Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

About Mesh Founded in 2020, Mesh is the first global payment network for crypto, connecting hundreds of exchanges, wallets, and payment service providers to enable seamless digital asset payments and conversions. By unifying these platforms into a single network, Mesh is pioneering a connected and secure ecosystem for digital finance. Hiring at Mesh: We're growing across the US, Europe, India, and LatAm — see open roles at meshpay.com/careers. All applications and interview scheduling run through Greenhouse. Our recruiters will never ask for personal or financial information, contact you from personal phone numbers, or ask you to install software or click links to "complete" an interview. If something outside that process happens, please don't engage and email hr@meshconnect.com.

Mesh

M

meshpay.com

51-200 employees

Financial Services

San Francisco, CA

2020

Privately Held

19k LinkedIn followers

Raised $199.5M

• Define the operating model: engagement shape, deployment cadence, scoping
• standards, and hiring bar
• Hire at least 2-3 senior and staff-level generalists this year placed close
• to the partner engineering team and timezone they support
• Be open to running the first engagement(s) yourself to prove the playbook,
• then scale it through the team
• Be the person a partner's VP of Engineering or CTO calls — run integration
• reviews, hold commitments, and turn stalled technical conversations into
• signed plans
• Assign named owners, not a rotating pool: one engineer or small pod per
• account, with a mapped executive sponsor
• Own the qualification bar. FDE is justified when integration is the
• bottleneck, the account can absorb a dedicated engineer, speed decides the
• deal, or the pattern generalizes to the next ten partners
• Set the boundary with Customer Success, who own the relationship, and
• Support, who own break-fix. CS flags what an account needs; you decide
• whether it's an FDE build, a platform ask, or neither
• Measure partner growth, volume, and time-to-production — not tickets closed
• Turn the sharpest signal in the company — what partners need in production —
• into scoped, prioritized platform input
• Enforce the productization ratchet: what's built either generalizes into our
• shared platform inside a defined window, or we stop re-investing in it. Guard
• against both failure modes — a silent per-customer fork, and a core roadmap
• hijacked by one-off asks
• Build reference architectures, QA, and monitoring that catch failure modes
• inside the integration rather than in a support queue

• 10+ years in technical roles, with 4+ years leading forward-deployed teams
• Experience building a 0→1 organization or a new service line inside an
• existing company
• A track record of attracting, developing, and retaining senior engineers in a
• competitive market, including personally closing candidates
• You came up as a strong backend or integrations engineer and can still read a
• codebase, whiteboard a system, debug a design, and review architecture
• alongside your team. You are not expected to be in the codebase day to day
• Substantial experience with broker, exchange, or payments integration
• patterns and crypto rails. Our partners' engineers will spot someone learning
• the domain on the job in the first meeting
• A history of embedding with customer engineering teams to deliver complex
• technical work in production
• executives and our own leadership team, including when an integration is on
• fire
• Client-facing instincts: you like being in front of partners, can read a
• room, and can separate the stated ask from the real constraint
• Willingness to push back. You've declined bad requests from partners and
• internal stakeholders alike, and driven alignment across engineering,
• revenue, and product without escalating every disagreement
• Experience defining engagement models, scoping, and pricing for technical
• delivery work
• The total annual compensation for this role is up to $600,000-$900,000, in New
• York or San Francisco. The compensation range provided may span multiple career
• levels and will be narrowed during the interview process based on factors
• including a candidate's experience, skills, qualifications, and geographic
• location. For candidates outside of New York or San Francisco, compensation will
• be adjusted to reflect the applicable market and location-based pay band. The
• base salary range listed excludes commission (if applicable) and benefits. The
• pay range represents the minimum and maximum target for new-hire compensation.
• Actual compensation may vary and may be higher or lower depending on individual
• circumstances.

• At Mesh, you're not stepping into a typical role—you're joining a rocket ship in
• mid-liftoff. You'll tackle complex, meaningful problems that actually move an
• industry forward, working alongside a sharp, motivated team that moves quickly,
• collaborates deeply, and expects everyone to operate with ownership. This is the
• kind of place where you'll see your work ship fast, make real impact, and be
• able to point to something and say, "I built that." You'll grow fast, level up
• your skills, and get a front-row seat to how a high-growth company scales from
• the inside, with competitive comp, solid benefits, and room to stretch your
• craft all coming standard. If you're energized by building, learning, and
• shaping something big—this is where you'll want to be.
• Employees based in our San Francisco, New York, and Bangalore hubs are expected
• to work from the office at least 40% of the time (approximately two days per
• week). This expectation may vary slightly depending on role, team, and business
• needs. Certain roles that require closer cross-functional collaboration or
• operational support may have additional in-office requirements, which will be
• discussed during the interview process. Our hybrid approach is designed to
• balance meaningful in-person collaboration, team building, and real-time
• decision-making with the flexibility to work remotely. We believe this structure
• supports strong execution while preserving autonomy and focus time.
• We believe great work happens when people feel valued and supported. That starts
• with competitive salary and equity that grows as you and the company grow, plus
• comprehensive health coverage for you and your family. We offer unlimited
• PTO—and we mean it. Take the time you need to recharge and show up at your best.
• We're invested in your growth with a dedicated budget for courses, conferences,
• and certifications. Work from wherever you're most productive with our
• remote-friendly approach, and count on having the top-tier tools and equipment
• you need to do exceptional work.