A Day in the Life of a Forward Deployed Systems Engineer (FDSE)
The Problem Factories Face
In factories that build anything from satellites to batteries, the scariest thing isn’t the hardware. It’s the spreadsheet.
“Shadow” systems creep in everywhere. Imagine a propulsion team that is tracking thruster burns in Excel because the parser broke. Meanwhile, a calibration log sits in Jira, completely departed from reality. Engineers are left to shrug and patch things by hand, while managers look the other way and hope everything comes together in the end. But make no mistake, everyone suspects - with a cringe - that it’s fragile.
That fragility is what most vendors ignore. They sell software, drop off a playbook, and disappear. The cycle is predictable: workshops, slide decks, templates, and promises that fixes will arrive in the next release. But unfortunately (or fortunately!) factories don’t run on release notes. They run on data, and if that data is late, wrong, or scattered, production grinds to a halt.
That’s why First Resonance built the Forward Deployed Systems Engineer (FDSE) program. FDSEs:
- Are ION-native engineers who sit inside the customer’s factory, not across a Zoom link.
- Partner with customers to understand their challenges scaling manufacturing operations and build solutions to solve them.
- Solve problems through building new ION functionality, squashing bugs, automating workflows, or designing processes.
- Be a voice for the customer with the First Resonance product teams to ensure their needs are met.
Move Fast, Always Evolve.
If the FDSE sounds like a mission-critical role, that’s because it is. But it’s not just because factories are falling apart every day. The role exists for operators who are building things that can’t wait for a friendly quarterly vendor call. “So, how’s everything going over there?” “Can I send you a gift card to Chili’s?”
No, factories in aerospace, energy, robotics (the ones where a week’s delay is a million-dollar hit) need software that adapts with them in real time. That’s what an FDSE brings. They don’t sit around crossing their fingers waiting for things to break. They wire new workflows, cut cycle time, close the loop between operators and product, and keep the system evolving as fast as the factory itself.
It’s also not the right fit for every operation. If you’re making commodity widgets with stable processes, you probably don’t need someone embedded. But if you’re pushing the edge of what’s possible (a new propulsion system, next-gen micro-nuclear reactors, etc.) an FDSE is less “extra support” and more, “How you stay ahead of the next problem before it ever shows up.”
Given the mission-criticality and evolution-focused nature of the role, you won’t hear the acronym “FDSE” from many other MES vendors. Let’s face it, ALL automation hits deployment and operational snags. Sure, some more than others. Yet some operations can’t afford to lose any cycles. And they know that even the best systems have edge cases that can cost millions.
FDSE Day in the Life: Aerospace (Satellites)
Morning: The Spreadsheet Time Bomb
Carla’s propulsion team ran burn tests all night. Gigabytes of data should have streamed into ION, attached to digital travelers, ready for QA review. Instead, they’re stranded in Excel. A rig vendor decided Temp_C looked better as Temperature (C). ION’s parser refused to guess and then just stopped cold. Any system would have choked on that.
By 8:45 a.m., engineers were already re-formatting and copy-pasting to patch it. It worked, but only on the surface. Weeks later, QA would find holes in the log, declare subsystems non-compliant, and a launch window worth millions would be cancelled. That’s no exaggeration.
Instead, the FDSE was there, spotted the schema mismatch, patched the parser in ION Actions, reran the ingest, and restored traceability. An hour later, the problem was completely gone. Without the FDSE, it would have been invisible until things turned catastrophic. With the FDSE, it’s just another fire to put out before lunch.
Other MES vendors? They’d file a ticket, push it to a backlog, and ship a patch release in weeks or longer. Meanwhile, the factory would barely hold on even with duct tape. First Resonance embeds engineers who fix it the same day, on the floor, with no release cycle in the way.
Late Morning: The Jira Mirage
Avionics operators are logging part serials in Jira. The board looks pristine today because every ticket is green. But on the benches, the boards and IDs don’t exactly match up. “Things that make you go hmmm.” The illusion works until final QA calls BS on it.
The FDSE does a whole lot more than just call it out. They fix it. Barcode scanners show up on the line while a new ION workflow validates every scan, updating the traveler instantly. What you see in ION is what’s actually on the bench. And that’s when the Jira mirage truly disappears.
Rigid vendors force factories into templates. We’re talking hand-typed serials, clunky custom fields, integrations that take weeks if not a quarter. The special role of the FDSE is designed to deliver workflows in hours, tailored to the factory’s reality, not a roadmap slide.
Afternoon: Adoption on the Line
Carla circles back. “Six-hour burn logs are straining the UI. We can’t even scroll. I’m giving it all she’s got, Captain!” Operators start complaining about ION and you can just barely hear the whispers about going back to Excel. This is the adoption cliff almost all vendors fear: the system feels slower than the hack. It’s a normal phenomenon with automation.
But wait! The FDSE jumps into action, chunking the logs, pushing summaries to the traveler, and archiving raw files. Operators trust ION again. The FDSE also captures and forwards screenshots that will help the ION product team. Feedback moves in hours, not quarters.
