Forward Deployed Engineer

Who are we?Join us at the forefront of innovation in the AI sector. Our mission is to accelerate the future of work. We're not merely envisioning the future; we're actively constructing it.We are a well-funded Silicon Valley based Series A startup backed by top-tier VCs, pioneering a new model of acquisition-led growth. Instead of building software companies the traditional way-chasing customers with sales and marketing-we acquire entire businesses and reinvent them from the inside out.Our founding team boasts a remarkable track record in AI and the startup ecosystem, with each member having previously steered AI startups to unicorn status (Cresta.ai).Our approach is not SaaS: We drive growth through acquisition and technology is our transformation engine. Each company we bring on board comes with complex workflows, legacy systems, and antiquated data structures. We turn that complexity into opportunity, designing platforms that unlock efficiency, scale, and profitability.What's in it for you?Working with cutting-edge AI technologies on real-world transformation problemsCollaborate with world-class talent across engineering, product, and operationsMaking an impact from day one - your work directly shapes how we transform entire industriesChallenging environment with a plethora of growth opportunitiesCompetitive compensation and benefitsHigh ownership and visibility in a small, high-trust teamAbout the RoleForward Deployed Engineers are our zero-to-one team. You embed directly with portfolio companies, understand their domain deeply, and solve the novel, high-stakes problems that turn legacy operations into AI-native businesses. You're here to break the back of hard problems, prove transformation hypotheses, and extract generalizable patterns that become platform across our entire portfolio.Each acquisition is a new deployment. You'll inherit complex workflows, fragmented data, and skeptical operators. Your job is to ship working AI systems that deliver measurable business outcomes - then codify what worked into playbooks that accelerate every future acquisitionWhat you will doPortfolio Company Embedding & Domain MasteryEmbed on-site with newly acquired companies to deeply understand their business, workflows, and pain pointsSit with end users-operators, managers, frontline staff-to understand adoption blockers and build trustPick genuinely high-stakes problems at the core of the business, not peripheral edge casesZero-to-One DeliveryBuild highly scalable, data-driven platforms that connect to legacy IT systemsBuild AI-powered applications leveraging cutting-edge LLMs-voice agents, workflow automation, intelligent assistantsDefine the software architecture and code the product, applying ML as a major differentiatorImplement eval-driven development: every piece of LLM-written code isn't done until you have evals verifying efficacyTrust-Building & AdoptionBuild guardrails that protect against runtime failures while maintaining flexibilityTechnical solutions are only half the battle-driving adoption through demonstrated reliability is the other halfPlaybook Development & Product ExtractionIdentify patterns across portfolio companies that can become reusable frameworks or platform productsContribute to transformation playbooks that reduce time-to-value for each subsequent acquisitionWork with product teams to graduate successful solutions from bespoke implementations to scalable productWhat we look forBSc. or MSc. in Computer Science or comparable degreeAt least 5 years of hands-on coding experience as a full-stack or backend-heavy engineerExceptional problem-solving abilities, effective communication, and teamwork skillsComfort with ambiguity-you can walk into a newly acquired company with legacy systems and make order from chaosCore Engineering CraftShip production systems, not just prototypes-you've taken things from zero to deployedComfortable across the stack, but depth in at least one area (backend, frontend, data)Experience integrating with legacy systems, messy APIs, and undocumented data sourcesStrong debugging instincts-you can diagnose problems in systems you didn't buildAI/LLM SystemsHands-on experience building with LLMs-prompting, RAG, agents, tool useEval-driven development mindset: you instinctively think "how do I measure if this is working?" Whether it's on data, tests, or dollars.Understanding of when to use determinism vs. probabilistic approaches-LLMs for nuance, hard rules for things that must be right 100% of the timeDomain Learning & Systems ThinkingAbility to rapidly learn new industries-you've gone deep on domains outside your backgroundExperience mapping complex business workflows and identifying high-leverage intervention pointsComfort with ambiguity: you can walk into a messy environment and create structurePattern recognition: you spot what's generalizable vs. one-offCommunication & Trust-BuildingExperience working directly with end users to drive adoption-not just shipping, but getting people to actually use what you build.Ability to translate between technical teams and business stakeholdersComfort presenting to executives and explaining trade-offs in non-technical termsBonus PointsExperience in a similar role, early-stage startups, or technical consulting roles (MBB)Background in specific verticals: financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, debt collectionContributions to open-source AI tooling or frameworksExperience with post-acquisition integration or operating in high-ambiguity environmentWhy This Role Is ExcitingRepeatable impact: Every acquisition is a new deployment of the patterns you've built-your work compounds. You will drive millions of EBITDA.Product influence: Your implementations directly shape what becomes platform across the portfolioFrontier technology: You're deploying AI capabilities to transform legacy industries that haven't seen innovation in decadesLearning velocity: Every portfolio company is a masterclass in a new domai