Forward Deployment Engineer Lead

Job Description Overview:

We are reimagining the software development lifecycle by integrating AI-assisted workflows into our core engineering process. Our team builds products while also improving how products are defined, prototyped, validated, tested, and delivered.

We believe tools such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, AI agents, Claude AI, Replit, Lovable, Perplexity and other emerging development platforms can help engineers and product teams move faster, reduce repetitive work, and make better technical decisions.       

This role is designed for a builder who enjoys high ownership, fast iteration, cross-functional collaboration, and practical problem-solving. The ideal candidate can work close to the market, understand customer and sales feedback, translate needs into product and engineering direction, and help accelerate development between the U.S. market and Taiwan-based engineering teams.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• This role is currently structured as a Professional Pathway / Senior Individual Contributor role with cross-functional leadership responsibility.
• The candidate may lead projects, contractors, vendors, testing initiatives, and cross-functional stakeholder alignment. Direct people management is not necessarily required at the beginning, but the role may evolve into a direct team management position depending on business needs, organizational growth, and future scope.

•          AI-Augmented Development - Design and manage AI-assisted development workflows that improve engineering productivity, code quality, documentation, prototype quality, and delivery speed. Evaluate and apply tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, AI agents, Claude AI, Replit, Lovable, Perplexity, and other emerging platforms where they can create measurable value.

• Forward-Deployed Product Execution - Work close to the U.S. market, customers, sales teams, and field feedback to identify real product needs, clarify technical requirements, and translate business opportunities into actionable product and engineering direction.
• ISP / Router Compatibility Validation - Support testing and validation of ASUS router products across different U.S. Internet Service Provider environments. Help identify compatibility issues, collect field data, document findings, and translate market-specific network conditions into clear engineering feedback.
• End to End Product Execution - Take ownership of product development from early concept and proof-of-concept through high-fidelity prototypes, technical validation, and production handoff. Work closely with engineering, product, design, QA, sales, and business stakeholders to ensure solutions are scalable, stable, and aligned with business goals.
• Rapid Prototyping and Validation - Build, test, and iterate quickly using a build-measure-learn approach. Create prototypes, functional demos, workflow simulations, and validation materials to test product logic, user workflows, technical feasibility, and market fit before full-scale implementation.
• User-Centered Product Concept Development - Create practical and innovative product concepts based on user-centered design methods, customer insights, market needs, and technical feasibility. Translate user problems into clear product opportunities, interaction flows, feature ideas, validation plans, and development direction.
• Cross-Domain Integration - Work on technical challenges involving hardware-software integration, firmware, web UI, mobile applications, cloud services, networking products, and connected-device ecosystems. Help ensure smooth communication, data consistency, and reliable performance across endpoints.
• Product-to-Engineering Translation - Partner with product, design, sales, marketing, and engineering stakeholders to clarify requirements, user flows, edge cases, technical constraints, market expectations, and implementation priorities. Help reduce ambiguity before development and support smoother execution from prototype to production.
• Cross- Department Stakeholder Alignment - Align product concepts, business needs, user insights, technical feasibility, and resource requirements across departments. Communicate effectively with management, executive stakeholders, and cross-functional leaders to gain alignment, secure additional resources, and move promising concepts into further development.
• Taiwan-U.S. Team Bridge - Build trust and improve communication between Taiwan-based development teams and U.S. sales, marketing, customer-facing, and product teams. Translate market feedback, product expectations, technical limitations, and business priorities clearly across both sides.
• Workflow and Process Innovation - Research and introduce emerging AI development tools, automation methods, CI/CD practices, and engineering workflows that improve team efficiency, product clarity, validation quality, and development speed.

Knowledge and Skills:

• As a Forward Deployment Engineering Lead, you will bring a product-first, customer-facing, and technically fluent mindset to the development process. You will use AI tools, rapid prototyping methods, user-centered design, and strong technical judgment to accelerate the path from market needs to validated product solutions.
• You will help bridge the gap between customer requirements, product ideas, proof-of-concepts, user validation, ISP/router compatibility testing, and scalable engineering execution. This role requires someone who can work across hardware, firmware, web UI, mobile applications, cloud services, networking environments, and connected-device ecosystems.
• In addition to technical execution, this role requires strong cross-functional and executive-level communication. You will help align early product concepts with stakeholders, communicate upward to secure support and resources, and build trust between Taiwan-based development teams and U.S. sales, product, and market-facing teams.
• The ultimate goal of this role is to accelerate ASUS U.S. product development by bridging market needs, AI-assisted prototyping, ISP/router compatibility validation, Taiwan engineering execution, and scalable product implementation.

Required Qualifications:

Years of Education

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent practical experience in Human-Computer Interaction, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Product Design, Human Factors, or a related technical/product discipline.

Work Experience

• 10+ years of relevant professional experience in product development, product engineering, hardware-software integration, networking or connected-device products, cross-functional product development, AI-assisted development, or related fields.
• Proven experience working across hardware, software, firmware, web UI, mobile applications, cloud services, or connected-device ecosystems.
• Proven experience creating creative product concepts based on user-centered design, customer insights, market needs, and technical feasibility.
• Proven experience communicating product concepts, technical tradeoffs, market opportunities, and resource needs to senior leadership or executive stakeholders.
• Strong ability to translate market needs, customer feedback, and product ideas into clear technical and product requirements.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams across product, engineering, UX, sales, marketing, QA, business, and external partners.
• Strong iterative mindset with the ability to prototype, test, learn, refine, and move quickly from concept to validation.
• Strong Mandarin-English communication capability is strongly preferred, especially for collaboration between Taiwan-based development teams and U.S. sales or market-facing teams.
   

