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Customer Engineer

Palo Alto, CA, US Mid Posted July 09, 2026

Role Description

Ollama is the most popular way for developers to access open models. What started as an open-source, local-first runtime is now the largest developer network in the open-model ecosystem: 8.9 million monthly active developers and over 67,000+ community-built integrations. We're backed by Y Combinator, Benchmark, 8VC, and Theory Ventures.

Our team is small and talent dense. We're flat, low-ego, and fast-moving. We like people who are truth-seeking, passionate, design-driven, and who enjoy shipping code.

About the role ------------------

You'll be the technical bridge between Ollama and our customers — helping teams deploy Ollama locally and in the cloud, integrate it into their stack, and trust it in regulated environments. You'll work on proofs of concept, reference architectures, onboarding, and ongoing success for the developers building on Ollama. The role balances support engineering — unblocking teams as they deploy and integrate Ollama — with helping Ollama's fastest-growing users succeed.

What you'll do ------------------

  • Build and automate Ollama's support systems
  • Build reference architectures and deployment guides for specific use cases
  • Onboard larger teams to Ollama
  • Be the voice of the customer inside Ollama.

You may be a fit if -----------------------

  • You've been a solutions, customer, pre-sales, or developer-success engineer at a developer-tools, infrastructure, or AI/ML company.
  • You're hands-on — you can run models, write code, and debug a real deployment.
  • You're credible with technical buyers and can lead a room of engineers.
  • You communicate clearly and simplify complex setups for developers
  • You're comfortable in ambiguity and move fast.
  • Bonus: experience with model deployment, GPU/ML infrastructure, or regulated-industry compliance.

About Forward Deployed Engineering

Forward Deployed Engineers are embedded directly with customers to build custom solutions, integrate products into existing infrastructure, and bridge the gap between product engineering and customer success. The role combines deep technical skills with the ability to operate in client environments and translate business requirements into working software.

Originally pioneered by Palantir, the FDE model has spread across AI, enterprise SaaS, and cloud infrastructure companies. FDEs write production code, architect integrations, train customer teams, and feed product insights back to the core engineering organization. At companies like OpenAI, Salesforce, and Databricks, FDE teams are treated as elite engineering units that can ship custom solutions in days rather than quarters.

Typical FDE stack: Python, TypeScript, SQL, REST/GraphQL APIs, cloud platforms (AWS/GCP/Azure), and increasingly LLM APIs and AI orchestration frameworks. Strong communication and the ability to context-switch between technical and business conversations are as important as coding ability.

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