Forward Deployed Engineer (Founding Customer Engineer)
$140k - $185kClera
About the Role We're an early-stage B2B SaaS company building self-improving AI agents that autonomously conduct and personalize product demos for software businesses. Our conversational AI lives on customers' websites, guiding visitors through tailored product experiences — helping companies explain and sell their software without human intervention. We're looking for a Founding Customer Engineer — our first non-founder hire — to own every customer relationship and build the playbook that takes us from our current customer base to thousands. This is a high-impact, ground-floor role where you'll work directly alongside the founding team and shape how we grow. What You'll Do Teach and coach AI agents to sell effectively — defining product tiers, buyer personas, and pricing conversation flows Own customer relationships end-to-end, from onboarding through long-term success, continuously improving demo performance and product adoption Serve as the voice of the customer — analyzing conversation logs and feedback to surface patterns and translate them into actionable product insights Work directly with the CTO to turn customer feedback into shipped product features Build automation workflows and systems (scripting, APIs, low-code/no-code tools) to scale the customer engineering function and eliminate repetitive manual tasks What We're Looking For Required: 0–3 years of experience in a customer-facing technical role in SaaS (e.g., Solutions Engineer, Customer Engineer, Sales Engineer) Strong written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to lead customer onboarding sessions and product demos Hands-on experience building automation workflows to scale customer engineering tasks (scripting, APIs, or low-code/no-code platforms) Experience analyzing customer feedback and conversation data to identify patterns and inform product decisions Ability to collaborate closely with engineering leadership and translate customer needs into product requirements Experience configuring or coaching AI agents for sales contexts, including persona definition and pricing conversation design Instinct for process — you spot repetitive work and immediately think about how to automate it Nice to Have: Background at a product demo, sales enablement, or go-to-market SaaS company Experience at a high-growth early-stage startup or in a "zero-to-one" customer success/engineering function Requirements: Must be authorized to work in the United States — no visa sponsorship available Must be able to work on-site in San Francisco, CA Compensation & Benefits Salary: $140,000 – $185,000 USD annually Early employee equity opportunity at a well-backed seed-stage company Direct collaboration with founders and outsized career growth potential Location This is a full-time, on-site role based in San Francisco, CA. Remote work is not available for this position.
$200k - $300k
...AI Recruiter, is recruiting for on behalf of one of our customers. She will pick the best candidates from Jack's network The next step is to speak to Jack. Job Title: Founding Forward Deployed Engineer Salary: $200-300k + Equity Company Description: Corvera...Customer- Backbone Systems is looking for a Founding Engineer, Forward Deployed in San Francisco, California. This role offers the unique opportunity to deeply understand healthcare workflows and help turn customer pain into effective software solutions. The successful candidate...Customer
- Lovable is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to build innovative AI software solutions. As a founding member, you will work closely with ambitious customers, translating groundbreaking ideas into tangible products. This role goes beyond traditional software engineering...Customer
- Founding Engineer, Forward Deployed About Backbone Care should be paid for the moment it’s delivered. At Backbone, we’re making that possible for the... ..., and Coinbase. Backbone’s revenue is growing quickly, customer demand is outpacing our team, and the road ahead is...Customer
$180k - $260k
...classifies goods, and generates compliant customs filings with minimal manual input —... ...product-market fit and is already deployed with customers processing meaningful... ...The Role We're hiring our first Founding Forward Deployed Engineer to be the technical owner of our deepest...CustomerFull timeVisa sponsorship- A cutting-edge AI firm is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to lead the integration of a powerful software modernization platform into customer environments. This role involves deep engagement with enterprise clients, requiring strong software engineering skills and the...Customer
- Antler is looking for an exceptional Forward Deployed Engineer in San Francisco to create and implement AI-powered solutions. As one of the first in this role, you will collaborate with ambitious customers and help design the function from scratch. The ideal candidate...Customer
- ...Scientists often struggle to fine-tune, deploy, and scale these models, leaving... ...array of tools being released daily. Forward Deployed Engineer About the Role We’re hiring a Forward... ...intersection of engineering, product, and customers — working directly with scientists,...Customer
$140k - $220k
...client, a growing startup in the industrial software industry, are hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer to join their team in San Francisco. The successful candidate will work directly with customers to understand how their businesses truly operate and translate that...Customer- ...Today, we’re already saving customers millions. But this is only the... ...the next. THE ROLE As Founding Product Operations Lead , you... ...the intersection of product, engineering, and operations — turning complex... ...into product. Every deployment becomes a blueprint for scale...Customer
$160k - $230k
...Job Description Job Description Founding Engineer (Forward-Deployed) Location: San Francisco, CA · On-site Compensation: $160K–$230K base... ...world. They need end-to-end engineers who can go from a customer's factory floor to shipping production code in the same...CustomerVisa sponsorship- ...investors and a team of ex-Samsara engineers and fleet operators... ...agentic AI. Our product is deployed with some of the largest fleets... ...handling ~70% of tasks with strong customer satisfaction. We are small,... ...We are looking for a Founding Forward Deployed Engineer to own the...CustomerImmediate startFlexible hours
