Role Description
Hiring a Forward Deployed Engineer in New York for an amazing team!
Quick context:
Early stage, well funded, around 18 people, office in Flatiron.
Not naming them publicly, happy to share once we talk.
What the job actually is:
You sit between the product team and the customers. You build and deploy AI agents for them, you're in front of their executives, and what you learn goes straight back into the roadmap. Part engineer, part operator. Not a support role and not a backend seat.
Must have:
- 1 to 5 years, with production code shipped in a customer-facing role
- Real Python and SQL, comfortable with REST APIs, can hold your own in TypeScript and React
- Built something with AI agents, voice, or LLMs
- In NYC or moving there. Onsite 5 days
- US citizen or green card. No sponsorship on this one
Nice to have:
- Founding or early engineer at a seed or Series A company
- Started something yourself
- Messy integration work against big CRMs
Being straight with you on one thing:
the days may run long. Weekends aren't expected.
If you want a predictable 9 to 5 this isn't the one, and I'd rather say that now than three interviews in.
$170K to $230K plus equity. Relocation help available.
Interested, or know the right person? Send me a message.
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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