Forward Deployed Engineer

I'm working with a YC startup building AI systems that are being deployed directly into real-world enterprise workflows.They've recently raised their Seed round, signed initial customers, and are now looking for a highly technical engineer who wants to operate closer to the business, product, and customer problems rather than sitting in a siloed engineering function.This is not a traditional solutions engineer role.You'll be:building AI agentswriting production codedesigning infrastructuredeploying systems into customer environmentsworking directly with enterprise stakeholders to solve operational problemsThe founders are specifically looking for engineers who can both:build at a high technical levelcommunicate clearly with customersThe backgrounds they tend to like:early engineers at AI startupsPalantir / FDSE-style profilesstrong backend or product engineers from high-calibre engineering companiesengineers already building with LLMs, agents, or AI-native toolingWhat makes the role interesting:Very early-stage with real traction alreadySmall, high-agency teamDirect founder exposureReal ownership from day oneAI-native engineering cultureFast-moving environment with very little bureaucracyOpportunity to shape both product and technical direction earlyTech stack:PythonNode.js / TypeScriptAPIs + integrationsAI agents / LLM systemscloud infrastructureproduction deploymentsYou'll likely enjoy this if:you like building quicklyyou enjoy ambiguityyou want your work close to customers/usersyou prefer ownership over processyou're excited by agentic AI systems rather than traditional SaaSBay Area onsite preferred.