Forward Deployment Engineer –Senior - 5G/6G/NTN - US-TX-Austin OF, United States
$119,850 - $215,740 USD yearly
Originally posted 28 September 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role involves working within a customer's development program as a software developer, systems engineer, and deployment lead to ship production code. The position focuses on diagnosing problems deep within the protocol stack (Layer 1 to Layer 3) and delivering controlled releases during early development, integration, and regression cycles for 5G/6G/NTN technologies.
What you'll do
- Lead major or large-scale deployment engagements, coordinating across engineering teams.
- Own technically complex deployment issues from first report to validated fix.
- Work onsite or closely with wireless customer development teams during major feature introductions.
- Analyze signaling flows, traces, timing behavior, and performance data to isolate failures.
- Write and modify application and protocol-stack software, plus supporting software and firmware.
- Develop, validate, and deploy controlled patches, feature flags, and interim releases.
What you'll need
- 6-7 years of relevant software/systems engineering experience.
- Strong software-development experience across multiple software stacks.
- 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.
- Proficiency in C/C++ and 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.
- Ability to produce production-quality code that ships in a customer's build.
Nice to have
- Demonstrated ability to lead technical discussions with customers.
Skills: software developer, systems engineer, protocol stack, C/C++, Python, Linux
This role has been open 12 days — well below the 59-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
683
|
Median days open
59 d
|
Median salary
$213k
|
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 (683 roles · 73 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 13 | 683 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 152 | 6035 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 12 d | 59 d (−47 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $213k |
Skills observed across this category: software developer, systems engineer, protocol stack, C/C++, Python, Linux
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 169 open roles · median 74 d
- NVIDIA · 128 open roles · median 51 d
- AMD · 59 open roles · median 50 d
- Mobileye · 29 open roles · median 73 d
- Broadcom · 22 open roles · median 45 d
- Arm Holdings · 20 open roles · median 107 d
How we counted: 683 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 73 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 10 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 — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.