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s degree preferred, especially for candidates who pursued graduate education after gaining meaningful professional experience in a related field. This demonstrates long-term dedication to the profession and the ability to connect academic training with practical industry experience.
• Strongly preferred experience with AI-assisted development or prototyping tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor, AI agents, Claude AI, Replit, Lovable, Perplexity, or similar platforms.
• Strongly preferred experience with router products, networking products, ISP compatibility testing, firmware-adjacent development, connected devices, cloud-connected hardware, or U.S. field validation.
• Experience taking software, hardware, or connected products through the full lifecycle from ideation and prototyping to launch, iteration, and production support.
• Experience applying user research, interaction design, journey mapping, usability thinking, or human-centered design methods to define new product concepts and improve product direction.
• Familiarity with network security, secure development practices, or “security by design” principles, especially in connected-device or networking environments.
• Experience working in Agile, Scrum, or Kanban environments, with exposure to CI/CD, automated testing, code review, and iterative release practices.
• Portfolio, GitHub profile, prototype demos, startup projects, product case studies, or other examples that demonstrate building process and problem-solving ability.

Working Conditions:

• This role is primarily remote, with expected travel to ASUS offices and testing locations as needed.
• The candidate will need to visit the Arizona and Los Angeles offices to build internal relationships, understand local market needs, support cross-functional collaboration, and strengthen alignment with regional teams.
• Domestic travel is expected to be approximately 10–20%. Once West Coast ISP testing coverage is established, the candidate may need to travel to the East Coast to help set up additional testing bases and expand regional validation coverage.
• International travel is also required. An expected travel frequency of approximately once every 3–6 months is preferred, depending on business needs and project phases. International travel will primarily support in-person collaboration with development teams, executives, product stakeholders, and regional teams to build trust, strengthen team connections, align product direction, and support product validation.

• Requires sitting, operating a computer keyboard, telephone and other office equipment for extended periods of time

Who You Are

Product-Minded Engineering Lead

You care about solving the right problem, not just building features. You understand how to connect user needs, business goals, technical feasibility, and implementation.

Forward-Deployed Problem Solver

You are comfortable working close to real users, customers, sales teams, ISP environments, and market-facing stakeholders. You can identify practical needs from the field and turn them into clear technical and product direction.

User-Centered Concept Creator

You have proven experience creating creative product concepts through user-centered design. You can identify real user problems, synthesize insights, and turn them into practical product ideas that teams can evaluate, prototype, validate, and build.

Technically Curious

You enjoy exploring new frameworks, tools, and AI-assisted development workflows. You are comfortable learning quickly and applying new technologies in practical ways.

Adaptable and Tool-Agnostic

You are not limited to one language, framework, or workflow. You choose the right tool for the job and can adjust as project needs evolve.

Pragmatic Executor

You have a bias toward building, testing, and learning. You can turn abstract ideas into functional prototypes, demos, validation plans, and production-ready products.

Strong Iterative Mindset

You are comfortable revisiting assumptions, refining solutions, and improving implementation quality through feedback, testing, user validation, and continuous iteration.

Cross-Functional Communicator

You can communicate clearly with engineering, product, UX, firmware, cloud, mobile, sales, marketing, business, and executive stakeholders. You help teams stay aligned and move forward with less friction.

Executive-Level Alignment Experience

You have experience communicating product concepts and development needs upward to management or executive stakeholders. You can frame opportunities clearly, explain tradeoffs, and help secure the support or resources needed for further development.

Mandarin-English Communication Capability

You can work effectively across Taiwanese development teams and U.S. sales or market-facing teams. You understand how to build trust across cultures, reduce communication gaps, and keep both sides aligned.

Why Join Us?

This role offers the opportunity to help shape how modern software, networking, and connected products are built in the AI era. You will work with a team that values technical leverage, practical innovation, creative problem-solving, user-centered product thinking, and continuous improvement.

You will also play an important role in strengthening communication between product, engineering, sales, executives, and international teams, helping turn U.S. market needs and user insights into better ASUS products faster.

If you are excited about using AI-assisted workflows, rapid prototyping, user-centered product thinking, forward-deployed engineering, and cross-functional execution to build better products, we would be excited to speak with you.

$156,000 - $216,000 annually is the estimated pay range for this role working California or Oregon. The final amount will be determined based on qualifications & experience of the candidate relative to the role. Our comprehensive employee benefits include bonuses, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D insurance, Paid Time Off, EAP, & 401(k).

ASUS is an equal employment opportunity employer. The Company makes employment decisions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, pregnancy/ breastfeeding, medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth, sexual orientation, age, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, as well as any other characteristic protected by law, regulation or local ordinance, and strives to comply with all applicable laws on the subject. These employment decisions extend to hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, termination, recruitment, pay and other forms of compensation, training and other terms and conditions of employment.