Forward Deployed Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Forward Deployed Engineer based in the United States.

This is a high-impact engineering role at the intersection of software development, AI automation, and real-world business operations.

You will work directly with client teams to understand complex workflows and identify opportunities where technology can deliver measurable value.

The role combines hands-on production engineering with customer-facing discovery, requiring you to move comfortably between code and operational conversations.

You will build AI agents, integrations, and automated workflows that solve specific business challenges and perform reliably in production.

You’ll work with enterprise systems such as TMS, WMS, and ERP platforms while continuously refining AI behavior based on real-world data and edge cases.

The role offers significant autonomy in a fast-moving, growth-stage environment where speed, pragmatism, and ownership are highly valued.

What you learn from customer engagements will also help shape reusable platform capabilities and influence the broader product and engineering strategy.

Accountabilities:

• Shadow client teams and conduct structured discovery to understand operational workflows, identify pain points, and prioritize the problems with the greatest potential impact.
• Design solutions tailored to specific business needs, selecting the right combination of automation, AI agents, integrations, or other technologies before moving into development.
• Build, deploy, and maintain production solutions integrating with transportation management systems, warehouse management systems, enterprise resource planning platforms, and other third-party systems.
• Prototype and rapidly ship AI-powered automation, including shipment tracking, automated check calls, carrier qualification and onboarding, and voice- or chat-based agents.
• Tune prompts, agent behavior, voice models, and transcription systems using production data, continuously improving performance as new edge cases emerge.
• Identify security, compliance, and infrastructure requirements early and coordinate with internal stakeholders to resolve potential blockers.
• Troubleshoot issues directly in customer environments, adapting or re-scoping solutions when circumstances change and maintaining momentum toward business outcomes.
• Share insights from customer implementations with product and engineering teams, transforming recurring needs and patterns into scalable platform capabilities rather than one-off solutions.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of full-stack software engineering experience, with strong proficiency in Python and TypeScript and the associated libraries and frameworks used for rapid development.
• Hands-on experience designing and implementing automated workflows and AI-driven solutions that improve or optimize business processes.
• Proven experience developing, maintaining, and integrating APIs with third-party or enterprise systems.
• Strong ability to work directly with non-technical stakeholders, translating operational requirements into practical technical solutions and communicating trade-offs clearly.
• Comfortable operating independently in ambiguous situations, including debugging production issues, improvising solutions, and making sound technical decisions in customer-facing environments.
• Demonstrated ability to ship functional software quickly in fast-changing, growth-oriented environments.
• Strong problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and ownership skills, with a pragmatic approach focused on delivering measurable results.
• Experience with voice or transcription-based systems, particularly in operational environments, is a plus.
• Familiarity with freight, transportation, or supply chain technologies such as TMS, WMS, or ERP platforms is preferred.
• Experience in a startup or growth-stage environment where the underlying platform is still evolving is advantageous.
• Exposure to LLM agent orchestration frameworks, evaluation systems, or monitoring tools is a plus.
• Previous experience combining software development with direct customer or stakeholder ownership is highly desirable.
• Candidates must currently be authorized to work full-time in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship.

Benefits:

• Competitive base salary of $115,700-$180,800 per year.
• Competitive equity package with the opportunity to become a shareholder.
• Unlimited PTO and sick leave through a flexible time-off policy.
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) matching.
• Remote work within the United States.
• Opportunity to work on innovative AI-driven automation initiatives with direct customer impact.
• Exposure to complex logistics, enterprise technology, and real-world AI deployment challenges.
• Travel of up to approximately 50% to customer engagements and the Chicago office.
• Collaborative, inclusive environment that values curiosity, clarity, results, commitment, teamwork, and diverse perspectives.