About the role
This is an in-office position. The teams you support are in the field — deployed at program sites, operating our systems and moving data. You are their remote lifeline: when data stops flowing, a field network won't come up, an operator station misbehaves, or a box needs debugging, you resolve it from the office so program staff and the field teams don't have to travel to fix it. You are the Level 2 escalation behind our Level 1 on-site support, and when the support queue is quiet you contribute to general software development. We have a strong preference for an in-person, in-office candidate, though remote may be considered for the right person. Depending on the program you'll also step into Level 1 on-site support — expect roughly 25-33% travel averaged across the year.
What you'll do
- Own the health of our field data pipeline — monitor that data is being captured and uploaded from program sites, diagnose failures, and drive them to resolution remotely.
- Provide Level 2 remote support to Level 1 on-site staff and to program teams on the ground across several field-facing systems: field networking (setup, configuration, mesh/tactical networks), operator control stations, and message-transport systems that connect operators to deployed systems.
- Debug issues across the stack — Linux systems, networking, and our data and comms tooling — and either fix them directly or coordinate the right engineering owner.
- Read and write Python to inspect, patch, and improve support and automation scripts that keep field infrastructure running.
- Document recurring problems and fixes so on-site (Level 1) staff can self-serve, reducing the need for anyone to travel to a site to keep systems running.
- Travel to program sites to provide hands-on Level 1 support when a program needs it — roughly 25-33% of the time, averaged over the year. - Contribute to general software development when the support queue is light — tooling, automation, and features that improve the systems above.
- Act as a utility player: flex onto adjacent software and infrastructure tasks as team needs shift.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent hands-on experience.
- Solid networking fundamentals — able to configure IP addressing, DNS, DHCP, routing/switching, VLANs, and VPNs, and troubleshoot a network from the ground up. Bonus points if you understand how these are implemented and work under the hood.
- Comfortable with Linux and basic command-line debugging (logs, services, processes, connectivity).
- Able to read and write Python for scripting and troubleshooting. - Strong attention to detail and a methodical, follow-through approach to problems.
- Clear communicator who can guide non-experts through steps remotely.
- Willing to travel to program sites for on-site support — roughly 25-33% on average.
- A strong willingness to work with agentic AI to accomplish your goals.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience supporting deployed/field systems or remote sites.
- Familiarity with data pipelines, upload workflows, or large-file data movement. - Experience with field/tactical networking — mesh radios, unreliable links, NAT/gateways.
- Exposure to DevOps practices — CI/CD, containers, config management, monitoring/alerting.
- Some C/C++ is a bonus — helpful for going deeper on our systems over time, but not required to start. - Scripting beyond Python (Bash) and comfort with cloud or on-prem storage.
- Prior help-desk, IT, field-service, or Tier-2 support experience.
- Interest in robotics/autonomy and working alongside field-deployment teams.
US Salary Range
$120,000—$200,000
The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:
- Premium Healthcare Benefits: Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
- Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
- Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
- Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
- A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
- A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
- Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
- 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.
Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.
Forterra is an equal-opportunity employer, providing and promoting equal employment opportunity in accordance with local, state, and federal laws. Forterrans are unique, talented individuals who are united through a shared passion to deliver autonomous systems that enable national resilience and a robust supply chain. All qualified applications will receive equal consideration for employment.