to influence our product roadmap and our approach to data quality. When something looks off or breaks, you’ll be the one who figures out why and fixes it - and how to keep it from breaking again in the future.

Key Responsibilities

• Customer & Field Execution
  • Work directly with customers during onboarding, pilots, and early production, diving in to fix integration issues on their end or ours
  • Validate real-world data (location, HOS, assets, trailers)
• Integration Implementation & Debugging
  • Implement and test ingestion pipelines, mappings and transformations, and webhooks end to end
  • Identify edge cases and provider-specific quirks
  • Validate new integrations before and after launch
• Product Feedback Loop
  • Surface recurring patterns and gaps from the field
  • Drive roadmap decisions with real production insight
• Partner Coordination & Docs
  • Work with telematics providers on APIs, sandboxes, and issues
  • Improve internal and customer-facing documentation

Skills & Qualifications

• Strong attention to detail and ownership mindset
• Experience working with structured data (JSON, SQL, CSV)
• Familiarity with APIs, webhooks, and technical documentation
• Ability to reason through messy, real-world systems
• Clear communicator with technical and non-technical teams
• Comfortable juggling multiple customers and integrations
• Effective in a remote-first environment

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 2+ years in a software engineering role; experience with integrations, solution engineering, and/or data ops a strong plus
• Logistics, freight, or telematics experience is a strong plus
• Enjoys ambiguity and working directly with customers to solve real problems, with no job too big or too small
• Cares deeply about data correctness and trust

Why Join Us?

• Real Impact: Your work ships to production fast with major freight platforms
• Product Influence: FDE insights directly shape the roadmap
• Real Scale: Hundreds of thousands of trucks, 130+ telematics providers
• High Ownership: No ego, execution-driven culture
• Remote-First: Flexible work with optional travel and team meetups
• Momentum: Customers use us in production and many are investors
• Compensation: Competitive salary + meaningful equity, full benefits, 401k match

Company Description

Catena builds the connectivity infrastructure freight has been missing. We unify telematics, sensors, and operational data into a single API so logistics platforms can automate workflows, reduce fraud, improve safety, and build better products.

We’re operators who’ve lived these problems inside carriers, brokerages, TMSs, and financial institutions. We care about accuracy, coverage, and real outcomes, not hype.

Catena has raised $8.25M from Shaper Capital, Floating Point, Plug and Play, Liquid 2, and leading industry angels.