Forward Deployed Engineer

Ikuto; Toronto; Hybrid; CAD 253,000 - 365,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Job summary

Ikuto is seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to join their Toronto-based hybrid team. You will embed with portfolio company leadership, identifying high-leverage AI workflows and delivering production loops that impact revenue and retention.

The role requires shipping full-stack solutions with TypeScript or Python, React, and SQL, along with hands-on experience deploying LLM/Agentic systems. You will work autonomously across multiple companies and help scale repeatable playbooks.

Qualifications

• Fluent in backend languages (TypeScript or Python) and front-end skills (React).
• Strong experience shipping production-grade LLM/Agentic systems.
• Ability to work with P&L awareness and measure impact.
• Able to operate independently across portfolio companies.

Responsibilities

• Embed deeply with portfolio company leadership to understand operational flows.
• Identify 2–3 high-impact agentic AI workflows to optimize metrics.
• Build integrations, prompts, evals, and UI components for the first production loop.
• Monitor telemetry post go-live and tune autonomy gates as needed.
• Codify field learnings into reusable playbooks and platform primitives.

Skills

TypeScript

Python

React

SQL

LLM/Agentic Systems

Autonomy

Job description

Forward Deployed Engineer (Full-Stack & Agentic AI)

Location: Toronto, ON (Hybrid — 3+ days/week in-office)

Compensation: $180,000 - $260,000 base + Great Equity Package

The Opportunity

I am partnering with the leadership team of an exceptionally fast-growing, $250M Series B software holding company to build out their core Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) pod in Downtown Toronto.

Instead of the traditional private equity model of buying companies to flip them or cut costs, their model is completely differentiated: they acquire profitable, essential vertical B2B SaaS businesses ($1M–$20M+ ARR) and permanently hold them.

They accelerate these businesses by deploying their own proprietary AI-native operating platform across the portfolio. We aren't looking for consultants or demo-builders—they ship running software, not slide decks.

As an FDE, you will be the tip of the spear: embedding directly with the leadership of acquired portfolio companies to land production agentic software that materially moves their business metrics.

What You’ll Do

• Embed Deeply with Portfolio Companies: Sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the GM, operators, and customer success leads. Spend your first few weeks understanding how the business actually runs, where revenue flows, where time is wasted, and earn the trust of local operators before touching architecture.
• Find the Leverage: Identify the 2–3 high-impact workflows where agentic AI moves the needle—whether that is churn deflection, intelligent lead enrichment, automated AR follow-ups, support routing, or pricing optimization. You pick the wedge, not a cosmetic wish list.
• Ship the Wedge Solo: Build the integrations, prompts, evals, agentic workflows, and UI surfaces required to land the first production loop into the company's live systems.
• Operate & Tune the Loop: Stay close to the software after go-live. Monitor telemetry, tune prompts, adjust autonomy gating as the system earns operator trust, and hand it off cleanly once stabilized.
• Compound Learnings Back to HQ: Codify field discoveries into reusable playbooks and platform primitives. The goal is simple: the 10th deployment in a SaaS vertical should be 10x faster than the 1st.

Who You Are

• Strong Full-Stack Generalist: You are fluent in backend TypeScript or Python, proficient in React and SQL, and completely comfortable dropping into an unfamiliar, 10-year-old codebase on day one to start shipping.
• Shipped Production LLM/Agentic Systems: You’ve moved well beyond toy demos, wrappers, and cursor prototypes. You understand how to write regression evals, structure human-in-the-loop workflows, handle tool-calling failures, and set appropriate autonomy tiers for sensitive actions.
• Operator Instincts: You can read a P&L. You understand why a 5% improvement in support deflection or churn-save often creates more enterprise value than a vanity feature launch.
• High Autonomy, Low Ego: You will frequently be the sole engineer on the ground at a portfolio company. You must be decisive without a committee, defend technical trade-offs, and pivot gracefully when evidence points elsewhere.
• Clear Written Communicator: The business runs on crisp written documentation. You’ll write the wedge memo, GM updates, architecture RFCs, and the field playbooks that scale to other companies.