Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE)

Forward Deployed Engineer | AI startups, San Francisco

On-site or hybrid · $180K–$275K base + equity · Seed to Series C

Most engineers ship code and hope someone uses it. Forward Deployed Engineers ship code and watch someone use it, then fix what broke before lunch.

On behalf of several VC-backed AI companies in San Francisco, Digital Waffle is hiring Forward Deployed Engineers to sit at the point where the product meets the customer. These teams build AI agents for enterprise workflows in financial services, insurance, healthcare and customer experience, and they need engineers who can take a customer’s messy, half-described problem and turn it into a working system.

What you’ll do

• Own enterprise deployments end to end, from kickoff and integration to the moment the customer sees value, then turn pilots into contracts
• Build and tune AI agent behavior, including tool use, prompts, harnesses and evals, against real customer data and systems
• Integrate with the systems customers already run, like CRMs, ERPs, payments platforms and internal APIs, often with no clean documentation
• Work directly with customer champions on the weekly “can it do X?” requests, and decide what to build from a vague ask
• Feed what you learn in the field back into the core product, shaping the roadmap alongside founders and the core engineering team

You’ll likely fit if you have

• 3+ years as a full-stack, backend or product engineer, ideally at a startup
• Shipped LLM-backed features or products that real users depend on
• Strong TypeScript and/or Python skills, plus comfort with Postgres, APIs and cloud infrastructure
• Been the person a customer calls when something breaks, and you liked it
• The judgment to know when to write deterministic code and when to let a model handle it

Nice to have

• Experience in a regulated domain such as fintech, insurance, healthcare or legal
• A founding engineer or early-hire background
• Solutions engineering or technical consulting experience alongside hands-on building

What’s on offer

• $180K–$275K base plus meaningful early-stage equity, depending on company and seniority
• Real ownership of accounts, product areas and early engineering culture
• Teams where engineers talk to customers directly, with no layers in between
• Visa transfers and sponsorship available with some clients, and relocation support for the right candidate