We're building the first visual, transparent, and interactive deep-research platform.
Our platform is industry-agnostic, but we're starting with finance. Financial services manages $26.5 trillion in assets, yet professionals spend 60-70% of their time manually gathering data from scattered sources. Keru.ai automatically ingests dozens of sources (SEC filings, expert calls, alternative data) and deploys AI agents that conduct deep research while creating interactive decision trees. The agents surface insights and connections that would take analysts hours to find. Analysts explore and modify findings in real-time, then export deliverables like presentations and reports, all with full audit trails showing exactly how conclusions were reached.
Keru.ai was founded by two Palantir veterans with 20 years of combined experience building core parts of Palantir's Gotham and Foundry Platform. Our founders created Palantir Quiver, the analytics engine behind $100M+ enterprise deals with BP and Airbus, architected core compute and data systems, led major Department of Defense projects, and served as Head of Business Engineering at Citadel.
We're backed by founders of OpenAI, Facebook AI, MotherDuck, DBT, and Outerbounds.
As a Sr. Forward Deployed Software Engineer at Keru, you'll be the technical architect of our most strategic client relationships. You'll work directly on-site with our lighthouse customers, sophisticated financial firms and research organizations. to deploy, customize, and optimize Keru's AI-native research platform for their specific workflows and requirements.
This is the engineering role that lives our core principle: "Forward-Deployed with Product DNA." You'll embed directly with clients to own their outcomes while simultaneously building the platform that serves the entire market. Your code decisions can impact million-dollar research outcomes.
Within your first 90 days, you will:
Rapidly build and develop vertical apps on top of Keru.ai’s core platform.
Engage with Portfolio Managers at institutions with 10B+ AUM to scope and build workflows.
Develop deep expertise in agentic tooling, products, and technologies.
Own a customer engagement end-to-end.
This is the right role if you want to build the future of financial research while working directly with the world's most sophisticated analysts with guidance from engineers who've scaled enterprise platforms from zero to global adoption.
Engineer solutions at client sites: Deploy and customize AI research workflows directly where critical financial decisions happen, rapidly prototyping solutions that push our platform's boundaries.
Drive product innovation from the field: Identify technical gaps while embedded with clients, then architect and implement new capabilities that become core product features.
Build enterprise integrations: Design complex integrations with client data infrastructure, research tools (Bloomberg, CapIQ), and proprietary trading systems.
Optimize platform performance: Scale our AI platform for client-specific use cases, solving complex performance challenges in real-world research environments.
Bridge field and product: Rotate between forward deployed work and core platform development, bringing field insights directly into our technical architecture.
Own critical deployments: Ensure our platform performs reliably for clients' most critical research operations, debugging issues across the full stack.
Must-haves
5-8 years of software engineering experience with a track record of deploying complex systems in enterprise environments.
Client-facing technical experience: Previous role as Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Engineer, or similar position working directly with enterprise customers.
Full-stack development skills: Strong capabilities in Python/TypeScript with experience in distributed systems, data pipelines, and API development.
Enterprise integration / data integration expertise: Experience with SSO/SCIM, RBAC, database integrations, and enterprise security requirements.
Communication and presentation skills: Comfortable presenting to C-level executives and technical teams alike.
Travel flexibility: Willingness to travel regularly (30-50%) for on-site client engagements from our NYC HQ.
Nice-to-haves
Financial services exposure: Previous experience working with financial firms or familiarity with research workflows.
Data platform experience: Background with large-scale data processing, ETL pipelines, or analytics platforms.
Rust development experience.
Startup experience where you owned features end-to-end.
You'll be directly mentored by engineers who built Palantir's core systems. Expect:
Weekly 1:1s with senior engineers who've architected enterprise-scale distributed systems
Deep architectural reviews and guidance on agent system design
Clear growth path toward technical leadership and system ownership
Learn by building—production agentic systems that power real financial research
At Keru, mentorship accelerates strong systems engineers into exceptional technical leaders.
Backend: Python, Node.js, Rust, PostgreSQL, Redis
AI/ML: OpenAI/Anthropic/OpenRouter Vector Databases
Infrastructure: AWS, Docker, Temporal, Kubernetes, Kafka, Apache Airflow
Monitoring: Datadog,
Tools: Git, GitHub Actions, Pulumi
Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, 401k, insurance for employees and dependents
Automatic coverage for basic life, AD&D, and disability insurance
Daily lunch in office
Development environment budget - latest MacBook Pro, multiple monitors, ergonomic setup, and any development tools you need
Unlimited PTO policy
"Build anything" budget - dedicated funding for whatever tools, libraries, datasets, or infrastructure you need to solve technical challenges, no questions asked
Learning budget - attend any conference, course, or program that makes you better at what we're building
Forward-Deployed with Product DNA: We own customer outcomes, while building a product company. We don't win if our customers don't win. That means embedding, iterating, and deploying where our customers are.
Extreme Ownership: We have a big vision and everyone owns it. If you notice a problem, you own it - diagnose, coordinate, and close the loop. Authority comes from initiative, not job titles, and once you step up, you're accountable for the outcome.
Production-First Engineering: We design for customers' most critical workloads from day one. The platform runs on durable execution paths, blue/green deploys, automated rollbacks, and a continuous-delivery pipeline with end-to-end observability, so every change lands safely and stays resilient under real-world load.
Trust as the Default: We operate on the simple premise that people do their best work when confidence is mutual and earned in the open. That means we show our work, keep our promises, and flag risks before they bite. Automated tests, uptime dashboards, and clear communication back our competence; predictable delivery proves our consistency; candid retros and honest trade-offs reveal our character. Put together, trust isn't an aspiration, it's the baseline everyone can count on.
Keep Raising the Bar: We block time for training, code-health sprints, and deep-dive tech talks, because a sharper team and a cleaner stack pay compounding dividends. Continuous learning isn't a perk, it's part of the job.
Keru.ai is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We are committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment.