AI Forward Deployed Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 4, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 2, 2026. Zip scores B on the Alion truth index.
About Zip
Zip is the AI platform for enterprise procurement - built for humans and agents working together. By orchestrating procurement across teams, tools, and suppliers with the help of AI agents, companies can secure the resources they need to innovate faster than ever before.
The world’s most influential enterprises trust Zip, including T-Mobile, OpenAI, AMD, Mars, Dollar Tree, and more. Together they’ve saved over $8 billion and processed over $500 billion in spend. Zip’s team includes product leaders from Apple, Airbnb, and Meta, as well as former procurement leaders from United Health, Sanofi, MGM Resorts, Discover, and NASA.
Backed by Adams Street, Alkeon, BOND, CRV, DST, Tiger Global, and Y Combinator, Zip has raised $371 million, most recently at a $2.2 billion valuation and has been recognized by Forbes Fintech 50, Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies, Inc. Best in Business, and LinkedIn Top Startups.
Your Role
Be at the forefront of how Zip transforms enterprise procurement through AI. As an AI Forward Deployed Engineer, you will embed directly inside our most strategic accounts, uncover the operational problems that are hardest to see from the outside, and build working solutions using Zip's agent infrastructure and AppStudio. You will own a small book of enterprise accounts end-to-end, with accountability not just for deploying AI but for expanding the scope of what we are solving inside each one.
The measure of success is whether the customer's highest-priority problems get solved, and whether that earns you access to the next ones. You will work where Zip's platform meets real enterprise complexity, across procurement, finance, legal, and risk workflows, and you will be expected to see what needs to exist before the customer can articulate it.
The right person for this role is mission-driven, moves fast, and is passionate about driving outcomes for customers. You have enough domain knowledge to earn trust quickly inside an enterprise, and enough technical fluency to build it yourself without waiting on someone else to do it.
You will
Embed with enterprise customers to understand their procurement and adjacent workflows at the process level: how work actually moves, where decisions break down, and where the highest-ROI problems sit.
Build and deploy AI agent solutions using Zip's AppStudio and AI infrastructure, configured to the customer's specific environment and data, not off-the-shelf.
Own the customer relationship and manage parallel workstreams across a small portfolio of accounts, keeping delivery on track and stakeholder trust high.
Surface the next problem worth solving before the customer can articulate it, with the commercial instinct to understand how that expands contract value.
Produce architecture documentation that captures what was built, why, and what it would take to generalize across other accounts.
Feed structured learnings back to product and engineering so the solutions you build make the platform more repeatable over time.
Represent Zip on-site at customer locations when required, running live testing and stakeholder sessions against real data and real workflows.
Qualifications
3+ years working inside enterprise procurement, finance operations, or a related function in an operating role: Finance Systems, Procurement, Finance, etc. You have owned a finance process or technical stream end-to-end, not just advised on one.
Direct experience building AI agents or automated workflows for your own work. Zip's AppStudio, Claude, N8N, Make, Zapier, or similar. You can show something you built that is live and running.
A track record of owning complex customer engagements independently, from scoping through delivery, with accountability for outcomes rather than just outputs.
Enough technical fluency to build integrations, read API documentation, and diagnose workflow failures without needing an engineer on call.
Enough procurement or finance domain knowledge to earn credibility quickly with an AP Director, CPO, or CFO. Formal credentials (CPP, CPSM, CPA, or equivalent) are a plus, not a requirement.
Previous team leadership is a plus.
The salary range for this role is $130,000- $170,000 OTE. The salary for this position is determined based on a variety of job-related factors that may include location, relevant experience, education, or particular skills and expertise.
Perks & Benefits
Start-up equity
Health, vision & dental coverage
Catered lunches & dinners for hybrid employees
Commuter benefit for hybrid employees
Team building events & happy hours
Flexible PTO
Apple equipment plus home office budget
We're looking to hire Zipsters and that means hiring people who take ownership, communicate openly, have an underdog mindset, and are excited to increase the pace of innovation for every business in the world. We encourage all candidates to apply even if your experience doesn't exactly match up to our job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workspace where everyone (regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and more) feels like they belong. We look forward to hearing from you!