Forward Deployed Engineer

San Francisco, CA · On-site · Full-time
Compensation: $150,000–$225,000 + Competitive equity

About the Company

An AI-native insurance company rebuilding the foundation of the world's largest industry. Its platform automates the entire claims process — from intake and fraud detection through settlement — combining automation with human expertise to improve loss ratios, cut manual work, and deliver better outcomes across the claims lifecycle. In under a year the team has reached multi-seven-figure ARR, growing 50% month over month, backed across two rounds by Tier 1 funds.
Founded 2025 · 11–50 people · Industry: FinTech / Insurance

The Role

Deploy multi-modal, agentic AI systems into production for senior insurance stakeholders, owning client deployments end-to-end from scoping through go-live as the primary point of contact. This role is more technical and more product-owning than the average FDE — you shape what the product becomes based on what works in production, working directly with the CTO on a forward-deployed function that is still being built.

What you'll be doing

• Individually deploy multi-modal, agentic AI systems into production for senior client stakeholders
• Own client deployments end-to-end, from scoping through go-live, as the primary point of contact
• Build and manage client relationships, becoming the trusted partner executives rely on to scale AI adoption
• Design, build, and evolve AI agents: prompt engineering, model integration, blitz prototyping using AI-assisted coding tools
• Scope and develop new features that let customers scale while consistently improving claims results
• Integrate the product into client environments, working hands-on with their tech teams on APIs and systems
• Coordinate with the core platform team to ensure smooth delivery and feed insights back into the product
• Capture and share best practices in internal playbooks to scale Forward Deployed Engineering

Tech stack: Python, APIs, cloud platforms, modern AI/ML tooling, LLMs, agentic AI, AI-assisted dev tools

Requirements

• 2+ years technical + client-facing ownership — via agent engineering, forward-deployed engineering, growth engineering, or founding engineer/founder experience
• Python, APIs, cloud, modern AI/ML tooling
• LLM, prompt engineering, agentic AI fluency
• AI-assisted dev workflows daily
• Founder-mode operator
• SF in-person

Green Flags

• Prior Forward Deployed Engineer at a top AI or enterprise platform company. Direct experience deploying agents end-to-end is the highest-signal background.
• Backend engineer who pivoted to a solutions engineer role. The order matters — backend depth first, then client-facing — because the role requires real building, not just integration support.
• Founding engineer or founder background. The role requires founder-mode ownership, jumping between client calls and code without friction
• Strong communications under pressure. Can hold their own with senior insurance executives paying seven figures, present clearly, and translate technical depth into business outcomes.
• ICPC, NeurIPS, or comparable competitive technical pedigree. Aligns with the broader team's bar.

Red Flags

• Pure solutions engineer with no prior backend experience. The hiring team flagged this directly — the role requires real building depth, not integration-only.
• Backend engineer with no client-facing experience. The role is half client management, half engineering. Pure builder profiles will struggle.
• Career FDE looking for a polished, mature function. This is a new function being built — currently 1 FDE on the team.
• Not founder-mode. Candidates who need detailed direction or hand-offs will not match the operating bar.
• Cannot or will not relocate to SF. Non-negotiable, even with full relocation support offered.

Why Join

• Top-quartile salary and equity
• Shape a company and redefine the world's largest industry
• More technical and product-owning than the average FDE role
• Full relocation support, all meals covered, productivity tools provided