Founding FDA (Forward Deployed Architect)

About this role

Coding AI IDEs changed how software is built. Catio is reinventing how software is decided and governed.

As AI accelerates code, the real bottleneck has moved upstream: what to build, what to modernize, and how to make architectural decisions with speed and confidence.

Catio is the Architecture IDE https://catio.docsend.com/view/3e5x8wtpw4py8cdq — the control plane for modern software systems. We build a living model of production systems, align business goals with technical reality, and generate decision-grade insights, modernization and optimization plans, and execution-ready feature specs. Catio amplifies architects and engineering leaders the way coding copilots amplify developers. See this Demo https://docsend.com/view/d9pqni5xzwx98bzc.

Backed by Eniac Ventures, RRE, and operators from Databricks, Dropbox, Akamai, and Cerner, we’re defining a new category in software and infrastructure.

THE ROLE

We’re hiring our Founding FDA (Forward Deployed Architect) to create the technical backbone of Catio’s commercial motion.

This is a foundational role. You are the owner of proof and outcomes — responsible for taking customers from ambiguous business and product objectives and constraints to validated, production-ready architectures, establishing a new product category in the process.

You will work end-to-end with customers — from initial architecture discovery through proof-of-value and into real production impact. Your job is to establish deep technical trust, map complex systems and constraints, and translate them into decision-grade artifacts that unlock meaningful outcomes in real production systems.

This is a hybrid motion:

- You will directly engage senior engineering users (architects, staff+ engineers, platform teams) through both product-led entry and field-driven demand creation in close partnership with a Founding AE

- You will convert technical usage and discovery into credible proof — and carry that through to real, production-grade architectural outcomes

- You will drive that proof upward — enabling the AE and CEO to multi-thread to executive stakeholders with clear success criteria and a credible path to achieving their goals

You will operate across both technical and executive layers — working with engineers to understand real systems, and with leadership to align on modernization strategy, developer productivity, and architectural tradeoffs.

The work is deeply consultative and system-oriented — mapping real production environments, surfacing architectural tradeoffs, and guiding early implementations that prove value in production.

This role blends forward-deployed architecture, technical consulting, and early product/GTM shaping.

If you’ve taken ambiguous, high-stakes business and architecture problems inside complex enterprise systems — and turned them into real-world outcomes and then into repeatable patterns — you’ll be set up to have outsized impact here.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

- Lead architecture discovery with technical prospects and customers to map production realities — topology, dependencies, constraints, and modernization goals

- Translate ambiguous business objectives and constraints into structured engineering plans — defining success criteria, proof-of-value approaches, and decision-grade artifacts

- Design and execute repeatable proof-of-value engagements that validate Catio in real customer environments and establish a clear path to production

- Create decision-grade artifacts — architecture summaries, risk/trade-off analyses, modernization plans, and credible paths to production

- Work alongside customer teams to deliver real outcomes with Catio across the full lifecycle — embedding when needed to ensure production impact

- Partner with Account Executives to multi-thread complex deals and elevate engagement to executive sponsors (CTO, VPE, platform leadership)

- Build and standardize repeatable assets — reference architectures, POV frameworks, and implementation patterns that scale

- Feed high-fidelity insights from customer work back into product, deployment strategy, and architectural methodology

- Help shape how Catio is deployed, validated, and adopted across modern enterprise software environments

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

EXPERIENCE

- Demonstrable experience in Solutions Architecture, Sales Engineering, Forward-Deployed Engineering, or Technical Consulting within high-growth SaaS, infrastructure, AI/ML, DevTools, or cloud-native environments

- Experience operating across both technical validation and delivery, taking ambiguous problems from framing → plan → production outcome

- Experience supporting complex, multi-stakeholder enterprise sales cycles as the technical authority alongside an AE or sales leader

- Demonstrated success leading proof-of-value or pilot engagements that converted into production deployments and closed enterprise deals

- Hands-on experience integrating platforms into enterprise systems — APIs, cloud providers, orchestration layers, CI/CD pipelines, data platforms

- Experience operating in early-stage or founder-led environments where solution frameworks and technical playbooks were still being built

- Exposure to modern data, cloud, AI-native, and infrastructure ecosystems (hyperscalers, data platforms, container orchestration, developer infrastructure)

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE (HOW YOU OPERATE)

- Technical peer, not a performer — you earn trust with CTOs, Principal Engineers, and platform teams through real systems understanding and crisp thinking

- Structured + diagnostic — you bring structure to ambiguity and can reflect the problem, constraints, and trade-offs clearly

- Outcome-oriented — you focus on delivering meaningful customer results, not just validating technology

- Repeatability builder — you turn early customer work into scalable assets and implementation patterns

- PLS-native (sales-assisted) — you move quickly on intent signals and package proof that helps…