Forward-Deployed Engineer

Location: San Francisco, CA
Company Stage of Funding: Seed Stage / Applied AI + Industrial Technology Startup
Office Type: On-site (5 days/week in San Francisco) + ~25% Domestic Travel
Salary: $160,000 – $245,000 Base
Equity: 0.25% – 0.75%
Bonus: Competitive total compensation package
Visa: No sponsorship available

Company Description

The company is bringing AI into industries where modern software adoption has historically been minimal, including data centers, energy infrastructure, aerospace, manufacturing, and industrial operations.

Founded in 2026 by engineers with backgrounds in AI, robotics, and mechanical engineering.

Currently a highly technical 2-person founding team with plans for rapid growth.

Raised approximately $5M in funding and already working with enterprise customers across data centers, energy grids, aerospace, and government-related sectors.

The product combines wearable hardware, computer vision, multimodal AI, enterprise integrations, and workflow automation.

The company operates at the intersection of:

• AI agents
• Computer vision
• Smart glasses / AR
• Enterprise software
• Robotics infrastructure
• Industrial automation

The engineering challenge is not simply building AI models—it is deploying AI systems into messy real-world environments with poor data quality, fragmented systems, long IT cycles, and operational constraints.

This role sits directly between customers, product, and engineering and plays a critical role in turning deployments into repeatable product capabilities.

The company values scrappiness, ownership, speed, customer obsession, and strong engineering fundamentals.

What You Will Do

• Own end-to-end enterprise deployments of wearable AI systems
• Work directly with industrial customers on-site to bring solutions into production
• Configure networks, edge-computing infrastructure, and deployment environments
• Build API, webhook, and ETL integrations across customer systems
• Connect smart glasses with ERP, CMMS, ticketing, CRM, and knowledge management platforms
• Run technical demos, pilots, and proof-of-concepts for prospective customers
• Build custom AI evaluations and workflows tailored to customer use cases
• Translate ambiguous operational requirements into production-ready solutions
• Work with messy, incomplete, and fragmented enterprise data sources
• Troubleshoot deployments and perform full-stack debugging across systems
• Act as the technical face of the company during customer engagements
• Drive onboarding, adoption, and long-term customer success
• Serve as the bridge between field deployments and product development
• Surface customer feedback and influence product roadmap decisions
• Identify patterns across deployments that can become core platform features
• Collaborate closely with founders on product strategy and deployment execution
• Help define deployment playbooks and operational best practices as the company scales
• Travel approximately 25% of the year for customer deployments and field work

Ideal Candidate Background

• 2–5 years of experience in Forward-Deployed Engineering, Implementation Engineering, Solutions Engineering, Technical Consulting, or customer-facing software engineering
• Experience owning technical deployments from pre-sales through production rollout
• Experience working directly with enterprise customers
• Strong software engineering fundamentals and hands-on technical problem solving
• Experience building integrations between multiple enterprise systems
• Familiarity with REST APIs, webhooks, ETL pipelines, and enterprise software ecosystems
• Experience working with messy or incomplete operational data
• AI product integration experience (RAG pipelines, LLM workflows, AI evaluations, agent systems)
• Strong debugging skills across infrastructure, integrations, and applications
• Ability to rapidly prototype and ship practical solutions
• Experience translating customer problems into technical implementations
• Comfortable operating with significant ambiguity and ownership
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• Willingness to travel and work directly with customers on-site
• Technical degree from a strong university preferred

Strong Signals

• Forward Deployed Engineer experience at companies such as Palantir, Anduril, Scale AI, Samsara, Verkada, Databricks, or similar organizations
• Experience deploying software into industrial, manufacturing, energy, aerospace, or defense environments
• Exposure to AR/VR, smart glasses, computer vision, robotics, or industrial automation
• Experience building integrations across Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, CMMS, ERP, or similar systems
• Experience running technical demos and enterprise proof-of-concepts
• Strong AI product experience involving RAG, LLMs, AI evaluations, or agent workflows
• Startup experience with significant ownership and customer exposure
• Founding Engineer, Founding Solutions Engineer, or early technical hire experience
• Experience deploying products into legacy enterprises with long implementation cycles
• Ability to work independently with minimal product or engineering support
• Strong product instincts and customer empathy
• Demonstrated ability to take ambiguous requirements and ship solutions quickly
• Experience in Industrial IoT, frontline worker technology, enterprise AI, or operational software
• Strong interest in computer vision and applied AI systems

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary: $160,000 – $245,000
• Equity: 0.25% – 0.75%
• Significant early-stage ownership opportunity
• Direct impact on company growth and product direction
• Opportunity to work closely with founders
• Exposure to cutting-edge AI, computer vision, wearable technology, and industrial automation
• Fast hiring process with highly engaged founders
• High autonomy and broad technical ownership
• Opportunity to build deployment infrastructure from the ground up
• Work directly with enterprise customers solving real operational problems
• Potential to become one of the foundational technical leaders of the company
• Exposure to robotics, multimodal AI, enterprise software, and hardware systems

Why Join

This is an opportunity to become one of the earliest engineers at a company bringing AI into industries that have historically been underserved by modern software.

Rather than building another chatbot, the company is deploying production-grade AI systems into factories, energy infrastructure, aerospace operations, and industrial environments where reliability and real-world impact matter.

The role combines engineering, customer engagement, deployment ownership, AI systems, and product influence in a way that is rarely available at larger organizations.

You will work directly with customers, deploy cutting-edge AI technology into production, and help define how industrial AI adoption happens at scale.

If you enjoy customer-facing engineering, enterprise deployments, AI products, industrial technology, and high-ownership startup environments, this role offers exceptional scope and career upside.