Competitors stretch feedback loops across quarters. First Resonance closes them in days, because FDSEs are the factory’s voice inside the product.
Evening: The “Alternate Timeline”
Without an FDSE, Excel patches keep sliding forward, Jira illusions look green, and operators abandon ION for hacks. But even worse, the QA team finds the wreckage literally weeks later. That’s when launches slip and budgets blow up.
With an FDSE, the problems get killed early. Launch schedules hold, QA signs off, and operators trust everything again. Satellites leave the floor on time. Fully audit-ready, launch-safe, the way it must be.
FDSE Day in the Life: Energy (Micro Nuclear Devices)
Morning: The Excel Grind
At a micro-reactor assembly site, end-of-line testers crank out neutron flux curves, coolant flow stability, and thermal margins. That data was supposed to flow straight into ION and tie back to each reactor module’s digital record. Instead, the team was still routing it through an ancient Excel macro nobody wanted to kill.
Overnight, the macro broke, flatlining every result at zero. By morning, perfectly good modules looked like failed cores. Operators then got ready to pull them off the line. Millions in value were about to vanish.
The FDSE jumps in, bypasses the macro, patches the parser inside ION, and reruns the stream. Data flows clean, the modules pass validation, and assembly continues. A lot of scrap was avoided. More importantly, any remaining spreadsheet jockeys become believers.
A traditional vendor would just hand over an integration guide and tell IT to figure it out. FDSEs patch workflows on the spot.
Late Morning: Asana vs. Reality
Calibration logs for radiation sensors sit in Asana. Tasks are marked “done,” but half the sensors are overdue. Nobody even notices because the tracker isn’t wired into reality.
The FDSE integrates calibration checks directly into ION. If a detector is overdue, the traveler blocks progress, so operators can’t even proceed until every instrument is certified. Compliance stops being a side list and becomes the core piece of the workflow itself.
Competitors brag about “digital work instructions.” But only an FDSE wires calibration, compliance, and operator actions into one system that enforces nuclear-grade standards.
Afternoon: Audit Prep Without Tears
The compliance supervisor dreads NRC audits. Who wouldn’t? Evidence lives in SharePoint, inboxes, and local drives. Every audit comes with a mad scramble while shipments of reactor modules sit idle.
The FDSE builds dashboards in ION that tie each reactor’s full test history to its traveler. Every calibration is mapped to the sensor that performed it, and every record is matched to a live audit trail. Weeks of document-hunting get collapsed into a few clicks. The compliance team gets its weekends back, but more importantly, shipments don’t stall while waiting for clearance. Audit-ready becomes the rule, rather than the exception.
Competitors just tell you, “Yeeaah, you’re just gonna have to come in on Saturday to export data to BI tools or buy custom reports.” FDSEs build dashboards right in ION, tuned to the audit at hand.
Evening: The Alternate Timeline
Without FDSE support, broken macros completely wreck production data. Overdue calibrations slip, audits stall shipment, and revenue is the victim.
With FDSEs embedded, the micro nuclear line runs faster and smoother. Compliance is built in, so risk and waste are significantly reduced. Even better, deliveries leave on schedule.
Why It Matters
- For operators, there’s no more duct-taping workflows with spreadsheets or Jira tickets. Every scan, test, and calibration is live in ION.
- For managers, data latency is significantly reduced, error rates down 90 percent, audit prep cut from weeks to hours.
- For executives, literally millions saved by catching cracks early. Launches and shipments delivered on schedule. Now you may be wondering, “millions lost” or “millions saved” … is that hyperbole? Not really. Let’s look at this scenario: If a parser failure drags on, you’re looking at roughly 80 engineers stalled or reworking for a week at a fully loaded rate of $120 an hour, which pencils to about $480,000, plus another $350,000 in rework and material waste on a non-compliant batch, another $200,000 in overtime and freight to claw back schedule, and at least $500,000 in liquidated damages for a conservative milestone slip. It’s the case of one avoidable incident pushing well past a million dollars.
So to summarize:
- Other vendors deliver templates, not fixes. FDSEs deliver working software shaped to the factory’s reality.
- Other vendors wait quarters to respond. FDSEs respond in hours.
- Other vendors ship features. FDSEs build trust.
In industries where the stakes are existential, that’s not optional. It’s the difference between running fast and running blind.
Closing Reflection
Without an FDSE, these kinds of issues might lurk in the background until QA or compliance catches them late. That doesn’t mean ION breaks, but it does mean the factory loses weeks and burns money on rework and expedite. With an FDSE, the issues are solved before they snowball, and the factory keeps moving at full speed.
They do a lot more than solve problems. They stop the escalation that kills launches and stalls shipments. And they do a lot more than ship code. It’s a matter of building trust. And that’s why only First Resonance can keep factories in aerospace and energy (among many other industries) moving at the speed of innovation.