© 2026 Forward Deployed Designs
Welcome to Forward Deployed Designs
Meet our team leaders.
  • Thomas McMerty
    CEO and Owner
    Former US Army Special Forces. CS graduate from NC State. 6 years of experience in IT with startups, such as Vultr, and personal startups, with projects deployed in Ruby on Rails, React, Golang, Flutter, and WordPress.
  • Richard Cassada
    Chief Military Engineer
    Military-grade engineering, high-speed digital imaging systems, optical alignment for advanced aircraft platforms (F-15, F-16, Apache), Department of Energy research and development, and advanced CAD-based design, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and rapid prototyping.


  • Taylor Gronka
    CTO
    Senior Software Engineer and Architect with 16 years experience developing end-to-end solutions for startups and the Fortune 100 companies Cisco and MetLife. Recently worked at Bowhead with USACE for HPC applications. ECE from Duke University.
    >25 years reading software security e-zines.
    LinkedIn
Connect with us
100% Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business
Hubzone Qualified
8A Qualified
Made on
Tilda