Forward Deployed Solution Engineer

Symmetry is the payroll infrastructure for software & payroll platforms powering the paychecks of over 64 million workers each year. Our fully integrated suite of payroll tax APIs and software tools allows companies to solve tax compliance issues and build applications across the entirety of the payroll process.

AI is a fundamental part of how work gets done at Symmetry. We expect all team members to actively engage with AI tools relevant to their role and grow their fluency as the technology evolves. AI experience requirements vary by role and will be assessed during the interview process.

About the Team

This role will be a hybrid of two roles: Solutions Engineering (pre-sales discovery, demos, requirements gathering) and Forward Deployed Engineering (hands-on build, integration, production delivery). The same person who helps win the deal also builds the integration that proves it out, which means the technical credibility built in the demo carries straight through into delivery, and nothing gets lost in a handoff between two different people who've never met the client.

The role sits under Symmetry's Forward Deployed Compliance (FDC) program, which exists to prove out and unlock paid adoption of Symmetry's AI surface, STE MCP, Guides webhooks, and REST. Engagements here are how we move the FY27 North Star KR: 10 paying customers running Symmetry-enabled agents in production, which later will become the standard. Under that KR, an FDE/SE engagement counts as a Type 2 deployment, an agent Symmetry builds and deploys inside the client's environment, and only counts once it clears all three gates the KR is scored against:

1. Paying - the client holds an active paid subscription covering the capability in use. A signed statement of work with no ARR behind it does not move the number.
2. Agent in the loop - something on the client side makes a non-deterministic decision based on Symmetry's response and acts on it. A button that always hits the same endpoint is an integration, not an agent.
3. Deployed on real work - running in the client's production environment against real work, backed by evidence: a deployment record, the FDC engagement document, and client sign-off.

About the Role

This is a highly customer-facing role at the intersection of engineering, solution architecture, agentic AI, and customer delivery. You will work directly with stakeholders and own the technical discovery for our ongoing opportunities end to end. Once a deal is qualified, you scope, build, embed with the client, and build it yourself, code that holds up against real tax and jurisdiction data, not a prototype you clean up later. What you ship only counts once the client is paying for it, it's live, and it's measurably cutting the manual work they used to do by hand, hours saved, tickets deflected, risk reduced. You should be comfortable speaking with both technical and executive stakeholders, moving quickly from problem discovery to prototype, and turning complex workflows into production-ready agents and multi-agent systems.

Here's what you'll do day-to-day

• Scope & Qualify: Give Sales a technical feasibility read early on ambiguous Enterprise opportunities, then own scoping the compliance challenge once the deal is sales-qualified.
• Define the Problem: Own requirements gathering on complex, ambiguous opportunities, scoping the problem clearly enough for Sales, Product, and Engineering to align on it.
• Prove It First: Build a working proof-of-concept of the proposed agent when a deal needs to see feasibility before committing to the full build, tailored from a hands-on integration engineer to a VP of Payroll Tax.
• Make the Business Case: Translate every deployment into the business case that justifies the subscription: hours saved, risk reduced, compliance simplified.
• Own the Build: Embed with clients and write the code yourself, work that runs their compliance decisions instead of just connecting to them. There's no fixed method yet, you figure out what each engagement needs and build it.
• Clear the Blockers: Diagnose and fix the data issues, jurisdiction mapping, tax ID reconciliation, that stand between a client and production.
• Bridge the Gap: Keep technical teams and business stakeholders aligned as requirements evolve mid-engagement, so scope changes don't blindside either side.
• Own the Handoff: Deliver the build and a runbook Client Success runs solo without the need to loop back the FDE.
• Close the Loop: Feed structured signal from both the sales motion and the build motion back into product and go-to-market strategy, including infrastructure gaps.
• Create Implementation Playbooks: solution patterns, demo flows, and deployment documentation that make future deployments faster.

