Forward Deployment Engineer – Senior - 5G/6G/NTN - US-CA-Santa Clara-Bldg 2-Keysi, United States
$148,080 - $246,790 USD yearly
Originally posted 21 October 2026 by the employer.
Embed inside customer programs to integrate and ship protocol stack software across Layer 1 to Layer 3.
About the role
The Senior Forward Deployment Engineer works embedded inside a customer's development program as a software developer, systems engineer, and deployment lead to customize, integrate, and ship production code. The role diagnoses issues deep within the protocol stack (Layer 1 to Layer 3), modifies software, validates fixes, and delivers controlled releases during customer integration and regression cycles.
What you'll do
- Lead major deployment engagements and serve as the technical resource for deployment issues across Keysight and customer engineering teams. - Analyze signaling flows, traces, timing behavior, and performance data to isolate failures across Keysight and customer implementations. - Write and modify application and protocol-stack software, supporting software, firmware, and Python APIs that customer teams integrate against. - Build automation workflows inside customer systems and develop diagnostic instrumentation when existing tools are insufficient. - Develop, validate, and deploy controlled patches, feature flags, and interim releases under Keysight's release process. - Act as a feedback loop to core product and engineering teams, translating field issues into engineering requirements and defects for R&D.
What you'll need
- Bachelor's or Master's degree (or equivalent) with 6-7 years of relevant software/systems engineering experience. - Strong software-development experience across multiple software stacks, with the ability to produce production-quality code. - Proficiency in C/C++, Python (including API development), Linux, embedded or real-time software, and automated testing. - Experience debugging protocol interactions through logs, traces, packet captures, call flows, and timing analysis. - Familiarity with 3GPP specifications and the practical differences among standards compliance, interoperability, and implementation behavior. - Experience in design and test instrumentation and test emulation tools.
Nice to have
- Preferred expertise in at least one domain (PHY/L1, MAC/RLC/PDCP and L2, or RRC/NAS and L3), plus working knowledge of adjacent layers and end-to-end 4G, 5G, and 5G-Advanced system behavior.
Skills: 5G, protocol stack, Layer 1 to Layer 3, C++, Python APIs
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 51-day median for Applications FAE roles.
Applications FAE · RF Frontend
|
Open roles in category
75
|
Median days open
51 d
|
Median salary
$137k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Keysight Technologies | All employers we track in this specialty (75 roles · 18 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 24 | 75 |
| Median days open | 50 d | 51 d (−1 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $137k |
Skills observed across this category: 5G, protocol stack, Layer 1 to Layer 3, C++, Python APIs
Who's hiring in this category
- Keysight Technologies (this employer) · 24 open roles · median 50 d
- QORVO · 12 open roles · median 51 d
- Analog Devices · 10 open roles · median 83 d
- Texas Instruments · 7 open roles · median 71 d
- Silicon Labs · 4 open roles · median 96 d
- Coherent Corp · 2 open roles · median 8 d
How we counted: 75 open Applications FAE (RF Frontend) roles from 18 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 21 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there. Figures refresh nightly.