First Engineer Jobs in Washington, DC (NOW HIRING)

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Job Category
Software Engineering
Job Details
About Salesforce
Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn't a buzzword - it's a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.
Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You're in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.
The Experience
At Salesforce, we believe technology should serve the greater good-powering mission outcomes, stewarding taxpayer resources, and enabling innovation at speed and scale. We are seeking a highly skilled and hands-on Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) to join our elite Public Sector team at Salesforce. This is a unique and high-impact position, blending the roles of a technologist and strategic partner. In this role, you will be at the forefront of bringing cutting-edge AI and other transformative solutions to life for mission-critical work across the U.S. Department of Defense, Intelligence Community (IC), and Aerospace & Allied Nations.
This isn't a typical engineering job. It's for those who want to roll up their sleeves and make a tangible difference. You will work directly with mission owners and internal teams to design, develop, and implement bespoke solutions-from AI and enterprise business systems to analytics, field operations, and logistics. You'll use our Agentforce platform and other technologies to tackle our customers' most complex problems, driving tangible value from initial concept to successful deployment and ongoing optimization. This role is a fusion of mission, product, and innovation, where your technical mastery and problem-solving skills will help shape and deliver Salesforce's most strategic national security and allied defense programs while influencing our platform's roadmap.
Mission Impact:

• Deploy Cutting-Edge Commercial Innovation-from Slack-based AI agents to Data Cloud analytics to field service automation-into defense, intelligence, and aerospace environments, accelerating transformation and outcomes.
• Become a Trusted Partner and Collaborate Directly with End-Users in classified and unclassified environments to deeply understand mission needs, operational challenges, and strategic goals and translate them into technical implementations using Salesforce's multi-cloud portfolio.
• Drive Innovation by serving as a connective bridge between customer missions and Salesforce engineering. You'll gather frontline feedback and help co-design features and capabilities that strengthen national security outcomes.
• Improve Efficiency, Mission-Readiness, and Trust by helping the U.S. and allied governments deploy technology that delivers faster response times, better personnel utilization, and more effective logistics and asset management.
• Drive Tangible Outcomes through Hands-On Implementation and end-to-end technical delivery of AI solutions, personally writing code, configuring systems, and troubleshooting issues to ensure successful deployment and measurable business impact.
• Build Transformative AI Solutions by designing, developing, and personally implementing high-quality, scalable production systems. A significant part of this will involve leveraging AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to create intelligent agents and automate workflows, all built on top of the Salesforce platform.
• Direct Ownership of Data Configuration & Integration from end-to-end. You'll design robust data models, build efficient processing pipelines, and establish seamless integration strategies to ingest, transform, and analyze complex datasets. Your work will ensure data is protected and always ready and optimized for our AI applications.
• Drive Agentforce Innovation by becoming an expert in our innovative agentic platform. You'll directly push its capabilities to the limit, developing bespoke intelligent agents, automating intricate business processes, and crafting intuitive user experiences that deliver tangible value.
• Conduct Deep-Dive Technical Debugging and detailed analysis of complex system interactions, data flows, and AI model behaviors to optimize performance and ensure reliability.
• Prototype and Iterate Rapidly to develop proofs-of-concept and minimum viable products, coding alongside client teams to demonstrate capabilities and gather feedback for iterative refinement.
• Implement Best Practices for code quality, scalability, security, and maintainability across all deployed solutions.

We're looking for a builder, a problem solver, and a mission-first engineer with a passion for public service.
What You'll Actually Be Doing

• Serve as the technical advisor on high-profile customer engagements-designing, building, and deploying tailored Salesforce solutions for defense, intelligence, and aerospace missions.
• Partner with internal product and engineering teams to co-develop new platform features that address real-world public sector and IL5/IL6 operational requirements.
• Facilitate integration of AI/ML models, custom data pipelines, and automation flows that enable predictive maintenance, personnel planning, and mission-critical logistics decisions.
• Enable customers to adopt Salesforce for field operations, asset visibility, command center operations, and secure collaboration through Slack and Government Cloud Plus.
• Work with customer IT/security teams to accelerate Authority to Operate (ATO) and production go-lives per DoD IL5/IL6 and other regulatory frameworks.
• Share lessons learned with the broader Salesforce community to shape playbooks, prototypes, and reusable assets for government innovation.
• Partner with mission stakeholders to translate operational priorities into actionable technical roadmaps and Salesforce solutions aligned with agency strategy.

You're Our Person If...

• 3-7 years of experience in software engineering, solutions architecture, or systems integration.
• Strong background in Computer Science or a related engineering discipline.
• Proficiency in one or more programming languages (e.g., JavaScript, Java, Python, Apex).
• Proven track record of hands-on, end-to-end delivery of high-quality, scalable production solutions in a professional environment.
• Hands-on experience building solutions with AI/LLM technologies, including integrating LLMs, applying AI orchestration frameworks, and prompt engineering techniques.
• Experience with data integration, API design, ETL, and AI/ML model deployment.
• Familiarity with analytics, data warehouses, and operational dashboards (e.g. Tableau, CRM Analytics, Snowflake).
• Experience working in or adjacent to secure environments.
• Ability to work in ambiguous, fast-moving environments with high levels of independence.
• Strong communication skills, capable of engaging directly with users, executives, and engineers, with a collaborative mindset, bias for action, and customer obsession.
• Ability to travel 25-50% of the time, as needed to customer sites.
• Must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) living on U.S. soil who does not hold dual citizenship with the ability to meet customer and government screening standards applicable to this role.
• Active TS/SCI with Polygraph required

Even Better If...

• Experience supporting U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), or Federal Civilian agencies.
• Background in defense/aerospace industries or operational military/logistics experience.
• Familiarity with IL5/IL6/CNSS #1253 requirements or deployment to classified environments.
• Direct experience with the Salesforce platform, including configuration, customization, and development.
• Experience with Salesforce Data Cloud and/or Agentforce platform.
• Experience developing conversational AI solutions within regulated industries.
• Salesforce platform certifications (e.g., Administrator, Platform Developer I, Architect, Agentforce Specialist).

#LI-Y
This candidate must be a U.S. citizen (U.S. born or naturalized) who does not hold dual citizenship and agrees to complete a U.S. federal government Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) for a Moderate Public Trust position.
Unleash Your Potential
When you join Salesforce, you'll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we'll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future - but to redefine what's possible - for yourself, for AI, and the world.
Accommodations
If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or the recruiting process, please submit a request via this Accommodations Request Form.
Please note that Salesforce uses artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help our recruiters assess and evaluate candidates' resumes and qualifications throughout the recruiting process. Humans will always make any candidate selection and hiring decisions. Please see our Candidate Privacy Statement for more information about how we use your personal data and your rights, including with regard to use of AI tools and opt out options.
Posting Statement
Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that's inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications - without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.
In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.
At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.The typical base salary range for this position is $96,300 - $176,700 annually. The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.