Head of Forward Deployed Engineering

The posting, as Mesh wrote it

About Mesh

At Mesh, our mission is to enable consumers to pay and be paid with any asset. Today, trillions of dollars in tokenized assets exist but remain largely unusable for everyday commerce. Mesh is bridging this gap by making crypto payments reliable, useful, and ubiquitous. We combine a powerful orchestration engine with a seamless consumer app to unlock liquidity for the world. Backed by leading investors like SBI, Money Forward, Paradigm, Dragonfly, Galaxy, and PayPal Ventures, we are building the infrastructure for the next era of the global economy. Join us!

Overview

Mesh is looking for an exceptional leader to build and scale our Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) organization — a new function at the company, starting with you. We have a strong preference for someone who resides in the New York City area or San Francisco.

Reporting to our CTO, you'll lead a team of senior engineers who embed directly with a small, capped set of our most strategic partners — exchanges, neobanks, and prediction markets that drive the lion's share of our volume. These partners aren't buying a static product off the shelf. They're buying working crypto rails inside their product, against their brokers, their compliance posture, and their release schedule. The gap between a demo that works and a production integration that survives contact with a partner's environment is where deals stall, and where generic support queues and quarterly roadmap cycles fail.

Our thesis is simple: FDE sits inside Engineering, not in a services org. An FDE ships code that lands in the account and when it generalizes in our core platform. Engagements are time-boxed with a clear "ship something working end-to-end" milestone — not open-ended residencies. And the function stays deliberately small. The moment it needs a manager of managers, it has stopped being FDE and become consulting with an engineering badge. Holding that line is a core part of the job.

This role requires equal parts technical judgment, commercial acumen, and organizational leadership. You need to be technical enough to earn immediate credibility with a partner's top engineers, scope an integration live on a call, and call out a bad architectural decision — but your leverage comes from the team you build and the alignment you drive, not from the code you personally write.

What You'll Do

Build and scale the FDE organization

• 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

Own delivery at our most strategic accounts

• 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

[…]
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.

In-Office Expectations

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.

How We Care For Our Team

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.

Mesh Pay is committed to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, genetic information, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, lawful alien status, national origin, age, marital status, and non-job related physical or mental disability, or protected veteran status. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.