{"id":140285,"url":"https://alion.io/job/chef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer","title":"Forward Deployed Engineer","company":{"id":48284,"name":"Chef Robotics","domain":"chefrobotics.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/chef-robotics","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Gem","truth_index":null},"role":"Solutions","role_family":"Solutions","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":130000,"max":180000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":180000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Chef","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Motion Planning","optional":false},{"name":"Physical AI","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"ROS","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-28T21:01:52Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-24","last_verified_at":"2026-10-17T17:11:15Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":80,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":80},"description":"Chef Robotics is the market leader in physical AI for the food industry - deploying AI-powered robots that solve one of the country's largest, most urgent labor shortages. Our fleet has produced over 110 million real meals across a dozen customer facilities in North America and Europe, for customers like Amy’s Kitchen, gategroup, and CookUnity, and every one of those meals trains our AI further. Backed by leading investors, we've proven the hardest part in robotics - real-world deployment at scale - and now we're looking for people who want to build what comes after.\nAbout the Role\nWe're hiring an Forward Deployed Engineer to be the vital link between our customers and our engineering teams - spanning the full customer journey from early technical evaluation through deployment, production ramp-up, and long-term success. You'll partner directly with customers to bring robotic systems online, troubleshoot in the field, and feed real-world insights back into our product roadmap.\nThis role is a rare blend of customer-facing, technical, and operational work, and it's a strong launchpad toward technical leadership or field engineering leadership as you grow with Chef.\nWhat You'll Do\nPartner with Sales during early customer engagements to assess needs and evaluate technical feasibility\nWork closely with customer engineering and operations teams to understand workflows, constraints, and success metrics\nConfigure, test, and validate robotic systems in lab environments, adapting solutions to real-world production requirements\nOwn and project-manage deployments end-to-end, coordinating across internal engineering, manufacturing, and customer teams\nLead on-site installations, including system setup, qualification testing, and production ramp\nTroubleshoot and resolve field issues spanning software, configuration, and hardware break/fix\nSupport customers post-deployment to drive adoption, ensure success, and surface expansion opportunities\nTranslate customer feedback into actionable input for Product and Engineering\nQualifications\nBS or MS in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field\nHands-on experience in robotics, automation systems, motion planning, perception, or controls\nFamiliarity with Linux/Unix environments, ROS, and scripting in Python\nExperience\n2+ years in applications engineering, solutions engineering, field robotics, or another customer-facing technical role\nTrack record operating independently in dynamic, real-world environments\nWork Style & Logistics\nStrong communicator, comfortable working across technical and operational teams\nHighly organized, able to manage multiple concurrent projects and deployments\nAvailable for non-standard hours as needed (occasional nights, weekends, on-call)\nAble to travel up to 75% across North America for on-site deployments\nNice-to-Haves\nExperience in food production, manufacturing, or another regulated production environment\nExposure to electrical/CAD debugging or hardware-level troubleshooting\nExperience with Linux/Unix environments, ROS, and scripting in Python\nCompensation\nThe base pay range for this role is $130,000 - $180,000 per year.\nChef is an early-stage startup where equity is a major part of the compensation package. Our salary ranges are determined by role, level, and location. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training.\nIn addition to salary and early-stage equity, we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, commuter benefits, flexible paid time off (PTO), catered lunch, and 401(k) matching.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3830,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":2,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Vision insurance"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Food Technology","Industrial Robotics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-07-28T21:01:52Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 9","filings_12m":9,"filings_prev_12m":3,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":167500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":3}],"liveness":{"score":10,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.371,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":80,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:1","win:tail","crowd:junior"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":180000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/chef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/chef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-17T19:30:33Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":2777,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-18T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":48284},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=48284"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fchef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fchef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fchef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/chef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fchef-robotics-forward-deployed-engineer"}]}