Senior / Founding Forward Deployed Engineer – Integrations & AI Needs Analysis

SENIOR / FOUNDING FORWARD DEPLOYED ENGINEER – INTEGRATIONS & AI NEEDS ANALYSIS

East Coast US only · Remote · Full-time
Salary: $200,000 – $220,000 per year + ~0.10% equity
US citizen/visa required
Relocation assistance: Not available
Visa sponsorship: Not available

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ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Senior/Founding Forward Deployed Engineer in Integrations & AI Needs Analysis, you will own complex customer deployments from discovery through go-live and post-launch iteration. You will design repeatable integration patterns across enterprise platforms using REST APIs, webhooks, and integration tools, while collaborating directly with enterprise clients on high-impact, ambiguous challenges.

This is a founding-level position — you will help define and scale the forward-deployed engineering function, partner with founders, product, engineering, sales, and customer success, and have clear growth into a leadership role as the team expands.

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RESPONSIBILITIES

Solutions / Forward-Deployed Experience
• Senior-level experience as a Solutions Engineer, Forward Deployed Engineer, or similar customer-facing technical role.
• Track record owning complex customer deployments from discovery through go-live and post-launch iteration.

Integrations, APIs & Data Pipelines
• Strong background in APIs, integrations, and data pipelines across HCM, LMS, CRM, or equivalent enterprise platforms.
• Hands-on experience implementing integrations via REST APIs, webhooks, and/or integration platforms (Workato, Zapier, MuleSoft, Tray.io).
• Ability to design integration patterns and reusable templates that make future deployments faster and more repeatable.

Customer Collaboration & Communication
• Comfort working directly with enterprise customers on ambiguous, high-impact problems.
• Excellent communication skills; able to explain technical trade-offs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven experience partnering with product, engineering, sales, and customer success to turn customer insights into product improvements.

Mindset & Ways of Working
• Able to think both tactically (shipping integrations) and strategically (building systems and playbooks that scale).
• Thrives in fast-moving startup environments with high ownership, autonomy, and accountability for business outcomes.
• Excited to help define and build a solutions/FDE function, including processes, documentation, and eventually a small team.

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QUALIFICATIONS

Machine Learning Expertise
• 5+ years of experience in ML (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
• 2+ years of hands-on experience working with LLMs (Hugging Face, OpenAI, Anthropic).

AI System Development
• Proven experience building and deploying production AI systems, including RAG and vector search.
• Strong knowledge of prompt engineering, AI safety, and content filtering best practices.
• Comfort architecting scalable infrastructure that integrates into complex environments.

Technical Proficiency
• Experience with REST APIs, PostgreSQL, ActiveRecord, and RSpec.
• Understanding of frameworks like LangChain or LlamaIndex, or ability to learn them rapidly.
• Familiarity with Rails is a plus — strong candidates can ramp up quickly.

Must-Have Requirements
• 6+ years of professional software or solutions engineering experience, including senior-level customer-facing work.
• Demonstrated experience owning complex customer integrations end-to-end (APIs, webhooks, data pipelines, or integration platforms).
• Based in the US (East Coast) with existing work authorization; US citizen/visa required.

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IDEAL CANDIDATE

• Senior solutions or forward-deployed engineer who loves owning complex customer integrations end-to-end and seeing them run in production.
• Equally comfortable talking to CIOs as reading API docs and debugging data pipelines.
• Enjoys turning bespoke projects into reusable patterns, templates, and playbooks.
• Motivated by cross-functional outcomes — revenue, retention, adoption — not just tickets closed.
• Excited to define what "Forward Deployed Engineering" means here and grow into a leadership role as the team scales.

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DAY-TO-DAY

You will spend your days working directly with enterprise customers, product, and engineering to design, build, and operate integrations and AI needs-analysis deployments. Your time will be split between deep technical integration work (APIs, data pipelines, Workato workflows), customer-facing discovery and troubleshooting, and iterating on reusable templates and tooling that make future deployments faster.

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TEAM & COLLABORATION

• Reports directly to the Co-founder & Chief Product Officer.
• Partners closely with core engineering, product, sales, and customer success.
• First or one of the first members of the Solutions/FDE function — significant ownership over how it operates.

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GROWTH PATH

Phase 1 (0–6 months): Go hands-on with existing integrations and AI needs-analysis deployments. Identify bottlenecks, standardize workflows through templates, integration patterns, tooling, and documentation. Begin defining the FDE playbook.

Phase 2 (6–18 months): Own the full Solutions/FDE motion from pre-sale through go-live. Serve as the technical face of complex enterprise deals. Build and lead a scalable Solutions/FDE team and create tight feedback loops between customers, product, and engineering.

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INTERVIEW PROCESS

1. Initial call (30 min) — Introductory conversation with a founder or recruiter.
2. Technical deep dive (60–75 min) — Live discussion covering APIs, integrations, data pipelines, and system-design questions.
3. Practical exercise / case study (60–90 min) — Scope an integration and AI needs-analysis deployment for a sample enterprise customer.
4. Final round (60–90 min) — Conversations with founders and cross-functional partners.

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COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

Base salary: $200,000 – $220,000 per year
Equity
Benefits: Health, Vision, Dental insurance · 401(k) retirement