Forward Deployed Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 2, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 1, 2026.
About the company
Our client is a fast-growing software company.
The role
Raydar is recruiting for this role on behalf of our client. Work directly with enterprise customers in a hybrid technical and commercial role, owning relationships from first contact through contract and rollout. Spend most of your time in front of customers, while feeding field insights back to the product team. Help build out the customer-facing function and grow into a leadership position as it expands.
What you'll do
- Own the sales cycle end to end: find and qualify prospects, run complex enterprise deals and close large contracts.
- Support customers through deployment after a deal is signed.
- Represent the company in market by leading prospect calls, attending key meetings on-site and building lasting relationships at events, dinners and workshops.
- Translate customer feedback from the field into product priorities for the engineering team.
- Help hire and onboard new team members and document what you learn so future hires can ramp quickly.
- Start with an onboarding period on core concepts and customer workflows, then move into hands-on in-person sales activity including demos and sessions.
- Over time, help build and lead a team of forward deployed engineers and go-to-market engineers.
Requirements
What we're looking for
- Solid technical understanding, with the ability to speak credibly to both business buyers and engineers and to reason about infrastructure and demos.
- Close familiarity with current AI products, features and competitors.
- Strong commercial instincts and the ability to carry a deal.
- Excellent communication across technical deep-dives, pricing negotiations and executive briefings.
- An outgoing, energetic personality that builds rapport with customers easily.
- High agency and comfort with ambiguity and building without a playbook.
- A track record of having closed a deal or shipped something meaningful, with at least some engineering, product or founder experience.
- Motivation to work at an early-stage startup rather than a large tech company.
- Roughly 0 to 3 years of experience, with impressive accomplishments valued over tenure.
Bonus points
- Prior founder experience.
- Background at a forward-deployed-engineering-oriented technology company.
- Experience in a chief-of-staff role or in solutions engineering at a consulting firm.
- A history of building ambitious hackathon or side projects.
Benefits
Compensation and benefits
- Base salary: USD 120,000 to 180,000 per year
- Equity
- Health insurance
Location and work model
- San Francisco, CA, United States
- On-site
- Full-time