Forward Deployed Engineer

Overlay is one of the fastest-moving AI companies in Adelaide, building things most people haven't worked out yet. And we are on the hunt for our next superstar Forward Deployed Engineer . If you find comfort in discomfort, are at home in front of customers, and know when AI should get the work and the human steps in, then look no further for the best place in town to be a continuous learner, and to reach your full potential fast.

About Overlay

Overlay builds two things: computer vision that watches physical processes so people don't have to, and AI agents that run the processes, both back office and front office, that were never a good use of anyone's time. Both exist for the same reason, something called Uniquely Human AI . Hand the repetitive part of the work to the machine. Keep the judgement with a person. Every agent Overlay ships carries a confidence score and the evidence behind its recommendation. There’s a defined point where a human reviews, before anything happens. Overlay’s engineers work directly alongside customers, inside real operations, to get that balance right for each business.

Our values

As Overlay grows, these don't change. They're our foundation.

Got Your Six

We've always got each other's back. We show up for our team and our customers. When things get tough, we lean in, not away. We take ownership and see it through.

What that means here: talent doesn't buy you a pass on being difficult to work with. We'll pick the reliable teammate over the brilliant lone wolf, every time.

Colour Outside Lines

Rules are suggestions. Be Bold. We question assumptions and challenge the status quo. We don't wait for permission to improve what's broken. If there's a better way, we build it.

What that means here: we want your read on a customer's process from week one, not once you've put in your time. If a rule doesn't make sense, say so.

Right Over Easy

Integrity, even when no one's watching. We do the right thing, especially when it's hard. Trust is built in small, daily decisions. We choose long-term credibility over shortcuts.

What that means here: we won't ask you to oversell a customer to hit a number. If doing right by the customer costs us the sale, we take the loss.

Learn Apply Repeat

Curious minds grow faster. We turn curiosity into action. We test, measure, and improve. Every lesson makes us sharper.

What that means here: coasting isn't an option. We expect you to have something you're working toward, and to actually be working on it.

What that can look like in your first year

Early on, you're shadowing a senior engineer on a live deployment. Not a training module. Learn Apply Repeat start on day one.

A few months in you're in front of a customer on your own. The standard fix isn't right for their process, and it would be easier to say it is. You say so anyway.

Later that year, you hit a call you're genuinely unsure about: how much of a new system runs on its own, and where a person still checks it. You don't make that call alone. The senior engineer next to you works through it with you.

By the end, you're the one telling a customer their process isn't ready to run unsupervised, even though the easier conversation was sitting right there. You also leave behind documentation clear enough for their own team to run what you built, before you're on to the next site.

The role

The Forward Deployed Engineer role at Overlay is based in Adelaide. You will embed with a customer and work out, alongside them, what's actually slowing their operation down. From there, you help decide whether the fix is computer vision, an agent, or both.

You also help set where the confidence dial sits for a system that's new to that business: how much runs on its own, and where a person stays in the loop. You will do this early in your tenure, working next to a senior engineer rather than solo. You'll document what you build. Clear enough that the customers own team can run it once you've moved on to the next build.

Site visits may be required over time, so expect some light, local travel.

What you bring

• A working foundation in computer science: data structures, algorithms, and how systems fit together.
• Comfortable g software and picking up. new languages and tools as the work demands.
• Some practical exposure to back end development: APIs, databases, server side logic. A job, a project, or something you built on your own all count.
• An understanding of object oriented programming and how it holds up in a real, running system.
• Early career. You don't need years of runtime.
• You've actually finished something. Nobody made you, but you saw it through anyway.
• Curious about the mechanism, not just the outcome: Why something breaks, not just that it did.
• Comfortable sitting with a customer, asking questions, and turning what you hear into a technical plan.
• A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related field, or the equivalent in experience or worked out on your own.

What you'll get

• Competitive salary.
• On successful completion of probation, an employee share option package may be issued.
• Direct mentorship from the team that built Overlay, on real customer deployments inside your first 12 months.
• Guaranteed fast tracked career growth.

How to apply

A resume tells us what you have done. It doesn't tell us how you think. So, we’ve devised a challenge. It shouldn’t take days. We’re looking for around 2 - 3 hours of effort.

Pick something you have watched run the same way more times than you can count, a process, a workflow, something nobody's touched in years, where people are doing work that doesn't need them instead of the work that does. Show us what you'd build to change that, and just as importantly, what you'd still leave for a person to decide.

We are more interested in what you noticed, how you think, and the way you approach a problem, than we are in the right answer.

Record a short video, walking through your thinking, 3 to 5 minutes, plus whatever supporting material helps make your case, a sketch, some diagrams, a workflow, anything. Email it to ***email_hidden*** with Overlay FDE Application - [YOUR NAME] - [DD/MM/YYYY] in the subject.

Attach your resume with relevant experience and education; however, it will not be a deciding factor.

Every submission gets a real response from us within two weeks. If your submission turns heads, the conversation will start before the end of the ad cycle. Blind applications will be ignored.