Here's what we're looking for

• Demonstrated 5+ years of hands-on experience in a customer-facing technical role such as Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, AI Engineer, Implementation Engineer, Solutions Architect, Technical Consultant, or similar.
• Proven track record of shipping production systems in ambiguous, client-facing environments, with demonstrable evidence of:
  • REST APIs, webhooks, event-driven systems, auth patterns, data modeling, idempotency, and failure modes, not just happy-path builds
  • Building production systems in highly regulated categories, payroll, tax, or compliance fluency deep enough to run a conversation with a client's compliance team without a translator
  • Agentic workflows beyond prototypes: MCP or function-calling patterns, evaluation and reliability practices
• Deep technical discovery skills with the ability to navigate a high degree of ambiguity
• Ability to scope a technical solution from an ambiguous opportunity, build the business case that justifies a subscription, and ship a pattern the next engagement can reuse
• Proven ability to present to and influence a range of audiences, from individual engineers to executive sponsors
• Entrepreneurial, passionate about our mission, and deep empathy for the clients whose compliance work you're automating
• Bonus points for experience with a specific HR/payroll platform's integration surface, enterprise procurement or security review processes, or MEDDPICC-style deal frameworks

Who Thrives Here

Builders who can sit with a customer, understand the real problem, quickly build an agentic solution, and present it clearly enough that the customer immediately sees the value.

You’ll thrive here if you are technical, customer-facing, fast-moving, and independent. You prototype and debug rather than only coordinate. You take responsibility for the customer outcome, communicate proactively, flag risks early, and follow through. You are comfortable being the technical adult in the room, whether you’re speaking with a customer’s architect, operations lead, engineering team, or VP of Payroll.

We’re looking for someone low-ego, collaborative, sharp, and highly accountable - someone who can build trust with customers while also building real technical solutions.

Symmetry has a physical office space in Scottsdale. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role).

When approved to work from a location other than the office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required.

Reliable, consistent presence: We expect regular and predictable attendance, whether you're working in-office, hybrid, or fully remote, so that you stay closely connected to your team, customers, and stakeholders in real time and ensure colleagues and customers receive the timely support and responsiveness they deserve.

Working at Symmetry

Being happy at a job goes beyond just doing the work. Where you choose to spend 40 hours a week should be a place that challenges you professionally and aligns with your personal goals and well-being. We truly love what we do, and our customers love what we produce. Our family-owned and -operated business is collaborative, fun, and friendly. We offer the opportunity to work with all kinds of positions across the company, from the CEO to support to sales and everything in between.

Recently, Symmetry became part of Gusto. More than 400,000 businesses use Gusto’s people platform to hire, pay, insure, and support their team–from modern payroll and benefits to distributed work services and international contractor support to expert HR. Together, Symmetry and Gusto are pushing the entire industry forward by helping growing businesses access tools and services that for so long have only been available to larger corporations.

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home with us.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Our company considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Our company is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

At Gusto and Symmetry, we don't use titles the traditional way, as a signal of rank or hierarchy. Instead, our titles describe two things at once — your craft (what you do, e.g. Engineering, Design) and your scope of ownership (what you're accountable for) — which is why you'll see something like "Head of X" instead of a rank word like "Director" that tells you neither. Because of this, the title on this posting may look different from what you'd expect based on the scope and seniority of the role, and from how similar roles are typically titled elsewhere. If you have questions about how this role compares to your current title or level, your recruiter can help translate.

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About our products

Our products make sure millions of paychecks are right, no matter where people live or work in the U.S. We simplify the payroll process with accurate and dependable payroll withholding tax solutions. Our clients include Fortune 500 companies, like Walmart and Southwest Airlines, and leading payroll service providers, including ADP and Paychex. With a 95%+ customer retention rate, our products always have to be top-of-the-line, and so do our employees.

Symmetry is also the company behind the popular website PaycheckCity.com, which helps millions of Americans better understand their paychecks every month.