Forward Deployed Engineer

Forward Deployed Engineer

Ship today's fix, build tomorrow's product

$180k-$250k + options

San Francisco

Plain is redefining customer support and customer success for the next generation of B2B companies. We’re building the fastest, most powerful platform to help companies move beyond reactive support and build meaningful customer relationships.

Some of the world’s most forward-thinking companies - like Cursor, Vercel, and Granola - trust Plain to unify all customer interactions, enable faster team collaboration, and supercharge their workflows with AI.

We have offices in SF and London. This role is hybrid with 3 days a week in our SF office. Because we work closely with our teammates in Europe, we start early, but you’ll find quiet afternoons for heads-down work.

Why this role is special

Our most strategic customers do not arrive through self-serve. They arrive with an existing support setup, a lot of context to migrate, and workflows that do not exist in Plain yet. Getting them live is genuine engineering work, and today that work lands on the core engineering team. It gets done, and it gets done well, but it moves the roadmap around more than we want it to.

That is the gap this role closes. You own that work end to end, which means customers get an engineer whose entire job is their problem, and the core team gets a clearer run at the product. The other half of the job is deciding which of that work should stop being bespoke and become product, so the same thing never gets built twice.

What you’ll do

• Work directly with customers to diagnose the problem, scope the fix, and ship it end to end.

• Own the system design for customer deployments, trading off correctness, scale, and speed as the situation demands.

• Explain the plan and the tradeoffs to whoever is in the room, engineer or not.

• Work with Sales, CX, Product, and core Engineering to get what you learn into the roadmap.

• Help define how the Forward Deployed function runs as it grows.

This is a great fit if you…

• Have built and shipped full-stack products end to end. You are at home in modern frontend (React and TypeScript) and you write backend that holds up in production.

• Prototype quickly and learn from real usage. You would rather put something in front of a customer and change it than get the design right on paper first.

• Communicate exceptionally well. You can run a customer call, turn a vague ask into concrete scope, and write it up so nobody has to ask what was agreed.

• Have strong product sense. You can separate what a customer asked for from what they actually need, you know which one-off work should turn into product and which should stay one-off, and you have the taste to decide whether it is worth building at all.

• Own the outcome without much scaffolding. This is an IC role in an early-stage, ambiguous environment, and you do not wait for clean requirements before unblocking someone.

• Stay calm when things get tense. Delays, bugs, and de-scoping conversations come with the job, and you can say yes to the reasonable asks while pushing back on the rest.

Our tech stack

We choose tools that empower both humans and AI:

• Frontend: React and TypeScript

• Backend: TypeScript and GraphQL

• Cloud: AWS, Cloudflare, and multiple LLM providers

• Tooling: GitHub Actions, Datadog, Terraform, and more

The stack keeps evolving with whatever works best.

This won't be the right role if you…

• Want a heads-down role with no customer contact.

• Have little patience for customer messiness.

• Over-engineer, and chase perfection at the cost of speed.

• Struggle to say no, or take every request at face value.

• Only thrive with detailed specs and stable requirements.

The salary range for the role is $175k-$215k + equity. Actual compensation is determined based on experience, qualifications, and scope of the role.

We build Plain for teams that care deeply about their craft. We hold ourselves to the same standard when building our own team. Plain is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. We encourage anyone excited about this role to apply.

If you need an accommodation at any point during the hiring process, please let your recruiter know. We're happy to support.

Benefits

Competitive comp structure

Competitive salary, and a generous option grant on employee-friendly terms.

Team-wide offsites

Two global offsites per year in great locations, plus team-based offsites throughout the year.

Generous time off

35 days annual leave - including public holidays - to take as you wish.

First Friday of the quarter off

4 extra days off a year, a chance for all of us to recharge at the beginning of a quarter

Private Health Insurance

100% employee coverage, dental and vision, access to out-of-network care. Also included: life insurance.

$100 Monthly Wellness Credit

Expense up to $100/month for your gym membership, ClassPass, monthly massage… you name it!

$1000 WFH stipend

If you join us remotely, you get a one-time $1,000 to set up your workspace and make sure you're productive.

Retirement Planning

UK and Ireland: Employer matching up to 5%. USA: Contribute to your 401k pre-tax, with no employer match.

Join the teams who rely on Plain to provide world-class support