Deployment Strategist
Forerunner · Portland
Hi! We're Forerunner.
Stronger, more resilient communities are built by the people inside government and regulated industries who keep critical infrastructure running. But they're working against real headwinds: fragmented data, field crews without the right tools, and high-stakes decisions made without a complete picture.
Forerunner exists to fix that. We build intelligent software that connects the systems these agencies and firms already rely on, fills the gaps those systems can't, and turns fragmented information into decisions and actions that reduce liability, surface revenue, and prevent small problems from becoming emergencies.
About the role
As a Deployment Specialist, you will own the end-to-end deployment experience for our customers — from discovery to go-live — ensuring the outcome aligns with business impact. You’ll act at the intersection of strategy, project management, and operational delivery, collaborating with customers, internal teams, and technical resources to make deployments high-quality, repeatable, and outcome-driven.
What you'll do
Customer Discovery & Planning
Lead structured workshops with customers to uncover business objectives, operational constraints, and success metrics.
Translate findings into a clear deployment roadmap and set of deliverables.
Define project scope, milestones, dependencies, and governance.
Project Leadership
Serve as the primary point of contact for the customer during deployment.
Coordinate across cross-functional teams (Forward Deployed Engineer, Customer Success Manager, other internal stakeholders) to ensure alignment and momentum.
Proactively identify risks, manage dependencies, and escalate when necessary.
Provide regular status updates to both the customer and internal leadership.
Solution Design & Oversight
Using both the product front-end and Forerunner MCP, configure client systems and ensure system design stays aligned with business goals.
Work with the Forward Deployed Engineer to scope integrations and customizations.
Ensure that deployment deliverables map back to the business requirements and success criteria.
Customer Enablement & Handoff
Lead user acceptance testing (UAT) and drive readiness for go-live.
Collaborate with the Customer Success Manager to ensure a smooth transition to the ongoing success phase.
Document lessons learned, refine the playbook, and drive continuous improvement across deployments.
What we're looking for
4-6 years of experience in project management, SaaS implementation delivery, customer consulting, and operations. Experience with GIS or construction project management is a plus.
Strong ability to translate ambiguous business challenges into structured, executable plans.
Excellent communication skills with both technical and executive stakeholders.
Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, customer-facing environment where you are building repeatable processes
You’ll thrive in this role if you…
Believe in delivering measurable outcomes to customers, not just checking off tasks.
Enjoy being the glue across teams, driving clarity, and removing friction.
Are comfortable juggling strategic thinking and tactical execution.
Want to build and refine playbooks that scale, not just follow them.
Our team has a lot to offer.
Forerunner is an early stage company with an interdisciplinary team. We are motivated by seemingly intractable problems and work hard to support one another.
We're mission-driven. Our mission orients our business strategy and pushes us to work with a sense of urgency. We’re in the weeds -- our entire team spends time engaging with our partners in the field to better understand the real-world problems they face.
We're a small team. As a member of our growing team, you will quickly become an invaluable part of our organization and have a meaningful impact on our business and technical direction. We welcome unique perspectives and backgrounds. Your opinion matters and we hope you'll share it.
We value in-person collaboration. Some of our best work happens when we're solving problems together in the same room, so this role is hybrid and based near one of our offices: New York City, San Francisco, or Portland, Maine.
We want you to be happy and healthy. Forerunner offers competitive compensation, health/vision/dental coverage, and commuter benefits. We also have a quarterly wellness reimbursement so that you can have flexibility in defining what “health” means to you.
The salary range for this position is 120,000-165,000. This posting may span more than one career level. Compensation is determined based on a variety of factors, including an individual's skills, experience, and qualifications.
Forerunner is an equal opportunity employer committed to embracing diversity and the perspectives of individuals from all backgrounds.
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