Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer (AI Infrastructure)

$170,000 - $220,000 + Equity + Benefits + PTO
San Francisco, CA - Onsite

Are you an engineer who loves solving complex, real-world problems directly with customers? Do you want to work hands-on deploying cutting-edge AI infrastructure used by developers and enterprises around the world, whilst continuing to develop both your technical and client-facing skillsets.

This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing, profitable startup at the forefront of AI infrastructure, building the compliance and reliability layer that enterprise customers like Adobe, Netflix, and NASA depend on in production. Backed by top-tier investors, the team has built the world's most widely used LLM Gateway - a unified platform that gives developers secure, scalable access to every major LLM provider.

Founded in 2023 and already profitable with $2.5M ARR (targeting $10M by mid-2026), the company is looking for its first Forward Deployed Engineer. someone who thrives at the intersection of customer success, engineering, and systems design. You'll work closely with customers to deploy, optimize, and troubleshoot the platform in production environments while shaping the product roadmap based on real-world insights.

You'll operate as a key technical partner to clients, ensuring smooth integrations, rapid debugging, and performance tuning across infrastructure, backend, and frontend layers. Expect deep technical ownership, customer-facing impact, and the chance to build the foundation of a company defining AI interoperability.

If you want to join a tight-knit, high-caliber team where your code and customer instincts both matter, whilst continuing to develop your skillsets

The Role

• Own the support queue, working through high volumes of customer tickets to drive successful outcomes at pace.
• Diagnose and resolve complex technical issues across the platform, solving for root cause rather than surface-level symptoms.
• Reproduce customer issues across their specific environments, configurations, and integrations.
• Submit pull requests for bug fixes and improvements, contributing directly to the codebase where needed.
• Act as the technical voice of the customer, feeding real-world insights back to product and engineering

The Person

• 1+ years of experience with production-grade backend systems and developer tooling.
• Strong in Python; familiarity with FastAPI, REST APIs, and LLM frameworks a plus.
• Obsessed with root cause (digs deep into problems rather than applying surface-level fixes).
• Strong communicator who thrives in high-volume, customer-facing environments.
• Metrics-driven and hardworking, comfortable operating with high autonomy in a fast-moving team.
• Happy to work on-site in San Francisco

Rise Technical Recruitment Inc of 1011 Centre Rd, Suite 322, Wilmington, DE 19805 act as an employer-paid private personnel agency.

The salary advertised is the bracket available for this position. The actual salary paid will be dependent on your level of experience, qualifications and skill set and will be decided by our client, the employer. Rise are not responsible or liable for any hiring decisions made by the end client.

We are an equal opportunities company and welcome applications from all suitable candidates.