$200k - $330k
...Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) San Francisco (Onsite) Series B; AI Infrastructure Startup |... ...end-to-end while working directly with customers to turn messy, high-stakes workflows... ...plus ~ Interest in startups or future founding Compensation ~$200K - $330K...Customer- ...exceptional team! The Role We're looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer to work directly within customer environments, implementing and enhancing a... ...action within the systems businesses rely on. The founding team brings experience from Google, Meta, and AWS...Customer
- ...You will individually deploy multi-modal, agentic AI... ..., including prompt engineering, model integration, and... ...features that allow our customers to scale while... ...internal playbooks to scale Forward Deployed Engineering.... ..., growth engineer, or founding engineer/founder)....Customer
$11 per hour
...We are looking for pragmatic engineers who thrive at the intersection of software development and real-world customer impact. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will work directly with... ...platforms. Previous experience in founding, founding engineering, solution engineering...Customer$170k - $220k
...Forward Deployed Engineer (AI Infrastructure) $170,000 - $220,000 + Equity + Benefits + PTO... ...complex, real-world problems directly with customers? Do you want to work hands-on... ...access to every major LLM provider. Founded in 2023 and already profitable with $...Customer- ...Forward-deployed Engineer Automat was founded by a diverse group of creative technologists from teams like Google Creative Lab, and Samsung's innovation... ...-deployed Engineer to interface directly with our customers in an effort to solve their pain points and drive real...CustomerFlexible hours
- ...Forward Deployed Engineer Greenlite builds AI agents for financial crime teams. Fintechs and banks... ...between our AI capabilities and our customers' complex needs in highly regulated banking... ...Why Join Greenlite Be a founding member of our Deployments team, helping...CustomerFlexible hours
$110k - $120k
...Forward Deployed Engineer Embed with leading law firms to implement AI solutions on-site (50-70% travel), gathering critical customer insights that directly shape product development at a fast-growing... ...About CaseMark CaseMark (founded June 2023, Portland, OR) is an...CustomerWork from homeShift work2 days per week- ...We're looking for Forward Deployed Engineers to build custom integrations, workflows, and spearhead new solutions for strategic enterprise customers.... ...programmers, former founders (our founder previously co-founded a unicorn), and AI researchers from top institutions who...CustomerWork at officeFlexible hours
- ...Forward Deployed Engineer Dimensional is building the operating system for general-purpose robotics... ...-market reach. The CEO previously co-founded Mock Industries, now valued at $1.8B... ...Engineer to work directly with customers on real-world robotic deployments. You...Customer
$500 per month
...Giga Agent Engineer Giga has recently raised a $61M Series A... ...is working with Fortune 500 customers to deploy the next generation of customer... ...point. While we've found real commercial success, our... ...brilliant founders, a clear path forward, and the kind of momentum that...Customer- ...We're looking for a world-class Forward Deployed Engineer to help strategic customers deploy Blaxel in real production environments. You will work directly... ..., solutions, platform, customer engineering, founding engineer, or high-context consulting experience is...CustomerWork at office
$160k - $265k
...United States to help them hire. Forward Deployed Engineer Location: San Francisco, CA (Onsite... ...compliance and human oversight. Founded by Stanford alumni with deep... ...Financial Workflow Orchestration Customer Onboarding Automation Banking Compliance...CustomerWork at officeImmediate startRemote work$150k - $275k
...Forward Deployed Engineer We're looking for founding Forward Deployed Engineers who thrive at the intersection of deep technical work and customer impact. You'll own the technical customer relationship post-sale, embedding in their workflows, building production-grade...CustomerWork at office$800 per month
...Your role, should you choose to join us, will be a Forward Deployed Engineer on our founding team. This is where the rubber meets the road. You'... ...freight industry. You'll work directly with enterprise customers to design, build, and deploy custom integrations that...CustomerImmediate startShift work$180k - $300k
...and drives upside. Founded in 2020 by George Sivulka... ...how capital is deployed, how risk is managed,... ...Hebbia's most strategic customers, building the last mile... ...domain. This is a hands-on engineering role. You write... ..., you own it. As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you...Customer$120k - $250k
...Forward Deployed Engineer London, England, United Kingdom; New York, New York, United States; San... ...the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end... ...Deployed Engineer to partner directly with customers to architect, build, and deploy...CustomerWork at officeWork from homeFlexible hours2 days per week- What you'll do Work directly with customers and rethink how their business operates using Avent Understand workflows, constraints, and... ...systems, and make everything feel seamless in real time Own deployments end-to-end and get customers live What we're looking for You...CustomerRelocation
Do you want to receive more vacancies?
Subscribe and receive similar vacancies to Forward Deployed Engineer (Founding Customer Engineer). Be the first to apply!
- customer liaison San Francisco, CA
- customer insights analyst San Francisco, CA
- work from home customer San Francisco, CA
- customer retention San Francisco, CA
- customer engineer San Francisco, CA
- customer satisfaction San Francisco, CA
- customer marketing San Francisco, CA
- customer project program manager San Francisco, CA
- customer engagement
- customer liaison

